TSB uses Adobe Acrobat Sign for the good of the customer and the planet

TSB has a history rooted in social good; while it strives to create economic value, it is equally concerned with having a positive social and environmental impact. To spearhead this commitment, the bank launched its Do What Matters plan in July 2020, a three-year programme with the goal of affecting positive change across five key pillars: Customers; Businesses; Colleagues; Communities; and the Environment. Examples of its investment include plans to hit net-zero operational carbon emissions by 2030 and the launch of the TSB Charity Partnership programme which supports 68 not-for-profit organisations across Britain.

The bank had already made digital channels and self-service capabilities a priority, but when the pandemic hit in early 2020, TSB doubled down on its digital-first strategy with the objective of ensuring its services were available 24/7 and as frictionless as possible. As part of its drive to reinforce personal service in uncertain times, TSB incorporated Adobe Acrobat Sign into its workflow, quickly transforming offline forms, such as those used for address changes, bereavement, overdraft enquiries, and more, into digital formats. This was followed by the launch of the real-time customer chat function TSB Smart Agent, connecting customers to essential self-service forms with e-signature functionality.

Within just three months of enabling Acrobat Sign, TSB had digitally processed 140,000 forms, saving 15,000 branch visits, significantly reducing call centre volumes and boosting customer satisfaction scores. In that short space of time, it managed to increase digital self-service by 9% and even launched a much-needed government loan programme in just 36 hours.

Environmental benefits

However, the benefits of introducing Acrobat Sign were not limited to one Do What Matters pillar; they also had a welcome impact on TSB’s sustainability goals. Under its Environmental pillar, TSB has committed to reducing paper consumption by 25% by the end of 2022. The use of Acrobat Sign enabled the saving of 7,000 pages per day, or over 3 million pages since its introduction in early 2020. Adobe’s Resource Saver Calculator shows that to be the equivalent of 217 trees a year or over 700,000 litres of water.

As Suresh Viswanathan, TSB chief operating officer and executive sponsor for environmental impact, explained, “We know that reducing the impact on the environment is important to TSB customers and colleagues, and there’s real enthusiasm in our business to share what we’re doing. It’s right that we start by getting our own house in order, measuring our impacts and targeting the right actions. I’m excited to be working with leading partners to create a joint plan to hit a scientifically backed net-zero goal.”

The effect of these gains was not limited to their own output, but also on their Scope 3 savings, whereby TSB aims to reduce the environmental impact of their value chain through actions such as reducing carbon emissions from transport and water waste.

Technology that drives change

TSB is a timely example of how businesses can examine their own processes and make digital-first choices that improve not only customer servicing and satisfaction rates, but support their sustainability goals. Adobe is committed to helping organisations put their customers at the centre of the journey, and safeguarding the future of our planet, even in the face of adversity. Small changes can lead to worthwhile benefits: as you can see detailed on the Adobe Sustainability Hub, simply using Acrobat Sign for electronic signatures will have 95% less environmental impact than a paper workflow.

To find out more about how Adobe can help your business achieve its environmental goals, please visit our Sustainability Hub, and join us in enabling a greener future.