SECTOR REPORT 1: business banking
Bye-bye brick-and-mortar models?
Customer-centricity key to business banking in Asia
Is it time to say goodbye to one-size-fits-all services and brick-and-mortar models which lack market flexibility across Asia?
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n today’s world of business banking, one-size-fits-all products and bricks-and-mortar models no longer work. With technology allowing companies to gather comprehensive customer information and market services through different channels, banks all over the world – and especially those in Asia – have constantly been shifting towards customer-focused services to get ahead of the competition and snag a larger market share. Customer-focused Liew Nam Soon, Asia-Pacific and Singapore financial services advisory leader at Ernst & Young, says banks should now think of ways to transition from a product-focused to a customer-focused organization. “Such a transition allows banks to serve customers comprehensively, ideally delivering a full suite of 30 ASIAN BANKING AND FINANCE | DECEMBER 2014
Liew Nam Soon
Jeffrey Tjoeng
products and services that is relevant to the customer,” he says. Jeffrey Tjoeng, national emerging business head at OCBC NISP, says a simple way of understanding what a customer-focused company is to focus on issues that matter to customers. “What keeps them awake at night? What challenges (do) they face in their business/operations? How can we help them win in their space?” he says, enumerating the questions that bank officials should always ask. He adds that among the important questions to ask is what their “pain points” are when dealing with banks. Different people and businesses have different priorities so it is important to learn more about and satisfy the needs and wants of various kinds of customers. Soon adds, however, that “the reality is that banks face challenges in this transition, particularly in the
implementation of processes and systems that can support the change.” He explains that many banks deliver products and services that are not that relevant to the individual customer. “Systems, processes and particularly data also lack the integration that is required to deliver full customercentricity,” Soon adds. Tjoeng says other challenges include the need to balance between initial cost and return of investment, especially if the necessary changes require a higher upfront cost. A clear measuring stick is required to see how long or how fast revenue generation outpaces costs. “Another delicate balance is required to ensure being customer-focused without compromising bank regulations. Internally, alignment with different product or customer groups and functions are required to also ensure that the proper balance between cost and return is achieved,” he adds. Mohit Mehrotra, executive director of Deloitte Consulting, says a way to address such issues is to enhance client-centric infrastructure and create clear success measures for the transition, as well as a client-centric culture, which is “critical to transform the bank from being product-focused