For a decade now, insights from customers, community organisations and advocates have helped shape a range of changes across the bank, making banking more accessible, inclusive and responsive.
CBA’s Group Customer Advocate Angela MacMillan said customer experiences have played an important role in shaping improvements across the bank, particularly since the Customer Advocate function was established by the bank in August 2016.
“Customers trust us with some of the most important moments in their lives. When they share their experiences, it's an opportunity for us to learn, improve and better meet their needs,” Ms MacMillan said.
Turning insights into action
Ms MacMillan said “Over the past 10 years, these collective insights have helped inform practical changes across the bank, making banking more accessible, inclusive and responsive to the communities we serve.”
The bank’s Group Customer Advocacy and Vulnerability specialists work closely with customers, community organisations and teams across the bank to identify barriers. This helps the bank to identify and address issues that may impact the customer experience.
For 10 years, the Group Customer Advocate function has helped ensure those voices are heard across the bank. And as customer needs continue to evolve, those conversations will continue to shape how CommBank serves its customers and communities.
Because some of the most meaningful improvements start with a simple act: listening.
Listening to improve accessibility
For the 5.5 million Australians living with disability1, everyday banking tasks such as reading forms, signing paperwork, hearing conversations or using a keyboard can present barriers.
Today, every CommBank branch has an Equal Access Toolkit, a collection of practical tools to make everyday banking easier. Magnifiers, jumbo pens, communication cards, high-contrast clipboards and keyboards can help customers read, sign and complete banking tasks more independently.
Learning from communities
Customer and community feedback has also helped shape how the bank supports people facing different challenges across Australia.
Following major floods and other natural disasters, customers, community organisations and customer-facing teams shared the challenges households can face when preparing for and recovering from an emergency.
These conversations helped shape the development of the Readiness Wheel, a practical tool that helps households better prepare for extreme weather. This reflects how customer and community insights can be transformed into meaningful support and better outcomes before, during and after a disaster.
Similarly, through on-Country conversations with First Nations customers, Elders and community representatives, CommBank gained a deeper understanding of barriers to accessing banking services in regional and remote communities. These insights helped inform initiatives including the First Nations Reach Program, which brings banking support and education directly into remote communities.
