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Bank services still lagging, customers say

By Tuo Yannan (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-05 13:59

Weaker loyalty

However, Chinese banks have not performed particularly well across the board over the last three years.

About 23 percent of respondents said they had an "intense" urge to switch to another bank. In 2007, 50 percent of the respondents said they would continue to use the bank they had accounts with, while 27 percent said they had moved their businesses to other banks already.

Customer loyalty to the ICBC is not strong, the survey indicated. In 2005, 52 percent of the respondents chose ICBC as their main bank, but in 2007 the figure decreased to 45 percent.

Former ICBC customers turned to other banks such as CCB, Agricultural Bank of China and China Merchants Bank, the survey said.

"I was using ICBC during my college period. When I started work, I often went to the bank for various services, then I found there was always a long line. I had to spend at least 20 minutes waiting. So I turned my main account to the Bank of Communications. Although it has less branches compared to ICBC in Beijing, the lines are short and I can save some time," said Eric Zeng, who works at an IT company in Beijing.

So what is the long-term winning strategy to establish and maintain bank customers' loyalty? The answer lies in meeting the demands of customers actively and building emotional relationships with them, the survey indicated.

It suggested that, firstly, a bank should add value to their products and services. In the last two decades, despite fast growth and the large size of China's banking industry, banking products and services have lagged behind those in developed nations.

But along with economic development and globalization as well as an increase in individual income, Chinese customers are becoming more and more sophisticated. They are going to banks not only for savings and withdrawing money but also for diversified investment and financial products and services. In other words, more flexible and alternative products and standard services should be provided.

"At first I used ICBC's credit card, but now I have turned to CCB, because CCB VIP credit card supplies more services to the customer," said Chinn Zhi, a 45-year-old overseas Chinese. "It is convenient for me to send money to my daughter in the United States."

Secondly, a bank should build its brand and provide services beyond customers' expectations. Larry Crosby, chief loyalty architect for Synovate Loyalty, advised banks to actively design new products and improve services and study customers' demands.

"Banks should give customers the feeling that 'what I think about, they have already done for me, and what I haven't thought of, they have considered for me,'" said Crosby.

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