This year’s keynote address at SIBEC was given by Chris Brindley. We sat down with him to explore whether his learnings as MD of Metro Bank could be applied to the fitness sector

What’s your mission for the Metro Bank business, Chris?
We set out to ‘create fans, not customers’. We knew from the outset that the other banks were offering really poor service to their customers. One of Metro Bank’s aims in becoming the first high street bank to open in over 100 years was to revolutionise the way banking was done in the UK. We decided to consider what customers would enjoy from us that other banks weren’t offering. Some of these things include…

Our opening hours are 8.00am–8.00pm Monday to Friday, 8.00am–6.00pm on a Saturday, and 11.00am–5.00pm on a Sunday – yes, a Sunday. We also open on bank holidays, opening 362 days a year. We think and act like a retailer, not a bank, and our hours reflect that. We don’t have branches, we have stores.

We love dogs! Not only do we allow dogs into our stores, we also provide two dog bowls with fresh water and dog treats are available in every store. We have dog bandanas in different sizes for our doggie fans to wear and we even have a chief canine officer, Sir Duffield II, who even has his own Twitter handle @SirDuffield.

We open accounts and print cards in all of our stores, so if your card isn’t working for any reason, we can replace it immediately – you don’t have to wait days for a replacement. The majority of personal current accounts are opened in the store within 15 minutes, and that includes a chip and pin debit card with your personalised security pin code.

We also have drive-thru banks, so you don’t have to find somewhere to park, and all our stores have customer toilets and baby changing facilities. In a bank, I hear you ask? Well, only in Metro Bank.

How do you get buy-in at every level of the business?
We pick and develop amazing people. We recruit for attitude and train for skill. You don’t apply to join Metro Bank – you audition. We have our very own ‘M Factor’ to help us recruit people who are obsessed with putting the customer at the heart of everything we do.

Our culture and values are based on the pneumonic ‘AMAZE-ING’:

A = Attend to every detail

M = Make every wrong right

A = Ask, if you aren’t sure. It takes one person to say ‘yes’ and two people to say ‘no’ to a customer. If someone isn’t sure, we ask them to bump up the issue to the most senior decision-maker around

Z = Zest is contagious, share it!

E = Exceed expectations

The ING is for our leaders and stands for: Inspire, Nurture, Game change.

We’re obsessive about always thanking and recognising our colleagues for going above and beyond and providing an unparalleled level of service. Not only are stories of colleagues exceeding expectations shared on our internal social network Yammer, but they’re also publicly praised. Praise brings more of the same.

How does Metro Bank measure the impact of the approach you’ve taken?
There have been lots of great outcomes. Firstly, we’ve opened hundreds of thousands of accounts, both personal and business. We’ve grown deposits and lending many times faster than the other banks. In terms of customer experience, we have one of the highest Net Promoter Scores around and have won multiple awards, including Moneywise’s ‘Most Trusted Financial Provider’ and CityAM ‘Bank of the Year 2016’.

What could leisure operators learn from your experience?
Most leisure operators understand the need for flexible opening hours, spotless facilities and great customer experience. But perhaps they could challenge themselves to see if they have any stupid rules which affect customers and front-line staff. We’re always on the lookout for these, and encourage our colleagues to bring them to the leader’s attention. We even have a ‘No Stupid Rules’ mailbox for people to tell us.

We’re also obsessive about ‘surprising and delighting’ our customers – about doing the unexpected, wonderful thing that will put a smile on our customers’ faces, so they become our fans and tell their friends and family about Metro Bank.

It’s also important to recognise that all people are different and have different motivations, so having an individual and personalised approach is much better than ‘one size fits all’. In leisure, some like competitive activity while others prefer social activity. Some fear activity based on past experiences. You have to recognise this in your customers.

What advice would you give leisure operators keen to offer outstanding customer service?
Every day, walk a mile in your customer’s shoes. Encourage your colleagues to be obsessive about how everything looks and what customers feel. Never become complacent about service. Continue to innovate, but don’t use technology just to save costs.

Put your customer first and think seriously about what they really want. No customer ever said: “I’d like to communicate with my bank through an automated voice response system”, yet this is what most banks do. We have real people who answer the phone at Metro Bank, because our customers have asked for that.

What single piece of advice would you give a leisure facility manager keen to improve the financial performance of the facility?
Treat your customers and colleagues brilliantly and profits will follow. Profit is a by-product of motivating your people to deliver an enjoyable and memorable customer experience. This concept is known as the ‘service profit chain’.

Also, never look to maximise profits at the customer’s expense. That’s why, at Metro Bank, we provide free coin-counting facilities and charge no fees for using our cards in Europe. Customers have a lifetime value, but in my experience, many organisations only look at their customers in the short term – and that results in only short-term results.