28 May 2007
Building society consults members on future
Members of the Saffron Building Society were given a chance to have their say on how the Society moves forward at a recent conference.
The conference was held at the Wellcome Trust to give members an overview of the last year's activity and the Society's plans for the future.
The members heard that 2006 was a successful year for the Society, with it regularly appearing in national best buy tables for mortgages, while winning praise for its ISAs and children's accounts.
The Society donated more than £30,000 to local good causes, including a £10,000 donation to Essex carers charity Uttlesford Crossroads, alongside donation schemes at its branches and a programme to match charitable funds raised by staff.
The annual member conference was the second that had been held by the Society, with last year's examining how members could become more closely involved with the organisation and resulted in a member presence on the panels that look at the Society's literature.
This year's conference took a closer look at Saffron's corporate social responsibility programme, which covers topics as diverse as Saffron's links with the local community, treating customers fairly, staff training and the Society's impact on the environment.
Andy Golding, Saffron Building Society chief executive, said: "As a mutual, we feel that regular consultation with our members is essential to ensuring the provision of the best service.
"Over the past 12 months members have helped us with decisions on many different issues, including our successful rebranding exercise and product development, while also suggesting good causes which could benefit from our charitable donation programme.
"We're always looking for more ways to involve our members in what we do and the conference gave us an opportunity to ask them how the Society could do more for them to constantly improve our customer service.
"We are now examining how we can incorporate suggestions made at the conference into our future plans, for example, family and loyalty products, clearer information and more contact with our membership."
