Executive Forum

Looks at the savings market, its importance to building societies and the way it is changing, with specific reference to the competition from other sectors and the emergence of postal accounts. Five areas of focus are examined which may provide some ways forward for building societies in achieving competitive advantage. These are (1) customer retention, (2) service quality, (3) customer segmentation, (4) serving customer eeds, and (5) a consideration of customer profitability. Now would seem to be the right time for building societies to consider carefully how they can provide a superior service to particular groups of customers.