The Outstanding Retail Bank

Basker Rangachari, Chief marketing officer, Hong Kong and North East Asia, Consumer Banking, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited says that the bank’s senior leadership team and all its staff are transforming banking services to deliver what it takes to win customers’ trust.

According to Rangachari, The 2008-2009 financial crisis has redefined banking forever. Banks once perceived as too big to fail collapsed and sparked off a domino effect that dealt a heavy blow across the global financial system. Few banks that adopted a prudent approach to manage their businesses and focused on the basics of banking, liquidity, capital and customer services not only survived, but thrived.” 

“As a result of the crisis, customer expectation and willingness to trust have changed. Customers who were once drawn to high-risk, high-reward, short term opportunities now seek long-term safety and security, whilst desiring to optimize yield on their investments. Customers now want a bank that can be their trustworthy partner and advisor, and not just a bank chasing after the latest fads and trends.”

In a recent review of ratings across the banking sector, Standard & Poor’s (S&P), the global ratings agency, upgraded the credit rating of Standard Chartered Bank to “AA minus” on 1 Dec 2011.

“This upgrade sets us apart from the crowd,” Rangachari said. “Under the new methodology by S&P, we are one of the few international banks to have been upgraded by S&P. In fact, several large international banks were downgraded or remained unchanged, including many of our peers. This also makes us the only major international bank to have been upgraded by all three global ratings agencies – S&P, Fitch and Moody’s – since the beginning of the financial crisis. This endorsement by the rating agencies helps our customers feel much more comfortable with our business management capability, and builds trust in our consumer banking franchise”, he said.

Building trust has to go well beyond a new slogan or a slick marketing campaign, according to Rangachari. Winning a customer’s heart requires a sensible brand promise supported by solid execution and a true commitment to customer centricity. “At Standard Chartered Hong Kong, we stayed open for business through the best and worst times in the last 150 years, showing customers that we are a reliable partner through thick and thin. We reinforced this principle with our ‘Here for good’ brand promise, which reflects the bank’s core DNA.”

Word-of-mouth unprompted referral in spontaneous situations is the genuine testament of how great the products and services of an organization truly meet the needs of customers. To achieve this, the bank launched a ‘Customer Charter’ anchoring on three pillars: Service, Solutions and Relationships. To make it come alive, several strategic initiatives were completed, including:

• hands-on training for all employees to understand what it takes to deliver the brand promise in their respective roles; • transformation of internal processes to deliver friendly, fast and accurate service; • enhancing performance metrics to incorporate a customer point of view; • transforming solo products into needs-based financial solutions, for example a home bundle versus a mortgage.

Rangachari said, “To ensure our customers know the seriousness of our commitment to provide worldclass service, we rolled out several first-in-market service guarantees. These include our guarantees on 8-minute teller service, 5-minute personal loan approval, 1-day mortgage service and, 48-hour business loans. These initiatives are testaments of our commitment to our brand promise ‘Here for good’.

“We have also invested significant sums in Hong Kong to retrofit all our branches to meet customer expectations,” Rangachari says. “We recently opened a flagship branch in a prime location in Central, offering a new banking experience that aims to please all five senses of a customer. We continue to reiterate our community commitment through iconic programs such as Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, our ‘Seeing is Believing’ eyesight restoration program,‘Arts in the Park’ and other communityfocused events.”

Rangachari believes that “to build trust with the consumer of the future, the banking industry has to transform yet again.” People in general are leading an increasingly hectic life, leading to less personal time in this multi-tasking world. As such, a bank’s marketing and business strategy should be designed to bring 24x7 transaction convenience to customers. The bank has to go to the customer, not the other way around. Rangachari said, “We tasted early success when we launched world-class online banking and mobile banking apps that make ‘Banking a Breeze.’ The Breeze family of Apps we launched for the iPhone became the # 1 downloaded App on the Apple Store within a few weeks of launch. This shows that a well-designed solution that meets a customer need, can deliver instant success.”

Does this spell the end of brick-and-mortar banking? Rangachari thinks not. Despite growing popularity of non-face-to-face channels, many important financial decisions cannot be made through remote interactions. Direct conversation with a financial professional is vital in designing one’s financial future. “With this in mind, we design our strategies so that our mortgage masters, loan ambassadors, and relationship managers can meet customers anytime, anywhere to discuss their needs,” Rangachari says. Each banking professional business is supported by experts around the world, who can provide tailor-made solutions that meet customers’ needs - regardless how simple or complex it may be.

In short, the banking industry has changed, and will continue to do so in response to ever changing customer needs. But what will forever remain is our commitment to the markets we operate in, and how Standard Chartered as a bank will always be here for customers. 

FAST FACTS
• SCBHK has played a key role in establishing Hong Kong as a global financial centre.

• Listed in Hong Kong since 2002, Standard Chartered is headquartered in London.

• SCB’s history in Hong Kong dates back to 1859. In 1862, Standard Chartered started to issue banknotes in Hong Kong and has become the oldest note-issuing bank in Hong Kong.