CBA has announced the sweeping changes that it has implemented to help even out turnaround times between brokers and customers in branches.
The broker channel v proprietary channel debate has long been a hot button issue with brokers, but along with CBA’s new Third Party strategy and investment in tech to reduce turnaround times, they have also taken active steps to weight more evenly across both channels.
“We’re very fortunate that, some two years ago, we set up a channel protocols division which sits in the middle of either channel and makes sure that we deliver the best outcome for the customer and we meet the customer wants and needs,” said Adam Croucher, Head of Third Party at CBA.
“Certainly, from a third party credit side, when our turnaround times were longer than our proprietary channel, that channel protocols team were seeing applications where customers needed to make a preference of which channel they dealt with.”
“Needless to say, while all of the work has gone into making sure that we get to a strong turnaround time position, that goes away to a large degree. However, we still have that in the business to make sure that, ultimately, customers choice on the channel that they want to deal with is absolute paramount.”
CBA said that they were already seeing an impact from their changes.
“We’re comfortable that we’re seeing the channel conflict subside significantly, which is fantastic, due to the hard work that we’ve been doing to make sure that both channels deliver the best outcomes for customers,” said Croucher.
“Competition, regardless of any channel, is extremely strong at the moment, and we’re really conscious that the customer has the right at the end of the day on who they want to deal with.”
“We’ve had a huge investment, with an extra 12 salespeople, credit coaches and the like into the channel, and that’s going to put us in good stead to make sure that we help brokers through the challenging environment that faces them and us in Australia, under uncertain times with COVID.”
“We’re investing heavily as we know that the strength of our relationship with brokers is absolutely fundamental to the success of Commonwealth Bank.”
