The Co-operative Bank's gold standard service for bereaved customers recognised by Hospice UK

• The Co-operative Bank is the first Bank to receive a Gold award from Hospice UK’s new Compassionate Customer Care programme.
• The programme uses a set of criteria to judge how well institutions perform when dealing with customers who have caring responsibilities, terminal illness and those experiencing bereavement.
• Hospice UK have rigorously assessed The Co-operative Bank on their processes and training for supporting customers coping with bereavement, grief, and caring.

Hospice UK has today launched its new Compassionate Customer Care Award, announcing that The Co-operative Bank has been awarded with their prestigious Gold Award.

As the national charity for hospice and end-of-life care in the UK, Hospice UK work closely with organisations across the country to advise how they can support their customers through death, dying and bereavement.

The Compassionate Customer Care Award calls upon businesses to step up for customers that are experiencing the most difficult times of their lives. The award programme is designed to recognise those businesses that provide exceptional customer care, and work with organisations to embed compassion into all of their conversations and processes. Companies are assessed on three areas of customer service; ease of journey, compassionate interactions and service flexibility.

In order to achieve the Gold Award, The Co-operative Bank has worked closely with Hospice UK to enhance their services for customers facing bereavement. The Co-operative Bank has made significant improvements to its service by ensuring that frontline colleagues receive enhanced training to enable them to have compassionate conversations with bereaved customers. The Bank has also set ambitious targets for processing bereavement cases and has adapted communications to ensure that they are always written in the most compassionate way. On a practical level, the Bank has also increased its write off value for deceased customer debt and regularly seeks customer feedback to enable customers to have a say in how they are supported.

Since working towards the Compassionate Customer Care Award, The Co-operative Bank has received feedback from customers complementing the teams on their kindness, compassion, prompt responses and support through what can be an emotional and complicated process following the death of a loved one.

Maria Cearns, Chief Operating Officer at The Co-operative Bank, said:

“Supporting customers experiencing bereavement is an essential part of what we do as an ethical bank. We recognise that when a loved one dies, our customers are not only dealing with grief, but are also often managing complex financial arrangements. Our priority is to be as compassionate as we can, which is why we’re really proud to be recognised with a Gold Compassionate Customer Care Award for the work we are doing to help our customers through the process.”

Toby Porter, CEO of Hospice UK, said:

“We are delighted to award The Co-operative Bank our first ever Gold Compassionate Customer Care Award. Hospice UK launched the award programme to recognise businesses that provide the best customer care to those who have caring responsibilities, terminal illness and those experiencing bereavement.

The Bank’s efforts in training staff, setting high service standards, and prioritising the needs of bereaved and other vulnerable customers set an exemplary standard for other businesses to follow. They have already shown a great commitment to supporting their customers and we look forward to continuing to work alongside them.”