Global marketing information services and rating company J.D. Power, known for its quality and satisfaction measurements, especially in the automotive sector in markets such as India, China, Australia and Southeast Asia, has formed a strategic alliance Percipient, the Singapore-based technology and data analytics company to provide a range of customer satisfaction enhancement programs to banks and financial institutions in Asia. The two companies plan to take up a channel optimization program to start with offering it to retail banks in the Asia countries, including India. The companies claim the program enables banks to assess how best to allocate channel resources in order to maximize customer satisfaction. The program draws on J.D. Power’s expertise in customer satisfaction benchmarks and drivers, combined with Percipient’s capabilities in the area of customer segmentation, customer profitability and channel analytics.
Gerrit Kuyntjes, vice president and general manager, Asia Pacific, J.D. Power, says banks, in order to stay competitive, need to invest in multiple channels, from branches, ATMs and call centers, to internet and mobile banking. “But how can they be sure that their customers are getting the channel service that they want? Our deep understanding of customer satisfaction indicators allows us to help banks answer this question,” he adds. ic.
Navin Suri, CEO, Percipient, said Percipient’s customer analytics skills and financial sector experience, along with the prowess of J.D. Power, can bring something unique to the Asian banking environment.
The alliance, the two entities believe, is a precursor to several other programs that can improve customer satisfaction and help financial institutions lift their customer penetration and investment returns.
Kuyntjes and Suri respond to queries:
Can you elaborate on the alliance between J.D. Power and Percipient? Does it confine to channel optimization program of banks alone?
J.D. Power and Percipient have established a strategic alliance to offer banks in Asia our combined core competencies in these two areas. While there is no formal equity involved, we believe that our alliance combines J.D. Power’s global capabilities in customer experience and VOC research with Percipient’s expertise in data analytics and Asian banking.
By overlaying individual customer experience, preference and satisfaction data with their actual usage patterns and demographics, we can help banks achieve profitable channel migration and utilization. At this point of time, the program is confined only to banks.
Use of analytics is one area of focus under the alliance. Can you elaborate on the technology behind the program?
The program is proprietary to individual banks and requires a survey of bank customers, together with a data analytics overlay by accessing existing data stored in the bank’s data warehouse. Where such data warehousing facilities are not available, Percipient’s proprietary data highway UniConnect can help unify diverse data sources, easily.
Indian banking sector is now in the midst of an ambitious program to extend banking services to the hitherto unbanked regions in terms of the government’s mandate. Willl the channel optimization program you intend to offer help in this regard?
This program enables a bank to assess the optimal channel mix for whichever target customer segment that the bank itself identifies. The initial scope of the program is to cover urban and semi-urban cities. It also provide competitor benchmarking in these locations.
J.D. Power is synonymous with the automotive industry. Its research reports and ratings have indeed helped the industry to improve and excel. Will the new alliance aim to achieve something like this in the banking sector?
We do not discount the future possibility of this as we have enjoyed a good track run in the financial industry in the US, the UK, China and Australia and hope to bring our expertise in this area to India.
Do you think Indian banking sector is responsive to the customer needs and aspirations? What according to you is the level of awareness among Indian bankers on the need to be innovative in their channel strategy? Are there banks, which approach this strategy in a concerted manner?
Indian banks, like banks in both the developed and less developed markets, do conduct exercises to understand customer satisfaction and loyalty. Our program is unique and valuable because it approaches banking channels from the customer’s point of view and seeks to establish expectations customers have of each channel. It helps banks direct future investments in channels more confidently. We believe that Indian banks will respond positively to the innovation that this program will bring to the industry and to individual players.
How demanding are Indian customers? And do you think banks and financial services institutions are able to address these demanding customer needs?
All banking customers are demanding given the nature of the financial services industry, across the globe. By and large the enhancements in channels, especially digital, have been developed to stay at par with the leaders. What is needed now is to hear the voice of the customer and make the functionality, and value proposition much more appealing and relevant. Our program helps banks do exactly that.
How about banks and financial services institutions adopting technology in order to create the right systems and processes to enhance customer experience? Are existing systems capable of having a clear perspective of each customer and his needs and aspirations?
Increasingly, banks face challenges in pinpointing what their individual customer needs and their sentiments. One reason for this is the traditional focus on products rather than what customers want and need. The other is the inability of multiple technology systems in banks to talk to each other which creates data vacuums in banks’ understanding of customer behaviours and preferences. There are now newer, cheaper and faster solutions available to solve this ‘data vacuum’ problem. We believe that the banks that succeed over the long term are the ones that address these two issues.