"Reflecting Customer Feedback"... Financial Companies Embrace Customer-Centric Management Trend

Customer Complaints and Feedback Become Financial Firms' 'Management Trend'
'Companies with Excellent Customer Experience Have Higher Sales' Study
"Superior Customer Experience Determines Market Position and Competitiveness in Finance"

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-seop] "I wish the account I use most often would be placed at the top. It's also inconvenient that the mandatory and optional terms are mixed together."

"We have implemented customization that allows customers to freely set their preferred accounts. The terms and conditions are also separated into mandatory and optional items so that customers can agree to them all at once."

Competition among domestic financial companies for ‘customer-centric management’ is intensifying. Unlike in the past when customer opinions were dismissed as complaints or grievances, it is becoming more common for them to be immediately reported to management and handled by operational departments. With advice emerging that excellent customer experience is directly linked to higher sales, the management trend of financial companies appears to be shifting to focus on customers.

According to the industry on the 25th, OK Savings Bank recently collected opinions on various services and overall financial consumer protection through a ‘customer panel’ system. The customer panel system was established in 2017 to discover financial consumers’ needs and reflect them in management activities. This year, a record 110 members were selected, ranging in age from their teens to their 60s.

The submitted ideas were reviewed for feasibility by management and operational departments and quickly applied. In the case of the mobile application (app) process, feedback was received that customers felt inconvenienced when the product description loading was delayed or ID recognition failed. In response, guidance messages and solution provision functions were strengthened to prevent dropouts. Regarding the complaint that mandatory and optional items were mixed during the terms agreement process, the terms were separated and changed so that customers could select them all at once.

Many customers who used other companies’ open banking services also provided feedback. Through this, features such as a ‘customizing’ function that places the desired account at the top and a system that automatically retrieves the account number after selecting the registered bank for open banking were implemented. The layout was also reorganized so that open banking accounts (demand deposits, savings, installment savings, securities, funds, etc.) can be viewed at a glance.

Intense Competition in Financial Industry... Must Excel in Customer Experience to Survive

KB Kookmin Bank conducted a ‘customer experience mobile survey’ targeting customers visiting branches earlier this year. It was conducted by collecting opinions on overall transactions from customers. Feedback on customer opinions arising throughout the entire customer experience?from the time customers visited the branch, waiting time inside the lobby, consultation process with staff, to the time of leaving?was provided to the branches and improvements were made.

Since last year, KB Kookmin Bank has been reviewing changes to the existing customer satisfaction survey methods, including the survey process and content. It has also built a detailed survey and analysis process suitable for the mobile environment through customer opinion analysis and pilot surveys. A KB Kookmin Bank official explained, "We plan to continuously improve the customer experience mobile survey."

Shinhan Bank, the first domestic financial company to introduce ‘customer satisfaction management,’ introduced a new performance evaluation system called the ‘Grow Together Evaluation System’ last year. The system is designed to evaluate branches from the customer’s perspective. To assess whether the product sales process is appropriate from the customer’s viewpoint, financial consumer protection officers were deployed to regional headquarters.

The banking sector is focusing on customer management because customer experience is linked to profits. According to a report published last month by Samjong KPMG Economic Research Institute, among 1,400 companies worldwide, the top 50 companies with excellent customer experience had about 54% higher sales than the bottom 50. The difference in pre-tax operating profit reached up to 202%.

The report stated, "New financial services will be launched, and customer touchpoints will expand and become more complex," adding, "This will further promote and intensify competition to maintain customer touchpoints within the financial industry." It also analyzed, "Traditional financial companies will face fierce competition with new types of competitors, and whether they provide excellent customer experience will determine their market position and competitiveness."