As any business, HBOS carries out customer surveys and services and general attitudes to their brands. For example, corporate banking has recently carried out a customer focusing on carious issues, including satisfaction generally and in relation to specific products/services.
The main complaints that are in customer service are:
- Customer Complaints about products and services
- Advertising complaints upheld
- Complaints about late payment
- Developing and Motivating Staff
Training is very important to HBOS as it helps individuals to develop themselves, they will be more inclined and better able to contribute to helping the organisation meet its objectives. Every graduate scheme is tailored to the needs of each business area, as well as their professional aspirations. At HBOS the employees will receive market-leading training and development for the whole of the employees scheme.
HBOS includes objectives relating to developing people at work in their list of objectives. The reason why HBOS takes a serious consideration in developing staff skills is because the importance of employees in HBOS is widely recognised. Intelligent employees are able to add millions/billions to the organisation if they are trained and developed, because they interact either face-to-face or through some other form of communication with customers.
Halifax has won the “Opportunity Now’s Gold Standard” for its efforts in promotion equal opportunities and best practise in the workplace. This is the second year running that Halifax has won this award.
The organisation that sells the most service is best placed to benefit from the cost of savings that arise from producing on a larger scale.
The UK's fifth-largest bank said it continued to "show strong growth" and expected to "deliver to market expectations" for the year to December. The City expects profits of about £3bn.
The bank, which was formed in September, said: "HBOS's heavy weighting in mortgages means the strains caused by the economic slowdown will result in only a modest overall increase in provisioning." However, HBOS highlighted annualised growth in lending to larger corporate of more than 25% and said work in progress. HBOS said lending to small and medium-sized businesses - which like larger corporate banking is being rolled out from Bank of Scotland through the Halifax network - was growing by an annualised 10%. It added it had made "rapid progress" in integrating the two banks. Peter Burt, who was chief executive of Bank of Scotland and is now executive deputy chairman of HBOS, is leading this process. HBOS has increased its estimate of annual cost savings from £305m to £340m and of revenue benefits from £315m to £350m. The full impact of these will be felt from the end of 2004.
This paragraph was taken from the newspaper of financial times, stating the increase sales of HBOS.
Surviving is an important issue for HBOS, because the organisation might not make profit how much they should because they did not have achieved their objectives, therefore the organisation should be at least be aiming at surviving to compete into the future, so they can be recognised by customers.
HBOS organisation run many of their activities in a profit way, this is not their sole concern. In addition, they seek to meet a responsibility to provide a service to the community.
HBOS is committed to the communities that they do business in. The group supports a wide range of community activities across the UK. Through the community relations programmes it runs it’s business.
The combined charitable and sponsorship programmes of Halifax and Bank of Scotland have donated £23.5 million in the last 5 ears to thousands of charities.
HBOS has a corporate sponsorship programme, which has developed working partnerships with sports organisations and arts.
As HBOS Chief Executive James Crosby says: With sponsorship we seek to develop a long-term relationship with our partners, in much the same way as we do with our customers, to provide maximum benefit for them.
The HBOS Foundation is particularly helping with:
- Helping people engage in life long learning
- Helping Voluntary and Community groups to become more effective and efficient
- Working with people on low incomes, at risk from poverty or with problems finding accommodation
- Minimising Environmental impact
On the website of HBOS (www.hbos.com) Halifax and Bank of Scotland say that they both have both earned strong reputations for their approach to social responsibility and the merger (HBOS) now provides customers with the opportunity to share best practice to establish an even more powerful force within the Community
As a part of HBOS type strategy, they have long held the objectives of helping their network reflect the communities in which they operate.
The issues measured under environment are mostly well established – given the longer business tradition of environment reporting. They cover areas including contribution to the global issues of climate change, and the company’s involvement in the production of more localises pollution and waste.
Halifax received the Impact Endorsement Mark and was highly commended for excellence in diversity as part of Business in the Community's Awards for Excellence.