The impact of CRM on branch networks

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The impact of CRM on branch networks

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Financial institutions need to secure long-term profitable ... 'ticking and blotting' bad debt investigation. Areas Ignored. sales effectiveness ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: The impact of CRM on branch networks


1
The impact of CRM on branch networks
  • Author Des Glover

2
Introduction
Financial institutions need to secure long-term
profitable business by anticipating and meeting
customers' needs.
3
Attempts at cost-efficiency
  • Attempts to become more cost-efficient have led
    to
  • organisational downsizing
  • less branches in the network
  • Results
  • painful to employees directly involved
  • little or no change in the way business is done
  • Conclusion
  • Fundamental changes needed to the culture of
    Financial
  • Institution branches

4
Traditional culture 1 - the branch
  • Traditionally, the branch is seen to
  • act as a self contained unit
  • 'own' customers whose accounts are held there
  • deal with all administration
  • handle all customer mail / phone calls
  • attempt to cover the full range of business

5
Traditional culture 2 - roles within the branch
  • The Branch Manager
  • managing accounts
  • sanctioning loans
  • marketing and selling products
  • development of business potential in catchment
    area
  • Branch Staff
  • processing counter transactions
  • handling administration

6
Traditional culture 3 - branch focus
  • Focus Areas
  • "ticking and blotting"
  • bad debt investigation
  • Areas Ignored
  • sales effectiveness
  • service effectiveness

7
CRM approach
The introduction of CRM thinking is a culture
change that is reflected in almost every facet
of branch thinking
8
CRM approach - the role of the branch
  • New role of the branch as part of Multi-channel
    Strategy, as the prime location for face-to-face
    sales.
  • differentiate the Branch Network Structure to
    reflect the customer needs
  • automate and remove all Administration
  • Customer Ownership
  • the relationship
  • account location
  • credit scoring
  • Identification of the Sales function as a
    separate skills base
  • IT Support Systems
  • Redesigning the branch layout to take advantage
    of freed space
  • Locate and style branch as part of plan to
    include other branches and channels for serving
    particular communities

9
CRM approach - changing the role of the branch
  • Customer management becomes enterprise-wide
    issue, bringing opportunity for the branch to
    focus on
  • maximising the advantages of the location
  • meeting the needs of customers who prefer the
    branch channel
  • For the near future Branches will remain the
    dominant distribution channel. Although direct
    channels will continue to grow and cash handling
    automation will make further inroads into current
    counter transactions, there will remain a hard
    core of customers who will continue to prefer the
    branch channel.

10
CRM approach - face-to-face interaction at the
branch
  • Although it is an expensive location, the branch
    offers increased chances of selling
  • complex products
  • linked product bundles
  • The aim should be
  • to increase the utilisation of the investment
  • The method
  • optimising the channel to support face-to-face
    encounter

11
CRM approach - current measures
  • CRM activities identify the separate needs of
    various customer segments
  • To focus on these newly identified needs, the
    Financial Institution separates responsibilities
  • for managing the branch as a successful unit
  • for performance of a particular customer segment
    or product range
  • The way this has been implemented varies
    depending on the size of the Branch.
  • It will create a matrix management structure
    common in many industries but only found in few
    successful Financial organisations.

12
Development of a multi-channel strategy
  • To fulfill its new role, the branch must be part
    of a strategy which involves alternative
    distribution channels.
  • Direct and automated channels, when created and
    optimised, will remove non face-face transactions
    from the branch, providing
  • higher levels of availability and convenience to
    the customer
  • transaction-cost savings for the Financial
    Institution
  • reduced disruption for customers requiring
    face-face transactions

13
Multi-channel strategy - world best practice
  • World best practice
  • Introduce range of channels
  • Implement Distribution Strategy to manage
    channels for
  • customer choice
  • customer convenience
  • This enables the Financial Institution to
  • Optimise the cost of service delivery
  • maintain an up-to-date comprehensive view of the
    customer relationship
  • offer a service proposition across all products

14
Network differentiation
  • The branch
  • no longer viewed as the best place to meet needs
    of all personal customers for all products, even
    where face to face contact is chosen.
  • Different environments and specialist staff
    increasingly considered more appropriate to deal
    with certain products and customer groups.
  • Units are being established to deal with
  • complex lending or investment products
  • high net worth individuals
  • These units concentrate selling skills and make
    customers feel "special". An invitation to these
    units forms part of the CRM strategy.

15
Automate and remove all administration - reasons
  • Many of the staff located in the branch are
    involved in administrative processes.
  • This is
  • expensive because of the locations.
  • unnecessary they are not involved in face to
    face contact with customers.
  • frustrating for the customer. Administrative
    staff are clearly visible to queuing customers
    who see staff apparently ignoring them and
    appearing to be unaware of the queue.

