July - September 2016 •
The Lion King
• 45
#SUMMERCRUSH |
LIFESTYLE
THE DRIVE FOR INCREASED CUSTOMER SATISFACTION |
A UR
THE DRIVE FOR
INCREASED CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION
BY BABS OLUGBEMI
C
onsumers of financial services
and products are demanding
more engagement than ever,
going by the recent customer service
survey and rating of banks by the
KPMG. The KPMG customer satisfac-
tion survey represents the level and
quality of engagements of the banks
with their customers.
The level and quality of engagement
is the common denominator given the
homogeneous nature of the products
in the banking industry. What set banks
apart are often not the products but
the process and the services involved
in meeting the customers’ needs.
As identified in the report, the three
top reasons a customer will maintain
a bank account are; stability of the
financial institution, image and reputa-
tion, and the quality of service.
While United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA),
Africa’s global bank, can easily pass
the image and financial stability test,
the bank continues to improve on the
existing customer’s experience and
quality of service. This is why the bank
recently introduced the customer-first
initiative, which has resulted in mile-
stone changes in the bank’s processes
and procedures. With the customer-
first initiative, UBA is renewing its focus
on customer engagement.
LEVELS OF ENGAGEMENT:
The External Engagement
As part of the customer-first initia-
tive, UBA recently sent messages to
all customers introducing to them
their personal relationship managers
to help their day to day interaction
with the bank. Since then, customers
have been calling to make enquiries,
improving the personal engagement
between the bank and the customer.
It has also provided an opportunity to
engage and cross sell the bank’s prod-
ucts as most customers making the
call are retail customers. Customer’s
knowledge of their relationship officers
has improved rapport with relationship
officers, making it easier to resolve
issues, and increased the bank’s wal-
let share of their businesses.
The Internal Engagement
Also the quality of engagement in
the process and service value chain
is a key determinant of the level and
quality of the customers’ experience.
The bank will continue to improve on
the relationship between sales and
operations for effective service deliv-
ery. Operation teams will think and act
like the customers in their approach to
work to support sales.
One key aspect of internal engage-
ment is the communication with inter-
nal customers which will always reflect
in all external engagements. In her
book “Getting Everyone on the Same
Page: Driving the Right Ideas Through
the Corporate Maze,” Ross Lovelock
identified the communication culture
of an organization as an important
factor in driving corporate ideas and
change.
Riding on this platform, UBA is cer-
tainly improving the customer satisfac-
tion rating effectively. The change
required to achieve a superior rating
has been created by the Customer-
First initiative. It is one bank with one
objective - to be the leading custom-
er-focused bank.
