Clients Customer experience at a bank

After several months of literally  being tracked down by a sales representative or sales executive as they prefer to be called my group decided to open an account at one of the banks, being satisfied that that the features looked good and would serve the interest of the group.

Six months down the line the group held elections as some of the office bearers were moving out of town and it would be prudent to replace them to allow smooth running of the group. There was therefore need to change the account signatories and one of the office bearers was mandated to get all the requirements needed from the bank. This was in readiness for when the other office bearers would be available for this process.

After ensuring all the requirements previously obtained from the bank were in place the office bearers walked confidently to the banks sure that the process would take the shortest time possible. When they got to the customer service desk after patiently waiting on the queue  a blank looking officer informed them that those are not the requirements and went ahead to produce a totally different list of requirements.

Protesting, they explained that they got the previous requirements from that desk and even their request to see the manager was declined. As at this moment the group has not been able to change the signatories and this has greatly hampered the operations of the group.

Reasons for poor customer experience

• Once one opens an account then they become a statistics to the bank, the customer no longer has a face or a name. The bank can proudly say they have reached the one million mark in number of accounts maintained. Customer experience is no longer necessary when the numbers are being achieved.
• Lack of staff training on all areas of banking. Training of staff members on the procedures of the bank is no longer a priority to the banks. It seems like provided you can communicate, press keys on the computer key board and sit on a desk that’s it. One will catch up on procedures as they sit there. This reduces the customers experience since the customer is not assisted.
• Quality of service is not in the interest of banks. It is the number of transactions that matter, profits have become more important.
• Banks are aware that the justice system is slow and a customer needs to have huge resources to file for damages. The banks will not bother to keep their promises. An ordinary account holder is unable to sue the bank due the costs.

Ways for the banks to improve customer experience

• Training is a must. The staffs must be trained in all aspects of serving the customers not just in selling.
• The bank must have standard operational procedures which are known and available to all staff. This will lead to consistency on all operations and forms that customers have to complete. This enhances customer experience.

Customers are the reason why banks operate. The banks must therefore make it a point to improve on their customer experience offering.

 Definition of Cross selling by Banks

cross selling by Banks

Cross selling by banks is defined as offering the existing customers additional banking products. For example, a deposit customer who is already operating a savings account can be offered a term deposit account or a fixed deposit account or call deposit account. Another customer can be offered  mortgage finance, credit card and personal loan.

cross selling by banks can also be said to be the art of customer retention by ensuring customers are provided with as many products to meet their needs.

Process for effective cross selling by banks exercise,

• Analysis using existing customers database should be done for each customer, identify their specific need and match with a product that can be offered to the customer as a cross selling product.
• After identifying the product,  the banks should come up with a strategy on how to disseminate information about the product to the customer. The strategy may suggest each customer be assigned a particular staff for smooth management of the relationship.
• The staff members charged with this responsibility should be knowledgeable and well trained in cross selling to be able to market all or majority of the banks products to the customer.
• There should be continuous periodic review of the customer needs and the database to identify the needs of new customers.

This exercise has proved to be very beneficial with more banks adopting the approach, major banks have expanded their banking business.

 Benefits of Cross selling by Banks:

1. There is increased profit as the bank is able to greatly expand their banking business by offering more products to existing customers. There is tremendous growth in business.
2. There is reduced cost as it has been proven that the cost of acquiring a new customer is four times higher than serving the existing customer, with reduced cost the profits will also increase.
3. There is ensured loyalty of the customer to the banks and therefore there is little or no likelihood that the customer would shift their business dealings to another bank. This is also known as ‘ring fencing’.
4. The bank would have a competitive edge over the other banks, because in the process of analyzing the needs of the existing customer they would come up with innovative products which are not being offered in he market.
5. Cross selling by banks can also greatly build team spirit among the staff members of the bank, creating loyalty and reducing staff turnover as they are well trained and feel part of the team that brings in the business and not just ‘robots’.

Cross selling by banks is an art if well mastered by the bank will have a great long term effect on the business growth and put the banks on the cutting edge of innovation. Training in cross selling by banks is a must to grow and compete in the industry.