Message from Graham Beale
Our approach
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- Listening & responding
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Listening and responding

The right to vote is a fundamental part of being a member of a mutual building society and we have always encouraged as many members as possible to make their vote count.

Our campaign to encourage voting in our 2006 AGM won a Chartered Institute of Public Relations Award and helped raise the number of votes significantly, taking the number to over 1 million (around 17% of eligible members based on 2006 levels). Communicating the benefits of mutuality and encouraging members to have their say are vital to us and we continued our efforts to increase turnout in 2007.

This year for the first time we offered our members the option to cast their AGM vote online. Fourteen per cent of members who voted used the new online facility.

As a further incentive, we again pledged to donate 10p for every member vote cast, up to £100,000. Almost 1 million members voted in 2007 and we were delighted to donate £100,000 to Disability Sport Events (DSE). Read more about Nationwide's partnership with DSE in Community and society.

Through our new Voice of the Customer programme we stayed in touch with a large cross-section of our members and customers. The programme provides an integrated framework for listening and responding to member feedback, helping us to analyse issues and facilitate improvements holistically. The programme includes:

Member TalkBacks - since 1997 members throughout the UK have had the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the running of the Society, in person and online, with Nationwide's senior management team. TalkBacks take place throughout the year across the UK
Customer Experience Tracker - our monthly opinion survey
Member Service Log - records feedback received directly by employees from our members and customers

Effective communication with our members is essential and requires a continuous review of formats and approaches. Developments included:

review of Member TalkBack event format, to maintain appeal and effectiveness
review of high-volume letters, to maintain high standards of clarity and accuracy
pilot of revised complaint handling processes, to maintain efficiency and ease of use