How Metro Bank Uses Power BI to Improve the UK Banking Experience
Metro Bank was established in the UK in 2010 and was the first high street bank to be granted a license by the UK Financial Services Authority in more than 150 years. Since then, the company has grown to more than 50 branches, serving over a million accounts. Metro Bank provides a wide range of consumer and commercial financial services, from savings accounts to mortgages, and business loans.
Metro Bank’s competitive edge is its customer obsession, which is enhanced by technology. It keeps branches open for longer hours on more days—including bank holidays—allowing customers to get services in person or online. Metro Bank has also invested in developing an award-winning mobile banking app, meeting its customers’ needs wherever they are.
Challenge
Metro Bank understands that technology and data are key to its success. As a new financial institution, Metro Bank did not have any legacy systems that proliferated over time through mergers and acquisitions. Metro Bank’s leaders understood this was an advantage over other banks. However, Metro Bank lacked the cash reserves that a more established bank might take for granted, meaning it did not have the luxury to choose the wrong tool and then replace it if needed. Every investment Metro Bank made in tools and platforms needed value-adding and future-proof.
Understanding Company Data with Power BI
To ensure Metro Bank remains competitive in the industry, it needs to constantly adapt to customer needs. To better understand these needs, Metro Bank required a Business Intelligence (BI) tool that provides the right depth of detail, produces insightful visualizations, and connects a wide host of data sources, which led the company to Power BI. Now Metro Bank uses Power BI to track data and KPIs across the company. Some of the uses include:
- Call Center Tracking: Collect call volume service levels, customer demographics, call times, and shift scheduling.
- Mobile and Internet Banking: Analyze volume and types of transactions from online customers.
- Customer Service: Track customer complaints, including the time it took to resolve issues and the departments involved.
- Staffing and Workload Planning: Collect information on peak activity times and customer volume.
Metro Bank’s CEO has referred to Power BI as “a bank in his pocket” because with a few clicks the company is able to visualize and investigate company data, allowing everyone at the company to be in sync.