Barclays: Forging Truly Connected Finance

The Challenge: Navigating Disruption and Building Customer Confidence

Barclays faced a landscape of customer anxiety, fierce competition from agile fintechs, and internal misalignments on strategic direction and value creation. A low Net Promoter Score (NPS) and high operational costs for simple transactions highlighted the urgent need to transform its operational model and enhance customer perception to build lasting confidence in an era of rapid market disruption.

Our Approach & Activities: Crafting the “Truly Connected Finance” Toolkit

In collaboration with Eight Inc., we embarked on an intensive multi-phase project (Immerse, Envision, Socialise) to bring “Truly Connected Finance” (TCF) to life. Our core activities included:

• Deep Immersion: Comprehensive research into customer needs across life stages, competitor analysis (traditional, fintech, and non-financial brands), KPI deep-dives (especially NPS), business drivers, and colleague perspectives.
• Strategic Envisioning: Synthesising insights to develop the TCF vision, tangible Customer-Value-Propositions (CVPs), and signature interaction moments.
• Toolkit Development: Creating the “TCF Toolkit” – a suite of decision-making and storytelling tools to operationalise and socialise the TCF strategy. This included the TCF North Star, prioritisation criteria, the overarching framework, and a detailed roadmap.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Continuous collaboration with key Barclays stakeholders through interviews and workshops to gather diverse perspectives, ensure internal resonance, and iterate on the framework.

Outcomes & Impact: A Roadmap to Renewed Trust and Market Differentiation

The “Truly Connected Finance” initiative delivered a comprehensive strategic toolkit and a clear, actionable roadmap. Key outcomes included:

• The TCF Toolkit: Empowering Barclays with resources for a new, customer-centric way of operating, including the TCF North Star, prioritisation criteria, and framework.
• Phased Roadmap: A multi-year plan focused on “fixing pain points” to earn the right to build confidence, then layering on advanced capabilities (e.g., “Insight Engine”), core utility offerings (“Money Management”), and value-added services (“Dream Accelerator”).
• Envisioned Impact: A strategy designed to significantly improve NPS, reduce operational costs by empowering customers and colleagues, differentiate Barclays in the market, and foster a culture of “spreading ripples of hope,” ultimately instilling “confidence in the future, one conversation at a time.”

This initiative provided Barclays with a blueprint for transforming into a more customer-centric organisation, aiming to shift from transactional interactions to a supportive partnership, building enduring confidence and becoming an indispensable financial partner.