David Zumsteg

Executive Vice-President Letter to Department - Update and Goals 

Since the introduction of CSD’s Imperatives one year ago, we have discovered just how powerful these imperatives are in directing our key business directives. Projects, decisions and business dealings measured against the Imperatives were essential to our very successful year 2000.

 

For 2001, we reinforce our commitment to the importance and value of our Imperatives. Our Mission and Imperatives have not changed, and for the first time, are going to be closely aligned with clearly measurable goals. We have nine specific Goals for 2001 and every one of them support at least one of our four Imperatives. Clearly defined strategies detail how we will achieve these goals, and how your department will support these Goals.

 

To Deliver Significant Financial Impact, we have set goals to reduce NCL by $3.69 billion dollars and NCL Ratio to 5.63%. We’re aiming to lower operating expenses to $159 million dollars, lower our expenses per delinquent account to $8.08 per account, and score satisfactorily on all audits. Strategies to support this goal include the reduction of letter expenses, building a robust infrastructure to improve efficiencies, and the enhancement of vendor management. Our current War on Delinquency is a prime example of a strategy that will help us achieve our goals.

 

As we look to Develop and Energize Employees, we have defined goals to decrease employee attrition to 32% and improve employee satisfaction by 5% better than the March 2001 baseline established by the Employee 12 Question Survey. To achieve these goals, we will follow specific strategies that place people in the right jobs and prepare and develop people to do their jobs. We will improve our new hire assessment process and provide new hire training tailored to specialized areas.

 

To Strengthen our Cardmember Relationships, our goal is to increase Cardmember satisfaction 100 basis points better than a June 2001 baseline Cardmember Satisfaction Survey. Specific strategies to understand drivers of Cardmember satisfaction and improve our service quality support this goal and will be driven by tools such as Cardmember satisfaction surveys, the implementation of a quality component into the CSR incentive, and improved event management processes.

 

CSD’s trademark within First USA has always been one of innovation. It is so ingrained that Drive Cutting-Edge Innovation is one of our Imperatives. We have had a rich history of success, but we need a better method to measure our innovation. To support our goal to establish a baseline metric, we will develop and deploy additional channels of innovation to capture opportunities from across CSD. Benchmarking and environmental scanning will help develop ideas from outside of CSD as well.

 

Our goals for 2001 are ambitious, but certainly attainable. Our formal Goals and Strategies documents even incorporate "stretch’ goals, to encourage us to reach higher than what we’ve already committed to. Aligning our 2001 Goals to our Imperatives and CSD Mission makes sense and supports a standard we already know works.

 

The accomplishments of 2000 were a direct result of you and your desire to make this department the best. The goals for 2001 are again another blueprint to follow to success.

 

Kevin D. Murphy
Senior Vice-President

 

 

Executive Vice-President - Response to Employee Suggestion

Claudia, thank you for your timely suggestion. These are indeed unusual times, and this organization has seen an extraordinary outpouring of generosity.

 

As you know, Bank One and First USA Bank have established several avenues for Cardmembers and employees to aid those affected by the events of last week, including donating blood and contributing money to the United Way and the Bank One Foundation/Disaster Relief. At this time, we feel our contributions can best be maximized if we keep our focus on those programs already developed.

 

Claudia, I appreciate the time and thought that went into your idea. As we do our part to continue with business as usual, we must remember to proceed with care.

 

Conrad Vasquez
Executive Vice-President

 

 

New Marketing Initiative - Perks to Delinquency

Imagine being delinquent on your credit card and receiving a gift from your bank. Sound crazy? Maybe, but it works.

 

The Customer Support Division’s Product and Program Management Group is revolutionizing the way we communicate with our customers with the Cardmember Communications Initiative (CCI). The CCI was originally designed to give hard to reach Cardmembers an incentive to contact us and work out a payment plan, but has expanded to include other segments as well.

 

When research revealed that traditional collection approaches were ineffective for some delinquent Cardmembers, the CCI program was developed to attract payments through direct mail campaigns, complete with eye catching correspondence and incentives.

 

A variety of special offers are used to encourage Cardmembers to make a payment. Delinquent Cardmembers who keep their promise to pay are offered a free one-year subscription from a list of select magazines. 60-minute phone cards are used to encourage Cardmembers to make a minimum payment. And $50 U.S. Savings Bonds are offered to Cardmembers who make three consecutive payments.

 

In just one year’s time, the CCI has proven to be very successful, with nearly $35 million in Net Credit Losses (NCL) savings for 2000. Continuing this year, the CCI looks to decrease NCL by more than 50% by using the direct mail techniques again, but with a much more aggressive schedule. The 2001 CCI agenda calls for over 1.4 million CCI pieces to be mailed out!

 

Executive Vice-President - Message to Bank Officers

As I stated during our site managers meeting last week, we have before us the challenge to meet or exceed our 2001 business plan, despite expense restraints. Last year you met the same challenge, and beat it by almost $50 million. As we work smarter and more efficiently, I am confident we can meet the challenge this year as well.

 

One of the more effective programs we used last year was Solutions Through Partnership (STP). We can continue the success of STP this year as we focus on the Negotiations skill and develop our CSRs into great salespeople with the ability to persuade cardmembers to pay us instead of other creditors.

 

Another valuable resource is the knowledge we gained from the book, First Break All the Rules. This book is not only about employee satisfaction but more importantly, how to leverage employee satisfaction to inspire breakthrough performance. We need that type of breakthrough performance from our employees to meet the challenges we face in 2001.

 

Last years accomplishments prove that when faced with a challenge, we are well equipped to fight them head-on and win. I know with your continued efforts, we can achieve the same victory for 2001.

 

Conrad Vasquez
Executive Vice-President