Report on HSBC Experience - Essay Example

 Report on HSBC Experience Introduction HSBC Holdings is a multinational company dealing with banking and financial services, and is seen as one ofthe most stable companies mainly because of the ratio of deposit to loans (Brownsell, 2009). Currently, the company has over 7000 offices in 80 countries, and some of the services offered include commercial banking, personal finance, consumer finance and investment banking (Medcroft, 2012). HSBC PLC is a subsidiary of this company where it offers similar services as the parent company. In the UK, HSBC PLC has around 1500 sites, and does have headquarters in 8 Canada Square, East London. Besides being the London’s branch headquarter, the building in the said region acts as the HSBC’s Headquarter. In this branch, HSBC PLC has 8000 employees whose offices occupy 42 floors (Virjo, 2013). The employees in the company are hired depending on respective qualifications and duties to undertake. This essay will highlight the personal experiences at the company. Role, task and duties The early report suggests that the company’s major strength is having more deposits than loans as it helps winning many clients. Also, in 2008, the company sought to engage in mortgages though the move was at first seen as a risky one. Further, due to high competition from local banks in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, the company has not dominated as much as it has in other parts of UK (Virjo, 2013). Consequently, the bank needed to undertake some changes in their branches, which included a refurbishment program. Additionally, the company started its own radio station where the station is dedicated solely to broadcasting and advertising related services. Due to all these undertakings, the company needed to have other staff that led to my appointment as a customer care-cum- relationship officer. This position came with the role of ensuring the clients served are fully satisfied in their queries. That is to say, none of the clients was to have unanswered questions upon visiting the desk occupied. As a result, one of the things needed to in order to perform effectively the role was ensuring that information was on the fingertips. Furthermore, the job’s tasks included helping the clients fill loan forms, opening accounts, offering professional advice as well as guiding the clients through the online transactions. The duties that came with this job included serving clients, selling company products, responding to customers’ phone queries. Besides serving clients at the customer care desk, the position entailed promoting the products by working with a group of salespeople every one weekend per month. Other weekends’ duties involved compiling of the sales reports and customer’s comments. Every day there would be a meeting where each officer was expected to give their experiences in their respective roles. Furthermore, these duties needed the highest portrayal of professionalism since many of the clients came from high social classes. Finally, the duties and tasks demanded discretion and high level of ethics observation because one had to look at the client’s account. The description detailing how the duties were undertaken includes that loan forms had to be filled only by the client but under direction of the officer. Opening of the account-required the client to fill the blank spaces but confirmed and approved by the officer. Receiving of personal calls was prohibited during the working hours, and clients could only call through the company-provided phone. Promotion was done via cold-calling, placement of adverts online and going out once a month. Efficiency analysis The position came with its share of challenges some of which were handled effectively with only a few proving a bit complex. First, the customer care role needed one to possess strong interpersonal skills. This is because some clients proved a bit difficult in understanding the strict procedures that have to be adhered to in a bank. For instance, clients would demand account opening form be filled by an officer. This demand was contrary to the requirements of the bank, which strictly directed the officers against this approach. In order to ensure this problem did not generate into a misunderstanding, I would calmly explain to the client why it was necessary for the filing to be done by them. While a significant number of these clients understood and went ahead to fill by them, others simply could not, and it is here that professionalism was vital. As it is with other business, ethics ought to be adhered to always in order to ensure both the employee and the company retains a good image before clients (Davies, 2008). In full understanding of this, I ensured that no filling of the forms was done in any way that contradicted the company requirements. As explained at the beginning. HSBC PLC is a popular bank meaning that even the number of calls made to the officer is sometimes overwhelming. I had to contend with every single day with people enquiring about services, mostly mortgages and deposits. Therefore, multitasking capabilities were tested since I had to handle the clients seated at the desk and others calling on the phone. As noted by Lotila (2009) an employee’s capability to work under pressure determines how productive the company becomes. Additionally, it goes on to improve the skills of the said employee. Nevertheless, this ought not to be interpreted that it is always advisable to exert unnecessary pressure on a staff. Having learnt some about business management coupled with personal strengths of quick learning and strong listening skills, this problem was not hard to solve. First, it is always imperative to understand the power of delegating responsibilities (Selinger, 2006). I would ensure that the client’s duties (filling the forms) would be theirs. Secondly, ensuring that the conversation on the phone was necessarily long helped a lot. Instead, understanding the client’s needs and solving them within the shortest time helped greatly. When selling and promoting the products, my strength of remembering a great deal of information helped. Also, the fact that my education level matched with some of the employees’ made the atmosphere pretty friendly. Notwithstanding these strengths and success cases, some weaknesses hindered my potential including not talking too much. Even though relations with the other staff and clients were unaffected by my personality, the same cannot be said of selling. Promotion of the company products was not easy because some of them were similar to others offered by the competitors. As a result, it called for convincing people to buy especially mortgages but the personality trait collided with the demand of this job. In addition, not having been used to working for long hours was a weakness that may have somehow hindered productivity. The role played at HSBC PLC required working hours to be about seven per day with Saturday having to be about four. Prior to taking up this position, the experience did not