Bank Customers: Insight into the dynamics of satisfaction

Two factors are shaping how banks treat their customers: the reality of competition, and the overwhelming amount of information at the disposal of the customers. 

More than before, banks are aware that ignoring customers’ changing needs and lifestyle, can spell peril. Since, based on the two factors already mentioned, customers freely navigate to banks that meet their needs.

The strategy of engaging customers through multiple channels, including social media, is therefore a reflection of the desire of banks to continuously keep track with their customers.

Indeed, customer satisfaction has taken center stage in bank product design, media campaigns, conflict resolution, etc. Coupled with prudent financial management on the part of banks, the customer-centric strategy is defining leadership among the new generation banks. And older banks have seen the need to catching up too.

Our research on competition and preferences in the industry shows that the way banks tailour its products, branch/ATM locations and hours, online banking, and its complaint resolution strategy matter a great deal.

In two surveys we conducted late last year, respondents (especially those outside Lagos) pointed at increase in the number of ATMs as relevant to helping them access funds more easily. They asked for bank consideration of loans to a broader spectrum of credible classes in society, especially SMEs and called for more respect for customers, no matter how rich or poor.

The surveys throw up a number of complains, suggestions and preferences which seem basic, but are worth considering.

Some respondents called for increased security of online transactions, and the simplification of banking processes to enable less educate Nigerians get a shot at financial inclusion (Microfinance banks have done a lot to address the later suggestion.).

In summary, we found that, customers are interested in more efficient channels that help them access and do business with their deposits, get loans from banks and repay with minimum stress.

But the key takeaway from our enquiries was that, each class in society has its own peculiarities, expectations and needs. Winning across classes will therefore be determined by how well banks understand the needs of the various classes and meet them (And this may be impossible if detailed focus group discussions and researches are not used to gather information).

Amazingly, Ernst and Young’s global survey on retail banking came out with similar observations. “By focusing on the type of customer rather than the number of customers, banks can build a reputation for excellent customer service,” concludes the consulting firm. 

For a country like Nigeria with 56.3 million people who have never been banked and 3 million who were once banked, but left, the challenges are enormous. Lack of proper understanding of bank procedures and illiteracy still affect a considerable portion of the population, therefore, to optimize investment in customer experience, banks should deploy segment-based strategies that address different classes.

 For now, we know that most Nigerians have an average of two accounts (in different banks) and have very high probabilities of switching allegiances should their primary banks falter. 

We also know that their major dislikes include long queues in the banking hall, delay in clearing cheques, ATMs not working, prohibitive charges, unfriendly bank staff, etc.

Most of these issues (which are within the control of banks) can be resolved easily. In the case of “prohibitive charges,” bank representatives can deliberately guide customers through product documents to ensure that they understand every detail of the contract they are entering into. But where technology, which is not within the control of the banks, is to blame, the customer must be made to understand the problem.

  

Are preferences different in other climes?

The desire for efficient personalized services is ubiquitous across climes. While banks in the developed world seem to have understood and integrated personalized services into their operations decades ago, those in developing nations are catching up.

For sure, the developed world is ahead because of the amount of technology at its disposal and the efficiency of that technology. For example, it is possible to take photographs of both sides of a cheque you were given using your phone, send to your bank electronically, and have them pay into your account without even going to the bank! But this service is not available in Nigeria yet.

In the future, better technology, the extent to which banks make it easy for customers to do business faster and at low charges, will determine the competition.

Banks should continually quarry “how customers perceive them.” “What services customers expect from them” and “how well customers perceive that banks deliver on promises.” Banks that deliberately answer these questions accurately will definitely lead the pack.

What do Nigerians look out for in banks?

BusinessDay’s Research and Intelligence Unit deployed a comprehensive survey to determine the pattern of behavior, age structure, expectations and preferences of Nigeria’s banking public. The survey was conducted in the six geopolitical zones of the country.
The pattern of responses captures the traditional distribution of Nigeria’s banking public. Twelve percent of respondents are from the South-South and south-East; Fifty-eight percent from the South-West while the combination of North-East, North-West and North-Central make up 30% of respondents.

