‘’The World is full of ironic never-weres

                          True insight is where greatness begins.’’

The Best Bank In Nigeria

By Charles Ikem 

What if we tried awarding the best bank in Nigeria? for one, i don’t think such an award is deserving of any bank defunct or functional. If you recently visited a GT Bank branch in Lagos area or elsewhere, what was your experience like? Mine was hell. I spent 10 minutes looking for the customer service section where i can make a complain about reactivating my account and ordering a new debit card that I have left dormant. Inside the branch on the Lagos mainland was chaos. I have been visiting that branch for years but never realised it has grown this worse. From the entrance a long queue from the depositing area stretched all the way to the entrance. i don’t complain about queues but the place was disorderly.

Moving upstairs to the CS area, I could see another counter and two different waiting areas. First staff you come in touch with would be on the GT assurance corner starring at you. You look around and wouldn’t know where exactly to go. Then you stand in front of the officer thinking that would be the first person to talk to. Then you stand in front of the staff, thinking it should be right place to start.  She stares at you and says, how can I help you? You tell her what you are here for and then she say CS is over there. And then you end up standing on the wrong queue and wasting time you may not have.

The problem here is boiled to services that lacks strategy, plot and organisations that don’t envision the future of their services. The failings of modern day CS managers that have not woken up to the realisation that services are becoming complex now than ever. Too many platforms, physical, online and yet most CS training does not reflect the changing dynamics of the service ecosystem. The old movement is that customer service objective is customer satisfaction. Now, the new paradigm is all about delivering ‘experience’.

Start by asking the right questions? How do we deliver experience across all customer touch points; Teller>Queue>Online>Mobile>ATM. How do we maintain quality of service, how do we ensure customers don’t waste their time standing on the wrong queue inside our own banks? Technology has come to help us deliver superior experience. But how are we aligning these technologies. Online banking, internet banking, social banking, mobile wallet, ATM networks. Has this created a seamless stress-free banking or complicated the woes for customers and employees.

Banking should seek solutions from the design world. Design is no longer a profession for the roll-up your sleeves guys. It is about solving wicked problems and ways to understanding better those customers whom your services are targeted at. I believe service design has a lot to offer banks and banking in Nigeria. Umpqua bank in the USA is a bank that is revolutionising banking at community level. Umpqua CEO was looking for a way to reinventing the banking experience. After a brand analysis with a design agency (Ziba design) they re-connected the brand with insights from customers to deliver a unique retail-form banking experience. With personalisation and insertions of global trends such as the slow movement and localism. It resulted in $50 million new deposits in just 9 months of launch.

Credit : Ziba design (Umpqua bank case study)

 

''Design is not the narrow application of formal-  
              skills;it is a way of thinking.''
                                                                      - Chris Pullman

Bankers should move away from their desks. They should observe and empathise with their customers like designers do, understanding the journey of customers is key to creating a future service that is capable of delivering unique experiences for them. Observe what your customers are doing, where are they getting lost? Which channels are they using most? Branch banking, mobile, internet and why? And how might we reduce the load on our customer service officers without compromising quality. The understanding and framing of the problem is where the greatness begins. Seek and ye shall find….                   

Charles Ikem is the Design Director @ HOUSE OF LOGIC.A Design & Innovation Consultancy Based in Lagos, Nigeria. He leads a team of abnormal youths and zombie slayers using design to solve problems from; Telecoms to security, healthcare, financial services and business strategy.

Twitter:@apache22