Member Charter
Our Member Charter is our commitment to you
At Heritage, we make banking a force for good. What motivates us isn’t how much profit we can make, it’s about making people’s lives better.
Being passionate about helping people and putting their interests first is embedded in our thinking and represents a service-based philosophy that defines the way we do business. We know your expectations are high.
We exist to serve you
As a mutual bank, Heritage exists to serve the interests of you, our members. That’s what drives everything we do. We are owned by our members, so our number one goal is to give you the best overall banking experience we can. That means the right products, services and pricing to meet your banking needs in a sustainable way. We are genuine when we say you are our priority and that we consider your needs in every decision we make.
We help you achieve your life goals
We’re a bank, but we don’t exist just to sell financial products. In fact, the reason we exist is to help you achieve your life goals. That means you can trust us to take a responsible approach to lending and credit, ensuring that the financial commitments you make are appropriate for your circumstances. We don’t focus on how much profit we can make by selling a product; our duty is always to consider your interests as our priority.
We pride ourselves on providing you with great service
Heritage has a well-earned reputation for providing outstanding customer service. We promise to continue making customer service a priority, across all our touch points. Our commitment is to provide you with outstanding service that is authentic, caring and easy to access whether you come into a branch, ring our Contact Centre, use our mobile app, or visit our website.
This is particularly critical when our members apply for larger purchases, like a family home, investment property or business loans. We will guide you through the process providing timely step by step support in ensuring the best possible outcomes for you. We’re not happy with merely meeting your needs, we aim to deliver a great customer experience every time.
Our service commitment is embodied in our Code of Conduct, which sets out the guiding principles that require our staff to act professionally, with integrity, and with the interests of members in mind at all times. We reinforce our member mindset through our staff awards program, Heritage Heroes, which includes a category that rewards outstanding customer service.
We keep our communications simple and straightforward
Too often, banks make their communication complex and hard to decipher. Our goal is to communicate in a way that’s simple and easy to understand, whether that’s written communication such as our letters and our website, or verbal communication through our branches and Contact Centre.
We act on your complaints
We know that we won’t always get things right. When that happens, we provide simple ways for you to alert us to the problem. If you make a complaint to Heritage, we promise that we will:
- Treat you fairly and with respect
- Provide you with clear expectations about when we will provide an outcome
- Prioritise any members experiencing vulnerability or financial hardship
- Admit if we’ve made a mistake and accept our responsibility to fix it, not just for you but for any other members that may be impacted
- Empower our staff to handle complaints with transparency and understanding to achieve fair and timely resolutions
We will always encourage you to provide feedback on our performance, good or bad. That helps keep us accountable for meeting the high standards of customer service that we aspire to. Learn more about our Complaints Management Promise.
We support your community
Throughout our history, Heritage has embraced our responsibility to act in the wider interests of the communities that our members are part of. We accept that serving our members means not just providing them with banking products and services individually, but also supporting the communities they live in, to enhance their overall quality of life.
This means:
- We invest in the economic development of local communities in which we operate
- We invest in the social infrastructure to improve the lives of people within the communities in which we operate
- We develop shared value models that allow local communities to share in our financial success
- We partner with governments and other organisations to support community growth
We protect your privacy
Heritage appreciates the extremely sensitive nature of the data we hold about our members. We promise to place the utmost importance on protecting and maintaining the privacy of your personal information. We fully understand the risks of cyber-security attacks and have multiple layers of protection in place to keep customer data safe. We will not ask you to share your sensitive information with us online, such as account passwords. If you do suspect you have fallen victim to a scam, our 24/7 Contact Centre is here to help any time of the day or night. View our complete Privacy Policy.
We act sustainably, equitably and with integrity
Heritage understands that ensuring the sustainability of our economy, society and environment is one of the greatest challenges our world currently faces. We can’t act in a way that compromises the ability of future generations to meet their needs. We know that to serve the interests of our members, we must embed greater sustainability into our operations, to protect their future and that of subsequent generations.
This means:
- Supporting activities that contribute to greater environmental sustainability
- Avoiding contributing to unacceptable ecological impacts caused by the activities of customers, suppliers and business partners
- Acting to reduce inequality and exclusion for particularly vulnerable members of our communities
- Contributing to increased social equality by assisting people to achieve financial security through the products, services and advice we provide
- Adopting high standards of corporate governance.
What we expect from you
When you join Heritage, you become more than just a customer, you take an ownership stake in a company with strong core values and principles. Being a member of Heritage brings with it expectations that you will act with the same courtesy and care that characterises the mutual banking sector.
We expect all members to:
- Be respectful to our customer-facing staff.
- Provide us with accurate information about your situation
- Be proactive in protecting your sensitive financial information and credentials
- To provide our team with feedback – the good and the bad
- As a member of Heritage, you are a part-owner of the organisation, and you have a vested interest in encouraging mutual respect, cooperation and communication.
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