According to the National Population Commission, 167 million people live in Nigeria, of this lot 28.6 million adults have bank accounts, according to the 2012 EFInA Access to Financial Services report (39.7% of the adult population remains unbanked).

Clearly, Nigeria has the largest population of people who use banks in sub-Saharan Africa the country may also have the highest number of potential customers and there are potentials for growth.

Our survey brought to the fore the need to strengthen the traditional pillars of banking, as a vast majority of respondents drew attention to financial stability and trust as the basis of their choice of certain banks.

Major factors which turn off customers include long queues (57%), non functioning ATM machines (27%), prohibitive charges (19%), etc (please see chart 1). Recommendations from friends, and accounts opened for salary purposes dominate the choice of banks which customers patronize.

We asked respondents the question: “If you had a billion Naira, which bank would you keep it?.” A number of banks stood out from the pack, we then drilled further by asking why they chose particular institutions, 95% of respondents said they chose the banks because of security. While only 16% said they consider the interest element.

We believe that among other things, the element of stability and financial strength affect the psyche of Nigeria’s banking public, we therefore recommend the emphasis of stability in bank advertising, albeit with proof. We also see prospect for banks which can differentiate themselves by offering competitive deposit rates, both for fixed and saving deposits; though the constraints to banks are clear.

Through the data, we discovered that there is a preponderance of savings accounts in the banking system with fixed deposits representing a far smaller portion of accounts. Ninety percent of respondents have savings accounts while 63% have current accounts. Only 10% of respondents have fixed deposits with banks.

Most respondents who have current accounts also have savings account. Our conclusion is that the probability that a Nigerian who has a current account, also has a savings account could be as high as 0.8.

Preference for savings accounts may not be unconnected with the fact that these days, more savings accounts are assuming Current Account features while Current Accounts continue to maintain “prohibitive” charges (according to respondents). Respondents however stick to particular banks as their main banks.

A cloud view of the open ended question posed to respondents shows that certain words standout, chief among these words are Customer, ATM, Friendliness, long queue an Internet banking. Some of the most pointed comments made by respondents listed below (they are repeated just as they were said):

• Please increase security for online transactions.

• Zenith Bank should focus more on customers’ satisfaction and efficient and quality service delivery, there is still a lot of catching up to do

• Communicate more on why your e-services should be used

• Banks should increase the number of their ATM machines and make available loans to public servants

• keep up the good work

• The recent First Bank upgrade is not working-always, no network. Do something before we change their name to no network bank

• Banks should always respect customers, no matter how rich or poor the customer may be

• General overhaul of the banking system, training for staff, better equipments and facilities, more ATM machines and branches

• better customer services

• give loans to small businesses especially to people like me who do business with little amount

• We need more banks in Numan, Adamawa state

• GTBank should improve more on their ATM, the so called e-transact centers are nothing to write home about. One or two machines will be working out of seven machines. They really need to buckle up on their ATM terminal. It is a good bank however; especially their online banking is superb.

• My main bank being First Bank, should wean itself of civil service mentality as well as the belief that they are doing small depositors like us a favour by keeping our money, since they have the multinationals and big depositors with them.

One thing is clear; Nigeria’s bank customers more than ever are interested in performance, security, service and quality. They demand better services. But most bank customers stick to their banks for period higher than 5 years and above. A comprehensive version of the survey responses is included in our banking report 2013 which is to be published next month.

Winning in Nigeria’s evolving food market

 Inside Africa’s biggest food market

The size of Ni­geria’s popula­tion inevitably saddles it with a huge food bill. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the country’s over 28.9 million households ex­pended circa N15.67 tril­lion on food in 2009/10 alone.

By 2012, Nigeria im­ported food worth N2.3 trillion, though the min­ister of agriculture said the amount spent on food import dropped by N0.91 billion early this year.

The Nigerian Banking Award 2014

On 7th, June 2013, four state governors, top bankers, and other dignitaries gathered together at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos, for the maiden edition of BusinessDay’s Annual Banking Award.

The event was organized primarily to recognize banks and bankers who had lubricated the wheels of commerce in Nigeria through their financial intermediation work in 2012.

Tomorrow, this year’s edition of the same event, BusinessDay’s Annual Banking Award, will be held at the Civic Center, Victoria Island, but from the look of things, the event is set to be bigger than what occurred in 2013.

