YBS
“ TO ME , DIGITAL INHERENTLY MEANS BEING CUSTOMER- CENTRIC . THERE ' S NO POINT BUILDING GREAT TECHNOLOGY IF IT DOESN ' T WORK FOR THE CUSTOMER ”
DAVID MORRIS BA , MA CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER , YBS
stakeholders within the business , particularly those that are not digitally confident .
“ To me , digital inherently means being customer-centric ,” Morris says . “ So when we ' re trying to build customer journeys , there ' s no point building great technology if it doesn ' t work for the customer . We ' ve recognised that the solutions we need to create have to be built with the end-user in mind . I think that ' s just a natural , inherent part of this type of transformation .”
Sampson concurs : “ We ' re building things that meet customer needs and wants , and that ' s research-based . That ' s quite powerful .”
Customer-centric design permeates every pore at YBS , including recruitment . Everybody that has been brought into this digital transformation journey has been steered by customer demand – from UX and UI designers through to programme managers . Much like its namesake region , Yorkshire Building Society has a distinctive character , a flavour , a non-negotiable way of doing things . It only takes on new people that fit into this customer-led culture . “ You can be the world ’ s greatest project manager or the most sophisticated architect , but if you don ’ t understand the YBS culture then it just doesn ’ t work ,” Morris says .
That applies not just to the people that YBS recruits , but the partners it chooses to work with as well . The building society partnered early on with Johnston Carmichael to help them quickly realise pace , mobilise the digital transformation programme and become clearer on the designs of its digital products . This allowed it to remain focused from the outset on the customer .
“ What Johnston Carmichael brought to the table was an acceleration of what we were trying to do , [ along with ] huge amounts of experience and pragmatism ,” Sampson explains . “ They used that to not only help us think about what we wanted to do , but to be a critical friend and challenge us in our thinking , and help us avoid pitfalls that others might have experienced who went before us .”
Looking ahead to the future , Morris continues : “ Over the last 2-3 years , we ' ve been able to prove just how much opportunity there is in the business and how digitising parts of our enterprise has created huge amounts of value . I think our vision for the next 12-18 months is about how we can go from good to great . We think our approach can be really quite distinct and unique by taking this best-of-breed approach , using digital and human to create something that ' s distinct in the market . And I think a big focus for us over the next period is going to be about how we create an operational model that supports this powerful acquisition capability we ' ve built .” sustainabilitymag . com 171