Where focusing on the customer is always right

Seven years ago, Ms Katherine James had a very definite impression of the world of finance.

"Looking at it from the outside, banking to me was boring, it just appeared so tedious.

"To be honest, as long as I could get funding for whatever it was I needed to finance and as long as my bank manager looked after my investments, then that was it as far as I was concerned," Ms James recalls.

Today she is one of the most senior women in banking in Ireland and a rising star in the National Australia Group, both at home and abroad.

Ms James has recently returned to Ireland after a two-year stint as National Australia Group's general manager of premium and private services operation in New Zealand.

It is one of the most high-profile positions in the New Zealand operation and involves looking after its most valuable client base and some of its wealthiest investors.

Something of a turnaround for a woman whose initial impressions of the world of banking were less than enthusiastic.

But it is exactly this open and frank approach to business that has helped Ms James accelerate through the executive management tree at National Australia Group.

She was headhunted to join the group in 1994 from Cantrell & Cochrane, the Irish drinks group, where she had risen through the ranks in her 10-year career with the firm to become sales and marketing director for Northern Ireland.

"I really agonised about taking a job in banking because for me it just looked boring," she recalls.

"But the thing which persuaded me to come to this organisation was the fact that it was owned by Australians and, at that time, the Australians were getting a lot of press about their innovative way of looking at banking.

"Their approach was much more customer-focused, much more customer-friendly and more flexible than I had ever imagined banking to be.

"What ultimately sold me was that this was an organisation that had the potential and the wherewithal to make it different," she added.

Being different is something that Ms James has never been scared to be.

When she first joined National Australia Group, she was horrified by the length of time it took for the banking sector to get new products introduced to the marketplace.

"The culture of the drinks industries and the banking sector are quite different. Drinks are very sociable, very flexible, very after hours - to me, before I came to this organisation, banking appeared quite inflexible.

"I also loved the buzz of putting in place a marketing programme and actually seeing it happen the next day or next week. I enjoyed going out into stores and seeing the product displayed and actually being lifted off the shelves. When I came into this sector I realised that the product development cycle does not happen that fast," Ms James said.

But that did not deter her - she saw an opportunity for a product already established in the Australian marketplace to be introduced in Northern Ireland and got it up and running within six weeks. She spent two years as head of marketing for Northern Bank before being promoted to general manager for marketing and income generation at National Australia Group's Scottish operation, the Clydesdale bank.

After this she was wooed back to Ireland to take up the post of head of premium financial services for National Irish and Northern Bank.

This is the bank's bespoke service for high earners and wealthy clients, and is similar to how airlines operate gold card services for frequent fliers.

According to Ms James, the skill in providing a service such as its premium range is to offer an attractive "relationship management" proposition.

"We look at the complexity of certain people's requirements and we put executive banking managers in place to look after specific needs for these customers," she said.

Her approach to establishing the operation, North and South, was based on her career-long motto - "the customer is always right".

"I always take the customer's view in everything. I keep preaching to our staff that the customer is always right, they are always right about their problem even if they write with a complaint that may in essence be completely wrong.

"At the end of the day it doesn't matter, the fact is their problem is right - maybe their solution to the problem is not right, but that does not take away the fact that they are right," Ms James said.

Her employer is a fan of this approach and, in 1999, National Australia Group asked her to become the general manager of its premium and private services operation in New Zealand.

It was an offer she felt she could not say no to, although it involved uprooting her family.

"It was different going to a new country. It was traumatic both going into a new organisation, going to a different country and trying to organise a house remotely is probably the single biggest challenge I have come across.

"It was a complete life-changing experience moving my family, and at the time I had three boys under the age of nine. My husband gave up work to go to New Zealand with me, and my kids had to make sacrifices like leaving behind their friends and their grandparents," she said.

But it was an experience that she does not regret, both for personal and professional reasons.

"I am taking what I learnt in New Zealand, very valuable lessons such as to how empower people and make them really committed to the organisation, and applying them in my new role as general manager of personal financial services, Ireland.

"It is a big challenge because it involves all of the branch network, which includes almost 2,000 people. I see my role as empowering this team of people to absolutely believe in customer service," Ms James said.

She believes there are still some "gaps" in how customer focused National Irish and Northern Bank are today.

"I do hear some people speak really passionately in some quarters for the customer but not in all yet, so we are going to work at that.

"We also need to be product innovators and drive forward product innovation for our customers in Northern Ireland and the Republic," she added.

Ms James has already devised her strategy for how she is going to achieve this.

"I am a great planner, I try and plan my life, 10 to 15 years out and my career five to 10 years.

"With Northern Bank and National Irish, what we must do is provide absolute consistency of service.

"Our big challenge is a people challenge - we need to change the culture of this organisation from within," she said.

One of the most valuable lessons Ms James believes she learned from her time in New Zealand was the power of giving her staff the permission to think of the bank as their own business.

"We need to give people permission to make their own decisions in providing the best service to their customers.

"Our customers differentiate on the people that handle their business; therefore we get our people to focus on the interaction with the customer.

"My prediction is that it is back to the future for banking in Ireland - people will relate first and foremost to the relationship they have with their bank," Ms James continued.