OHIWEREI: BANKS COLLABORATING WITH FINTECHS TO BOOST CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
you expect will be overhauled in order to make way for new systems and technologies?
Our digital transformation journey is for us a key strategic initiative and as such we are undertaking a holistic and far-reaching overhaul of our current IT infrastructure to drive this effectively. Our goal is to be the “youth friendly and upwardly mobile bank” that is constantly responsive to the needs and demands of the millennials of today. That is the reason we design our digital platforms with them in mind. For example, our mobile banking app has lots of exciting features that appeal to their desires, such as movie-ticket purchase and the ability to use the app even when they run out of internet data. That way they have unrestricted banking access even when on-the-go. Furthermore, Chat Apps are rapidly replacing emails and other media for customer engagement and at Keystone Bank we introduced the Chat Banking (OXYGEN) also targeted at the youths and millennials. In terms of design, we offer a uniform experience to customers across all touch points, leveraging our Omni-Channel platform. We recently launched our Keystone mobile-banking app and overall, feedbacks from customers across all touch-points have been quite impressive both on our VOC (voice of customer) surveys and app store reviews while our current rating on the Google play store is 4.2 on a scale of one to five.
Are you thinking of forming strategic partnerships with the fintech sector? If so, in which area of banking would such collaboration most likely end up taking place?
Partnerships form a major part of our strategic growth imperatives, especially with FinTechs in Nigeria and this has introduced new dynamics that are fast replacing traditional payment structures. These new frameworks ensure transactions and payments are done efficiently and transparently. To date, we have collaborated with FinTechs in different areas ranging from agency banking, online payments, mobile platforms, loyalty schemes to retail loan creation using data analytics. Our focus is to collaborate more with fintech companies in ways that can further boost our propositions and better serve our customers.
How much focus are you placing on growing the bank’s social-media presence? What do you think can be achieved by having a well-planned social-media strategy?
As part of our efforts towards building a digitally-driven bank, we are focused not only on growing our social media presence, but on integrating our digital services into social media in order to make product access and support available to our customers online. We believe that a social media strategy which sits at the heart of business strategy will drive customer engagement and increase uptake of products by customers & non-customers alike.
What aspect of the bank’s digital revolution do you think will be most well-received by your customers?
Mobile Banking naturally comes first as a significant portion of our active customer base are millennials. This Generation X upwardly mobile and digital citizens also constitute a sizeable percentage of the mass and affluent markets. The ability to attract and keep them is hinged on seamless services delivered via mobile platforms. Furthermore, statistics show that there are a lot more mobile phones than there are personal computers across board. It therefore follows that a lot more market share would be captured using mobile platforms.
The bank’s Pink Account is an account for women. What made you believe that such a service was needed?
In its Financial Inclusion Overview updated April 20, 2018, the World Bank noted that “around 2 billion people don’t use formal financial services and more than 50 per cent of adults in the poorest households are unbanked.” In Nigeria, multiple surveys by EFInA Access to Financial Services confirm that about 36.9 million adults are financially excluded, of which 57.9 per cent are female while 42.1 per cent are male. Against this backdrop, the Central Bank of Nigeria has in recent years actively pursued a holistic financial inclusion strategy across the country. On our part, the Pink Account is designed to meet the needs of our female working class and SME customers and provides such benefits as access to attractive loans, customised electronic debit cards and access to discounts from partner stores while the pink network is an online forum that empowers our female entrepreneurs with free mentorship and capacity building sessions. Women from different walks of life can network, share ideas, inspire each other and develop mentor/ mentee relationships, while the Pink Marketplace provides an e-marketplace where they can buy, sell and advertise for free.