This was also the third year that we joined forces with SME association MKB Nederland to organise
the The Next Entrepreneur competition. This event supports start-ups by sharing knowledge on
key business themes and inspiring case studies, as well as giving them access to a network that
can help them get ahead. The 2014 award ceremony coincided with an event for start-ups
featuring a series of workshops, which attracted a total of 700 entrepreneurs.
Click here for more information about The Next Entrepreneur.
As driven as we are in our quest for innovation, some new developments inevitably do not
come to fruition in the end. An example of such an innovation is the virtual wallet MiniTix,
which is a wireless payment solution. The discontinuation of which will affect several hundred
businesses, associations and institutions. These customers will be briefed and advised over the
next few months on a cashless payment solution to be introduced as an alternative.
3. Activating customer focus among employees
The purpose of promoting complete customer focus among all Rabobank employees is to
ensure that our customers and their interests are central to everything we think, say and do.
The Vision 2016 programme introduced in the Netherlands is designed to ensure that we can
improve our advisory strength and become more customer-centric at a lower cost. The process
of automating a large number of our services and/or moving them online ('virtuaIisation') was
a prime focus of this programme throughout 2014; in addition, Vision 2016 also highlighted
increasing social involvement by participating with customers in physical or virtual networks
and streamlining the organisation.
In Wholesale, for example, we look what changes might be necessary and possible on the basis
of customer feedback that allows us to have a direct influence on our customers. There are
several initiatives in place to facilitate this. For example, we are working in end-2-end teams
with a single point of contact for the customer, as well as working in client service teams, a
method which is helping us to improve and strengthen interaction with our customers and
create better solutions on their behalf. We have visualised the loan process and made it
accessible to our customers online; we also gather structured feedback from our customers and
initiate action based on the outcome.
Rabobank also launched the Culture Collective programme in 2014 to help our employees
change the bank's culture in such a way that all our people put the customer's interest first at all
times.The programme will run until 2015.
Our employees will also be taking the bankers' oath (ethics statement), which has customer
centricityasa guiding principle.The bankers'oath is part ofa series of measures implemented
by the Dutch banks collectively with the objective of regaining the public's trust.
Read more about the bankers'oath here.
4. Reducing regulatory pressure
The spate of new laws and regulations introduced in the Netherlands in recent years has
created an imbalance between regulation and customer service. The flurry of implementations
and recoveries - including control measures - has been particularly taxing on employees of
local Rabobanks.The bank has implemented a number of measures to reduce this pressure.
First, we have begun working in accordance with the principles of supply chain management.
This has made it possible for us to more clearly consolidate our various activities, which in turn
has simplified the implementations.
Customer focus
