GROWTH GURU
Thakorn Piyapan trusts in his mantra to build up the unsecured lender.
Thakorn Piyapan’s mantra of communication, empowerment and technology reaps gains.
'Communication, empowerment and technology” are the three words that Thakorn Piyapan uses to sum up how he steers Krungsri Consumer, an unsecured lending arm of Bank of Ayudhya (BAY), which has become the country’s largest credit card issuer and personal lender by users under his six-year reign.
Since Mr Thakorn, 46, took the helm in 2012, Krungsri Consumer has doubled customer numbers to 5.8 million with 8 million accounts, of whom 2.5 million are personal loan borrowers and the rest are credit card holders.
“I’ve focused quite a lot on building internal communication, starting from finding out what are the media channels for reaching staff and how to fine-tune content to match the recipients,” he says.
To ensure that internal communication isn’t boring and to enable employee feedback, Mr Thakorn initiated activities that let workers directly get in touch with him on Fridays.
“All problems start from communication,” he says, noting that he’s extended the communication lines to other executives by holding an activity called “first-hand day”, which lets executives perform operating-level jobs such as debt collection, complaint handling and sales to give them experience and gain insight into problems.
Under the first-hand scheme, Mr Thakorn once spent time in the loan application approval unit. “Earlier, I’d asked staff in the unit why their capacity in the working process was low,” he says. “When I did it, I managed to approve only six applications a day. If we don’t let executives work at the operating level, they won’t spot problems.”
The experience revealed that tweaks to the computer system could improve the process.
Apart from allowing high-ranking executives to work at the operating level, Krungsri Consumer now enables staff to work cross-functionally via the first-hand scheme to teach them how other units work.
If front-line employees have the authority to make decisions to some extent and satisfy customers, the working speed of the entire organisation will be faster, Mr Thakorn says.
“For example, in the case that a call centre employee has no mandate to solve the problems of customers who make a call, he or she must pass the issues to other units and wait for answers,” he says. “With the back-and-forth working process, those customers could cancel our credit cards before calling back.”
Krungsri Consumer empowers call centre staff to make basic decisions such as points redemption, vouchers and annual fee waivers to immediately clear such regular tasks, reduce workload of related units and impress customers.
The company gathers statistics of complaints and compliments, and the two are now nearly in balance.
“In the past, we never thought before that a compliment is moral support,” Mr Thakorn says. “When customers gave compliments, no one had recognised low-level employees, but now I write thank-you cards myself to everyone who receives a compliment from a customer, as I believe it is a good moral support to motivate them.”
The call centre practice has a ripple effect on other units, including debt collection and telesales, with employees adjusting their working attitudes to better serve customers. The company’s debt collectors, for instance, now help customers whose bills are past due to restructure debt, rather than just tracking them down to repay the debt owed.
“I won’t say that it’s already perfect, but I think the effort and time spent are starting to pay off,” Mr Thakorn says. “Competition no longer centres on cash back and trolley bags, but service will make us different from rival peers.”
Technology, another key pillar of the mantra, will enable the company to understand customer needs and offer what they want most, he says.
At the moment, Krungsri Consumer uses automated technology to field frequently asked questions such as inquiries for balance, available credit and due date to alleviate the workload at the call centre, freeing up time to take care of customers with more pressing needs.
The company is using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse marketing data and provide personalised offers to target customers.
Mr Thakorn started his career at GE Capital Thailand in 1998 in the position of “black belt six sigma”, charged with carrying out process improvement projects.
“I’d applied for this position, though I had no idea about its job description,” he says. “I imagined only that I would look cool when I gave my business card to friends.”
The tasks involved acquainted him thoroughly with the company’s working process.
One year into working at GE Capital, Mr Thakorn took part in GE’s two-year global leadership development programme in the US and was later promoted to vice-president, head of the usage and loyalty department, at Krungsri GE Credit Card, where he took charge of overhauling the bank’s credit card system.
Credit cards in Thailand at that time were issued for use in particular places such as Central Department Store, but GE had adopted the standards of Visa and Mastercard.
Krungsri GE Credit Card, later renamed Krungsri Consumer, was a joint venture of GE Capital and BAY.
Mr Thakorn was named senior vice-president in charge of sales and marketing for central card and central personal loans at GE Money Thailand in 2004, before joining BAY as head of mortgage lending in 2007.
He worked at BAY for five years before becoming managing director at Krungsri Consumer.
Mr Thakorn is now chairman of Krungsri Consumer and head of digital banking and innovation at BAY.
“In the past, I always asked my bosses to let me do new things, or change roles and responsibilities,” he says. “I’m confident that if we are competent and experienced, promotion and salary will fall into place and we won’t need frequent job-hopping for career advancement. A promotion depends on how much we can learn, and I also began at the entry level.”
Throughout his career, Mr Thakorn has had the opportunity to work in three different cultures: American, at GE Capital; Thai, at BAY; and Japanese, through the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, which owns a 76.88% stake in BAY.
“My character fits well with the US style, as I like to initiate ideas, while BAY’s culture is very different,” he says, “But the bank’s customer care is what I admire, and it’s a dimension that foreign institutions still lack. Japanese style stresses details in every issue, and they would like to ensure that we think through everything thoroughly.
“Every change has a hidden positive side, but it depends as to whether we can find it out and exploit it.”
My character fits well with the US style, as I like to initiate ideas. THAKORN PIYAPAN CHAIRMAN, KRUNGSRI CONSUMER