Unlike last year, where there were just 8 award categories, there are now a few more categories specifically to take cognizance of other financial institutions that also contribute to the growth of the economy.

It was deemed fit to acknowledge the contributions of microfinance banks, mortgage banks and other non-commercial banks that have been at the core of helping to expand Nigeria’s export portfolio. Also in this direction there will be a number of special recognition awards, to acknowledge retired bankers who contributed to deepening the Nigerian banking sector.

For commercial banks, award categories include Bank of the Year, Bank CEO of the Year, Most Innovative Bank Product of the Year, Best bank in Support of Agriculture, Best Bank in Support of SMEs, Best Bank in Support of Manufacturing, Most Customer Friendly Bank, Best Bank in CSR, Bank Deal of the Year, Best Bank in Internet Technology, Best Bank in Retail Banking, Best Bank in Consumer Banking, Best Bank in Personal/Private Banking.

One interesting thing about this year’s awards is that the criterion of selection across the categories is more sophisticated than what was used for the selection process last year. Banks have to beat the records of their counterparts across several complex parameters before being considered for any of the 16 awards.

For instance, to be considered as Bank of the Year, a bank’s Capital Adequacy Ratio, Return on Asset, Liquidity Ratio, Net Profit Margin, Percentage growth in Deposits year on year, Loan/deposit ratio has to be the best in the industry.

Apart from this, it has to be innovative, its financials and analysis on them must have to be released early and made accessible through several mediums, especially on its website. But this is not all, the bank has to have been rated high by a customer survey, set up for the purpose of feeling the pulse of bank customers regarding their experience in terms of customer care.

The Bank CEO of the Year award also has its stringent parameters. The winner will be a bank MD/CEO who steered his bank to achieve very good results in terms of the parameters already mentioned for Bank of the Year, as well as an endorsement of his leadership style and results based on an anonymous survey of staff within his bank.

The Most Innovative Bank Product award goes to that bank which introduced a unique product that made banking easier for customers in 2013. And that product has to be one which may also focus on the unbanked.

There are categories which strictly reward obvious developmental strides and sector finance. In this direction, award categories recognize support of Agriculture, SMEs, CSR and Export finance.

The Best Bank in Support of Agriculture award is aimed at recognizing the commercial bank that disbursed the most funds in support of agriculture and financed the biggest agricultural deal in 2013. The Best bank in Support of SMEs is awarded to the bank whose activities has helped finance the most SMEs and grown small businesses.

In the case of Best Bank in support of Manufacturing, the primary basis of selection is the amount a bank disbursed to the manufacturing sector in 2013. But manufacturers were also instrumental at indicating banks which have assisted them with funding. This method was also adopted in determining the Best Export Trade Financing bank.

Awards are not only based on financials and fund disbursements. Treatment of customers was also considered a major performance indicator for banks. A nationwide survey and focus group discussion was used to determine which bank should be awarded the Most Customer Friendly Bank. The survey pooled together respondents from 11 states including Lagos, Plateau, Rivers, Zamfara, Osun, Kano, Kogi, Ekiti, and Anambra.

In the microfinance category, the Microfinance Bank of the Year was selected based on the level of spread of branches or bank network of the microfinance banks, size of loan portfolio and number of depositors in each of the microfinance banks. These were used to select the best microfinance bank of the year.

Other important award categories like Bank Deal of the Year, Best Bank in IT, Best Bank in Retail Banking, Best Bank in Consumer Banking were selected using criteria which are in tune with global best practice.

As expected, the audious, complex and intellectually demanding selection process was undertaken by a team of economists, financial analyst and survey experts. Therefore, banks are expected to look forward to an interesting an exhilarating event.

Nigeria’s 100 most influential businesses

Two weeks ago, Time Magazine published its list of 100 most influential people in the world. The list, which was first published in 1999, as a result of a debate among American academics, politicians, and journalists, is now an annual event. It is made up of individuals who have distinguished themselves in several fields. It categorises them into Titans, Pioneers, Artists, Leaders, and Icons.

As is the case annually, it is made up of outstanding musicians, religious leaders, writers, artists, computer programmers, business moguls, researchers, athletes, actors, government officials (in some cases dictators); this year, even a terrorist, Abu Du’a, made the list!

