Private & Commercial Bank

PCC Germany, PCC International, and Postbank

The public debate and critical media coverage surrounding Deutsche Bank continued in 2017; in PCC Germany, negative news increased due to footprint rationalization. Clients had to deal with many changes due to the implementation of the strategic reorganization and the reduction of branches, initiated in 2016.

In 2017, around 259,400 clients (approx. 3%) from PCC Germany took part in our client satisfaction survey. The continuous increase in client satisfaction over the last years did not continue in 2017. Also supported by our continued investment in a new more client-centric business model and the implementation of a clearly structured advisory process, we are confident to turn this trend around and achieve higher client satisfaction in the near term. Management attention is high on these measures, as they receive detailed monthly information on the latest client satisfaction index for each branch.

The result of the customer survey enables us to understand our customers’ needs better. In order to increase customer satisfaction, we contact our customers to find out their expectations. This process includes private clients as well as business clients.

In addition to PCC Germany, around 24,000 clients from all PCC International countries took part in our 2017 survey. PCC International, after a slight decline in 2016 and despite the challenges faced in 2017, was able to improve client satisfaction results thanks to improved sales management communication and the launch of client-driven campaigns, which showed positive results in the target segments of affluent and SME customers. At the same time, the willingness to recommend Deutsche Bank has declined as a direct consequence of the footprint rationalization in some of our countries.

Postbank is surveying customer satisfaction on a quarterly basis. In addition to being asked about their satisfaction with Postbank’s services as a whole, customers are asked about their satisfaction with reachability, speed of action, friendliness, accuracy, professional advice, and satisfaction with the sales channels and self-service systems, among others. In Q3 and Q4 201,7 customer satisfaction again reached the level of the years before. In 2016, customer satisfaction temporarily went down as a consequence of enhanced fees for current accounts. It has recovered since the end of 2016.

In 2017, PCC Germany continued with the mystery shopping program, a combination of approximately 2,000 test purchases in branches and a phone survey of around 8,300 existing clients, enquiring about the standard of service and advice we provide. The calls were followed up with a consultation.

PCC International conducted approximately 1,200 test purchases in branches. The mystery shopping index result has declined; however, it remains on a good level when compared with the competition. Within the EQUOS RCB research study in Spain, Deutsche Bank has been named Best Quality Service Bank for the third year in a row. EQUOS RCB includes almost all banks and saving banks in Spain. It represents more than 95% of the Spanish market (entities as well as territory). The mystery shooping was performed by the company QUALITY WATCH in Poland, and by STIGA in Spain and Portugal.

The mystery shopping index declined in 2017 for both subdivisions compared with previous years mainly because of the footprint rationalization (reduction of branches) which impacted the tests performed at the beginning of the year, mainly in Q1 (test results in Q3 are showing a clear recovery, but the year average shows a slight decline). PCC International, after a slight decline in 2016 and despite the challenges faced in 2017, was able to improve client satisfaction results.

For PCC Germany and PCC International, the results of the client satisfaction survey and mystery shopping index are considered during the setting of objectives for our branches. Both are also linked to the performance-related component of the remuneration for our sales staff.

In 2017, Postbank conducted 2,108 test purchases in its branches. Due to new product settings in Q4 2016, the mystery shopping index result significantly declined in Q1 2017, but has recovered since then. To accelerate the improvement process, Postbank established an online tool to support the quality of product counselling. It was run more than 100,000 times by its sales staff in 2017.