Muhammad Khyzar (15L-5287)

Merrill Lynch: Supernova

Established in 1907, a prominent financial management and advisory
company serving governments, institutions and investors throughout the
world. Delivering services to individual clients (retail brokerage) through
stock broker and financial advisors (FAs). Merrill Lynch places client
relationships first and is proud to conduct or business based on five
unwavering principles: Client Focus, Respect for the Individual, Teamwork,
Responsible Citizenship and Integrity.
Merrill Lynch delivers their services through Financial Advisors. Customer
interaction by FA are rarely made only when the customer call to initiate a
trade. FA Share % of revenue generated from commission, annuitized or fee
based. Their FA were thought to be best in Wall Street. Merrill enjoyed the
repute to be the best place to work.
There were three aspects of relationship critical to client satisfaction: The
frequency and quality of product, Rapid response to problems, Attention to
details (Personal Life events). Constraints of FAs before Supernova were: Poor
Communications with clients, Lack of time to contact clients, Unprepared,
Unorganized and Reactive, Hard to respond to problems quickly, Loss of
additional business.
Merrill Lynchs maximum FAs rarely contacted their clients to offer them new
investment products which created customer dissatisfaction. To cater this
problem business process called supernova is introduced to manage client
relationships originated in Merrill Lynchs Indian-polis Office. It was the Idea
of Rob Knapp, head of Mid-West District office whos Customer Satisfaction
ranked last among 32 district in country in 1995.
Two part pitch to sell supernova, firstly how good it felt to be delivering the
ultimate customer experience. Secondly Plan, Process and Discipline.
Adopting supernova through segmentation, 12-4-2, organization and
acquisition. Challenges in implementing supernova was Economic backdrop,
Politics and recognition, Follow up/support, Client expectations, Changing
role of some Fas, Misinterpretation, Inclusion of Client Associates.

Why it is interesting?

Muhammad Khyzar (15L-5287)

The Case Study tells the need of Customer Service Excellence modeling for
Customer Satisfaction. The mechanism of Serving Customer always requires
improvement in service delivery design as per the need of hour. Become
innovative & pro-active to implement service-process like Supernova with 124-2 contact discipline, segmentation, organized for acquisition of Customer.