The Co-operative Bank achieves Gold Compassionate Customer Care Award

The Co-operative Bank – the UK’s first bank to release a customer led ethical policy – has achieved Hospice UK’s first ever Gold Compassionate Customer Care Award.

The award recognises businesses that provide exceptional and compassionate service to any customers coping with bereavement, grief, and caring.

Many bereaved people have told Hospice UK that interacting with customer service teams after a bereavement can be daunting and often upsetting. They report frequently having to repeat the story of their loss before getting their loved one’s affairs in order.

So, Hospice UK’s Compassionate Employers team have created a dedicated programme to address this. It gives customer facing businesses the training, skills and expertise they need to better support and interact with their clients at the most difficult of times.

What the Award involves

The Compassionate Customer Care Award involves a comprehensive annual assessment and recommendation process to provide specific feedback on support for vulnerable customers.  

The assessment is based on three key areas of customer service: –

• Ease of customer journey
• Compassionate interactions
• Service flexibility.  

Our Compassionate Employers team works with each business to implement recommendations and improve customer care. When this process is complete, the business achieves one of three award tiers: Bronze, Silver or Gold.

How Co-operative Bank achieved Gold

In order to achieve the Gold Award, The Co-operative Bank worked closely with Hospice UK to enhance their services for customers facing bereavement.  

The first significant improvement ensured that frontline colleagues receive enhanced training to enable them to have compassionate conversations with bereaved customers.  

The bank has set ambitious targets for processing bereavement cases. They’ve also adapted communications to ensure that they are always written in the most compassionate way.  

On a practical level, Co-operative Bank have increased their write-off value for deceased customer debt. They regularly seek customer feedback to make sure customers have a say in how they are supported.

Hospice UK’s Compassionate Employers team are now working with The Co-operative Bank to build on and strengthen existing customer service support. They will lead them through further training, providing advice and support for managers and customer-facing colleagues.

By joining our Compassionate Customer Care programme, The Co-operative Bank is committing to supporting its customers who may be facing experiences of death, grief and caring responsibilities that affect their everyday lives.

Toby Porter, Hospice UK’s Chief Executive, said:

"We are delighted to award The Co-operative Bank our first ever Gold Compassionate Customer Care Award.

"We launched the award programme to recognise businesses that provide the best customer care to those who have caring responsibilities, terminal illness and those experiencing bereavement.

"Their efforts in training staff, setting high service standards, and prioritising the needs of bereaved and other vulnerable customers set an exemplary standard for other businesses to follow.

"They have already shown a great commitment to supporting their customers and we look forward to continuing working alongside them."

Maria Cearns, The Co-operative Bank's Chief Operating Officer said:  

"Supporting customers experiencing bereavement is an essential part of what we do as an ethical bank. We recognise that when a loved one dies, our customers are not only dealing with grief, but are also often managing complex financial arrangements. 

"Our priority is to be as compassionate as we can, which is why we’re really proud to be recognised with a Gold Compassionate Customer Award for the work we are doing to help our customers through the process."

Could your organisation benefit from compassionate training for customer service staff?

Hundreds of staff and customers at The Co-operative Bank are already benefiting from our Compassionate Customer Care Award. And yours could too – it’s suitable for businesses and organisations of any size.