Britannia-The Member Experience

Worried by the number of conversations and opportunities that were walking out the door, the organisation decided they needed to do something radical. Not happy with just a refurbishment of existing branches, this society decided to put the branch network at the heart of their strategy. They wanted customers to experience something new, better and different to anything else they could experience anywhere else.

A leading design firm were commissioned to design the experience and to build the stage on which to deliver it. So the experience was defined, the props put in place, the technology wired and the opening dates announced. The challenge was to equip existing staff and managers with the new vision and have them live, breathe and deliver an experience that members would not forget. The change was significant and the entire investment would fail if the teams didn’t rise to the challenge.

From the outset, understanding the vision, walking in the customers’ shoes and seeing the design from their point of view was critical. Common scenarios were created, rehearsed and videoed using real staff so everyone could visualise what the new experience looked like, how the different areas of the branch worked together and what good retail behaviours looked like. Staff took board members on guided tours of the branch so they could understand how the branch was going to come to life. Excited by the change, everyone was nervous about how to go about doing things differently this was a new way of working for everyone.

Choreographing the whole branch teams experience we started by writing the staff and management blueprint. Working from the outside in we identified the most common customer scenarios, long, short and transactional. The customer pathways were then mapped out in full detail, from when they passed the branch, to what they saw through the window, to where they walked in the branch to when they left. A new profiling process was introduced to help members make the most of their membership. Prompt systems were changed from product push to relationship pull. Nature and frequency of staff and management practices were defined and agreed.

Armed with these blueprints, experiential training was written and delivered in branch, by managers from the outset. It included how to:

• manage the floor in quiet and busy times
• direct traffic subject to changing resources and circumstances in the branch
• engage customers in focused conversation when transacting, seeking or browsing
• create opportunities to talk more and sell the benefits of the new branch design and what it meant for them
• profile customers to help them make the most of their membership
• conduct tours and convert objections to the change and the investment in the new layout into positive opportunities
• work as a team to change old ways and remove operational routines that would get in the way
• manage this new environment and adjust coaching practices to embed the new behaviours quickly and consistently.

This all culminated in a dress rehearsal, accredited by Area Managers where branches created and demonstrated their new skills and abilities ready for opening.

• New revenue targets, previously considered unachievable, were consistently exceeded by 40%.


• Strike rates for referrals and cross sales showed a lasting step change in performance


• Staff were enthusiastic and could see both how to release more time to spend with customers as well as how to make the most of the new opportunities they were creating.