entail this tedious work. Rather, it was working a few hours, having ample resting time without having to work during the weekends. Conversely, the HSBC PLC had all these requirements, which led to burnout and occasional lethargy. In a bid to ensure this weakness was overcomed, several including having daily exercise were undertaken. Personal attempts to overcome problems As reported one of the problem was selling the products as the power of convincing is imperative on any sale. Schwepker (2013) asserted that in sales, success is dependent on the seller’s ability to convince the prospect coupled with a competent demonstration of product knowledge. The first attempt undertaken here included having all the information related to the products tasked with selling. Secondly, despite the weakness of convincing, efforts were made to overcome it through persistence. That is to say, I did not allow this weakness to stop efforts to sell the products, and as others went to the field, I went too. Suggestions for improvement Some of the areas that need urgent improvement include limiting the duties of the customer care officer. While the position offers an officer with an opportunity to be more productive, it creates a loophole for loss of business. This assertion is made because of observing the number of calls coming through the phone in comparison with other clients who physically come to the bank. Barsky (2011) argued that duty allocation to employees ought to consider other qualities besides the qualifications. Moreover, providing some information on the wall about the procedure of filling the forms could assist greatly. Additionally, improvements could be done when it comes to the marketing of the products whereby the experienced employees work with interns. Again, ensuring there are staff dedicated to the marketing department would also be an added advantage. This suggestion is line with Morawski (2013) who asserted that sometimes, an organisation’s success lies in understanding staff’s strong areas and subsequently utilizing them. Had these areas been analysed and improved accordingly prior to my involvement in this company, the output would have been different. Appraisal of other group members in their roles When going for marketing sessions with other members, the experienced ones demonstrated prowess in selling. Apparently, the group focused mainly on the Unique Selling Point (USP) of HSBC where they convinced a number of them. Upon further discussion with some of the members in the group, it became apparent that USP is vital in any business. Capsey (2010) who states that a USP could significantly change how customers view its products confirmed the observations. Unlike the interns who tried hard to sell the products, the other group of experienced sought to understand prospects’ opinion on the company. If the opinion was positive, there was a higher probability of making a sale; a negative response was met by a polite request to explain why the client thought of the company negatively. On the other hand, the other customer care staff exhibited a tremendous trend in handling both the phone clients and the ones who physically sought help. First, they avoided being on phone for too long; secondly, they directed clients to their websites if the information needed was likely to take time. Finally, all questions to do with sales or marketing would be directed to respective departments hence leaving the officer with ample time to serve the physical clients. Finally, the tellers were also professional in their work whereby the speed at which they served the depositors proved to be efficient. Appraisal of teamwork It is often stated that any business that hardly works on enhancing teamwork seldom gets far in terms of growth. While academic qualifications account for a certain portion of success, teamwork is thought to be the major driver of growth. This is because talents in different individuals help in the overall growth hence the need to cultivate it (Hemelrijk and Wantia, 2005). HSBC being such a large company has realised this importance, and the teams worked perfectly well. The interns were accorded the necessary advice on how to do cold-calling, direct sales and other marketing-related tasks. There were not many communication hurdles since many of the employees and interns communicated well in English. With the competition coming from a number of other players, this issue was handled through various methods including advertisement and strong sales teams. Personal learning and discovery Without a shadow of doubt, the experience at HSBC PLC has provided the much-needed experience, which will prove vital in the future. Surprisingly, prior to joining the institution, there was foreknowledge or exposure to the challenges faced by salespeople. However, that will not be a problem anymore in the future because of this exposure. It became apparent that I have strength in the handling people as evidenced by performance at the customer care desk. Working on a strong USP is imperative in any business; this precious lesson came out clearly at HSBC. As noted, the company’s strength lies in the deposits, and this is one quality that helps in attracting new clients and retaining the loyal ones. Nonetheless, the experience helped in exposing some weaknesses but this will be important in handling such duties in the future. While the experience at HSBC may not have defined precisely what will pursued in the future, it has the changed the approach that will applied. In short, it has equipped me with precious skills on how to handle a number of issues in an organisation. Bibliography Barsky, A. (2011). Ethics and Values in Social Work: An Integrated Approach for a Comprehensive London: Oxford University Press, p.35 Brownsell, A. (2009). The right consistency (HSBC). Strategic Direction, 25(8). Capsey, M. (2010). What is our unique selling point?. J Paramed Pract, 2(6), pp.242-243 Davies, I. (2008). Alliances and Networks: Creating Success in the UK Fair Trade Market. Journal of Business Ethics, 86(S1), pp.109-12. Hemelrijk, C. and Wantia, J. (2005). Individual variation by self-organisation. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 29(1), pp.125. Lotila, P. (2009). Corporate Responsiveness to Social Pressure: An Interaction-Based Model. Journal of Business Ethics, 94(3), pp.395-395 Medcroft, N. (2012). A question of attribution: Shah v HSBC Private Bank (UK) Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 1154. Trusts & Trustees, 18(1), pp.68 Morawski, M. (2013). Knowledge sharing processes with the participation of key employees. Management, 17(2). Schwepker, C. (2013). Improving Sales Performance Through Commitment to Superior Customer Value: The Role of Psychological Ethical Climate. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 33(4), pp.389 Selinger, C. (2006). The art of delegating. IEEE Spectr., 42(8), pp.62-63. Virgo, J. (2013). Investment risk, loss, and causation: After Rubenstein v HSBC Bank Plc [2012] EWCA 1184. Trusts & Trustees, 19(5), pp.430-432 Read More