But on the positive side, two of our own, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Aliko Dangote, are on it. And Time has made a deliberate effort to highlight the achievement of each of the selected 100. Something unique is written about each of them by other prominent individuals.

And indeed, most of the remarks are apt; underscoring the feats, risks and innovative endeavours each of the selected 100 undertook to improve the lots of humanity.

Such a list is something we at the Research and Intelligence Unit (BRIU) of BusinessDay have pondered over for some time now, albeit, on a different subject.

In our case, we chose to work on THE BUSINESSDAY TOP 100: A list of outstanding businesses in Nigeria.

A major reason we have pondered over this project is because of the elevated plane we place successful businesses as an organisation. We believe that highlighting exceptional companies will engender better performance and quality of service from them.

Also, we are firm believers that the performance of businesses in any country affects the quality of life of the citizenry. That is why we have put in motion mechanisms to undertake the selection. However, our approach is slightly different from Time’s.

Time’s methodology is simple though: Essentially, a list of influential individuals is exclusively chosen by Time editors with nominations coming from the TIME 100 alumni and the magazine’s international writing staff. This list is then subjected to a poll, which willing readers take part in.

The list of winners of the readers’ poll conducted days before the official unveiling is then announced to the general public with a publication. That is the publication Time released two weeks ago.

But we at BRIU thought it wise to make our selection process a little more inclusive and representative of the general population living in Nigeria, putting into consideration the peculiarities of our environment (in fact, that is one of the purposes of this article).

Our methodology involves a number of simple steps, some of which have already been carried out, while others remain in the works.

The first step we took was to decide on parameters that should distinguish between companies that are exceptional and those that are not. We asked ourselves the question, “what makes a company standout?” In response, we highlighted a number of important parameters that would guide our search. The major parameters being:

Commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability

Innovation (a company’s ability to be innovative in pricing, advertising, product quality, packaging, etc).

The internal work environment (how conducive is its work environment for employee. Are people enthusiastic to work for this company?)

Quality of customer service, and response to customer complaints; and a company’s ability to provide exceptional products/services (whether in banking, children products, etc)

We then designed a questionnaire to address these parameters and plan to administer it across 12 major cities, in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria, in the next two weeks.

Herein lies the major difference between ours and Time’s. While the multinational magazine has adopted an online mechanism for ‘sampling and validation,’ we will visit the nooks and crannies of 12 Nigerian cities as well as use an online platform for our data collection process.

Particularly, Time’s selection process is heavily dependent on an internet survey, and that is understandable given that a large chunk of its readers live in countries where internet penetration is high. We have borrowed a leaf from this, and have gone few steps further.

But we reckon that a simple random sample could skew responses in a particular direction, we therefore decided on a stratified random sampling technique, which we deem to be more inclusive of social classes in Nigeria.

The physical questionnaires will be administered according to quota: Students (10%), Doctors (5%), Media Personnel (19%), Graduates/job seekers (20%), Bankers (5%), Civil Servants (15%), Traders/market men and women (20%), etc. This, we believe, will engender more genuine coverage. Our ambition is to reduce the element of bias to the barest minimum.

We know that there are areas a questionnaire designed for the general public cannot address (e.g. the internal workings of a company in terms of how it treats its employees and how the employees feel about the company). In this direction, we adopt the research findings of an institution that has as its primary focus that type of research.

To determine a list of the best places to work in Nigeria last year, our collaborating consulting firm surveyed over 10,482 respondents (experienced, entry level and executive management staff of different companies).

Workplace metrics that mattered to those respondents in making their choices include Company Culture, Salary, Non-Salary Benefits, Proximity to Company Location, Prestige/Company Brand, Management Integrity, and commitment to staff welfare.

At the end of our survey, we intend to assign scores to our list and that of our partner and come up with objective scores upon which we can judge. The outcome will be a list we believe would be acceptable to the generality of Nigerians and the business community.

We have made the selection process open to everyone. There is an opportunity for everyone to lend their voice to this process, and you are not an exception. The questionnaire will be just a click away soon as we will upload it to a website and make its address available to you soon.