CIMB Thai to be the first bank to open branch in convenience store
KUCHING: CIMB Thai Bank announced that the recvent opening of a new branch Sitabutr Mini Branch which is located in a 7- Eleven store, marking the first-ever Thai commercial bank branch located inside a convenience store.
CIMB Thai Sitabutr Mini Branch is established inside 7Eleven Sitabutr 2, which is a newly opened store in an innovative design and broad space with available parking lot.
This bank branch provides account opening, deposit, SpeedSend, foreign currency exchange, personal loan and debit and credit card services.
Th e D i g i t a l Solution Engagement or DSE innovation is also introduced here, with quick credit approval requiring only presentation of national ID card.
“We do well in exploring and introducing new channels to provide more customer convenience. We have rented a space in a 7-Eleven store, the most popular convenience store chain in Thailand, in order to better reach out to retail customers.
“We have selected 7- Eleven Sitabutr 2 as a pilot branch from which we will be able to get customer feedback before further branch expansion decision,” said Adisorn Sermchaiwong, senior executive vice president, CIMB Thai’s Consumer Banking Group.
CIMB Thai Head of Consumer Banking Group said that the Bank’s customer service strategy is to find ways to allow for customers’ quick, easy and convenient access to financial services.
Although the Bank has earlier redefined its strategy on servicing channels and network and started to go digital, there are some transactions which cannot be done on mobile phones.
Under certain circumstances and rules coupled with customer familiarity to traditional banking platforms, we cannot go fully digital and have to carry on in parallel with exploring new convenient ways to better serve our customers.
At the same time, CIMB Thai has had its full-fledged branches transformed into a Wealth Center rendering advisory services on saving and investment to meet diverse demands of wealth customers.
The service operation would then be redesigned to focus on availability of service spaces, private consulting rooms and investment experts.
Adisorn added that after changing the branch network strategy, despite the decreasing number of branches, we have recorded increase in business volume, with number of customers using services in general doubling from 20,000 to almost 50,000 (high net-worth customers), unchanged deposit portfolio and increase in investments by customers.
This has reflected our success in strategy shifting to be more location-based that has drawn more responses from our customers.
Overall, all branches in operation today are in areas of high business potential which, coupled with our elevated service standard, have built positive customer satisfaction for the past few years.
“I see that CIMB Thai’s opening of a branch in a convenience store is a financial service innovation for our customers. We are no longer ‘one bank for all’ as in the past where customers of all segments, both large and small, walked into the same branch and used the same counter for services.
“Today, we give services by segment to respond to their diversified needs. We no longer stick to having service areas of our own,” added Adisorn.