Why Nigerian Banks need Service Thinking....

‘’Making the simple complicated is commonplace. Making

the complicated simple..,that’s creativity.’’

Service Thinking: Conversation With A Bank Manager

By:Charles Ikem

Bank Manager: ‘’Welcome Sir. Why are you here today and how might we help you’’.

Idealist: ‘’I have come to ask you to lend small money to some villagers’’.

Bm: ‘’HAhaha (laughing out loud)!, I can’t do that’’.

Idealist: ‘’Why not?’’.

Bm: ‘’ermm, the small amounts these villagers need to borrow will not even cover the cost of all the loan documents they would have to fill. The bank is not going to waste its time on such pittance’’.

Idealist:  ‘’Why not? To the poor, this money is crucial for survival’’.

Bm: ‘’These people are illiterates, they cannot fill-out our loan forms’’.

Idealist:  ‘’Why must it be so?’’

Bm: ‘’Well, every single bank in the country has that rule’’.

Idealist: ‘’Why?’’

Bm: ‘’What do you mean why?’’

Idealist: ‘’Why can’t a bank just take money and issue a receipt saying, ’’received such and such amount of money from such and such a person? ,’’why can’t the banker do it? Why must depositors do it?’’.

Bm: ‘’Well, how would you run a bank without people reading and writing?’’.

Idealist: ‘’I don’t know.., there must be a simple way. It seems your banking system is designed to be anti-illiterate’’.

Bm: ’’Sir, banking is not as simple as you think’’.

Idealist: ‘’maybe so, but am also sure that banking is not as complicated as you make it out to be’’.

Bm: ‘’look,’ the simple truth is that a borrower at any other bank in any place in the world would have to fill forms’’.

Idealist: ‘’Okay, so after filling the forms, how will they get the loans’’.

Bm: ‘’Then they will get us collateral before any loan will be approved’’.

Idealist: ‘’Why do you need collateral as long as you get the money back?’’. ‘’that is what you really want isn’t it?’’.

Bm: ‘’Yes, ‘’we want our money back,’’ but at the same time, we need the collateral. That is our guarantee’’.

Idealist: ‘’These poor people have every reason to pay you back just to take another loan and live another day. That is the best security you can have- their life’’.

Bm: ‘’you’re an idealist. You live with books and theories’’.

Idealist: ‘’But if you’re certain the money will be repaid why do you need collateral?’’.

Bm: ‘’That is our bank rule’’.

Idealist: ‘’So only those who have collateral can borrow?’’.

Bm: ‘’yes’’.

Idealist: ‘’ It is a silly rule. It means only the rich can borrow?’’.

Bm: ‘’I don’t make the rules, the bank does’’.

Idealist: ‘’ Well, I think the rules should be changed’’.

 (Coversation Credited to Muhammad Yunus from his book 'Banker to the Poor')

Our banks are making life difficult for a lot of people in many ways. From zero access to loans, to technology we can’t use or understand to rules made by our forefathers. Our bankers need to reinvent themselves and banking should evolve into the future. This would mean letting go of assumptions and start thinking in a whole new direction. Putting the needs of customers first and while making use of the available technology to accomplish the goals.

 Credit:IDEO/BBVA;http://futureselfservicebanking.com/

When was the last time we saw a meaningful innovation from the banking industry since the days of the short-lived ‘Flash Me Cash’ and the arrival of cheap sweets in bank branches. All other breakthroughs were a rip-off and duplicating (R&D) of technologies making-waves elsewhere.

I am amazed by the mockery that goes on in the name of banking services in Nigeria. Currently, nearly all the banks spend 60% of the customer service workforce in resolving ATM and debit card issues. Which is not sustainable in the interests of the bank, staff and customers. If they were to apply service design, I’d like to call it ‘service thinking’, they would start by collecting data on how customers are losing their ATM cards. My recent encounter with losing my ATM was getting excited in hosting a couple of old school friends. I collected some cash and forgot to collect my card. I am not alone in this kind of problem.

Hundreds of customers are losing their cards every week through this same way.

 But how the Nigerian bank’s ATM was designed encourages this sort of waste and it is simply okay by the bankers. This is why? ;<insert card>;<choose account>;<select amount>;<cash pops out>;<card ejects>; But then you collect your cash and in a hurry or delighted by the new notes you forget to pick up your card. The psychology here is that the card is secondary once you are done in a cash machine. What matters is the cash and that was why you came in the first place and not for some worthless plastic.

Credit:IDEO/BBVA; http://futureselfservicebanking.com/

Simple service thinking could have prevented hundreds of customers from congesting the customer service areas. Let’s rethink it this way; <Insert card>;<Select amount>;<card pops out>;<cash pops out>.The logic here is that you cannot leave the cash machine without the cash. That is why you are there. By redesigning the system this way, it reduces the chances of users leaving their card behind. The most priced asset is that card but the customer for some reason doesn’t care. What matters to them is the cash at that moment. Our banks would do well to help them guard that asset. The banking group BBVA of Spain embarked on this journey and totally ended up redesigning the future of the ATM with amazing design, increased usage, efficiency and customer loyalty. Many problems are lurking around in every corner of our banking system waiting to be solved. Banking can only get it right by seeking to use service design methods and working with service designers to imagine the future of services by helping to uncover how customers want to be served.

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