The Cumberland is shortlisted for three top customer experience awards

The Cumberland is in the running for a number of prestigious national customer experience awards.

The building society is a finalist in three categories at the UK Customer Experience Awards 2022, the biggest such event in the country. It’s the first time The Cumberland has entered the awards and reflects the huge transformation of this area of the business during the pandemic.

The nominations are for Business Change and Transformation, Best Customer Experience in the Crisis, and Most Improved Complaints Handling. Business Change and Transformation concerns The Cumberland’s response to lockdown which saw face-to-face business activities reduce to virtually nothing and required customer-facing colleagues to be redeployed to other areas.

Best Customer Experience in the Crisis reflects its priority of looking after customers, particularly the vulnerable, with support and guidance through measures such as mortgage holidays, all while ensuring the safety of colleagues and maintaining business during and post pandemic.

Most Improved Complaints Handling follows an internal review that showed complaints handling was not as effective or efficient as it could be, prompting a complete rethink, additional investment in its people, and approaching each complaint as an opportunity to improve.

Customer experience manager, Claire Crossan, said: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted in all three categories. Providing exceptional customer experiences is at the core of what we do at The Cumberland. Consumer behaviours have changed and customers' expectations are evolving all the time.

“Customer experience is really the differentiating factor and we are always looking at ways we can enhance the customer journey.”

She added: “We recognised we need to understand how customers feel when they do business with us. How do we make a customer feel when they open a new account with The Cumberland or walk into a branch for a transaction?

“It's not enough any more simply to deliver the same customer experience, it needs to be continually evolving and improving, which is what we aim to do.”

The finals take place at Wembley Stadium on October 12 when finalists will give a 15-minute presentation on each category and then answer questions from the judges for another 15 minutes.

The Cumberland is up against companies from all sectors of industry and services, including Radar Healthcare, Marks & Spencer Bank, and Northumbrian Water.

Chief customer officer, Claire Deekes, said: “I’m so proud of my team to be recognised in this fashion. They coped admirably during an unprecedented and very difficult time and helped The Cumberland and its customers not only come through it but improve our business for the better.

“Our customers are always our first priority, and being finalists for these awards demonstrates our commitment and investment in improving our services for them.”