16
Automate and remove all administration reasons
contd
  • Customer records held on paper in the branch
    domiciled have to be referred to and updated.
    Part of the CRM initiative is to convert customer
    information into an electronic form, located
    centrally, and access given to terminals anywhere
    in the Financial Institution.
  • This then allows most of the administrative
    processes to be automated.
  • Where human intervention is required staff can be
    located in administrative units that are
    established in centralised low cost locations.

17
Automate and remove all administration - benefits
  • The space released in the Branches can be used to
    create confidential sales offices.
  • The grouping of the administrative workload from
    many Branches into a few locations leads to
  • economies of scale
  • specialisation of processes and support.
  • The staff members who prefer sales and personal
    contact with customers remain in the Branches and
    receive special training.
  • Members of staff who do not like direct, face to
    face, dealing with customers but who prefer
    administration can be relocated in the
    administrative units and become specialist in
    administrative routines.

18
Balancing centralised control and personal
relationship - 1
  • Customers, and the relationships forged with
    those customers, are a unique asset of the bank.
  • The bank must change the way it manages those
    customer relationships. They must become more
    disciplined, whilst still maintaining the
    goodwill and trust of its customers. This will
    improve efficiency and increase income, through
    selling more profitable products per customer.
  • The use of CRM techniques provides that
    efficiency and discipline, but to introduce it
    successfully a change in the culture of customer
    ownership is fundamental. This is a subject of
    considerable emotion to current Branch managers
    and staff.

19
Balancing centralised control and personal
relationship 1 contd
  • It is often argued that practices which have been
    shown to succeed in other countries or
    organisations would not be tolerated in the
    particular institution being discussed. However,
    customers may change the way they do business
    with the organisation if convenient high quality
    alternatives exist. They may not resist the
    timely approach of the Financial Institution
    offering a product which meets a current or
    future need. What is necessary is for the culture
    and values found to succeed in the past to be
    incorporated into the CRM strategy.

20
Balancing centralised control and personal
relationship - 2
  • Many customers find financial services a
    confusing subject and they welcome someone taking
    from them the burden of thinking about the
    future, the Bank has both an opportunity and a
    responsibility to fulfill this role.
  • Currently any relationship that does exist is
    between a customer and one, or a few members of
    staff.
  • For personal customers this relationship, whilst
    including recognition and a word of welcome, is
    unlikely to include proactive consideration of
    the customers financial needs.

21
Balancing centralised control and personal
relationship 2 contd
  • The CRM strategy ensures that the information on
    each customers situation is correctly recorded,
    electronically, kept up to date and used by
    systems to determine the customers needs and the
    best way to bring these to the customers
    attention. This information is capable of being
    displayed at any point of sale location bringing
    the "relationship" knowledge, restricted to a few
    "home branch" staff, to anyone dealing with that
    particular customer.

22
Who "owns" the customer? - 1
  • Through an integrated Distribution Strategy
    linked to CRM, customers can be offered the
    choice of channels over which to conduct
    business. By its very nature this weakens the
    link between the customer and the Branch, but
    only if the customer chooses to use the direct
    channels.
  • This does not mean that the branch manager is
    excluded from what is happening to customers
    there can be an implementation where, for
    nominated customers, the manager can have input
    to modify the generated needs analysis or
    proposed treatment.
  • What it does mean, however, is that the customer
    is no longer the sole property of the branch
    which holds the account.

23
Who "owns" the customer? - 2(i)
  • Appropriate service can be given at any branch or
    any channel because the following knowledge is
    held electronically in a manner that can be made
    available to all customer facing staff.
  • Knowledge of that customer
  • Knowledge of any work in progress
  • Knowledge of any sales approach planned
  • Several conditions must exist before this concept
    can be successful...

24
Who "owns" the customer? - 2 (ii)
  • The information held for the customer must be
  • Comprehensive
  • Accurate
  • Current
  • Accessible
  • Technology solutions to all these issues exist,
    but none can compel staff to input correct
    information or co-operate with the new methods.
  • This will only be achieved if the responsible
    staff accept and ultimately own the concepts and
    want them and the Institution to succeed. Then,
    through these concepts, the staff as individuals
    will succeed and be rewarded for their success.

25
Location of accounts
  • In many Financial Institutions certain facilities
    have always been restricted to a "home branch",
    the Branch at which an account held. This is
    often a matter of history and may indicate the
    location most convenient to the customer for
    counter services many years ago. The disruption
    previously involved in changing account numbers
    have led to customers being tied to completely
    inappropriate branches and needing to make
    special arrangements if new facilities were
    needed.
  • These ties need to be broken if the new, CRM
    driven model is to prevail.
  • Where the "home branch" is no longer convenient,
    if a specialist segment service is not provided
    at the "home branch" or if the sale or service of
    the product is accomplished by a Direct channel,
    it should not be necessary to cause inconvenience
    to the customer by renumbering or changing the
    existing accounts.

26
Credit scoring
  • Superior credit policy and skills is a core
    competency highlighted as key for top performers.
  • The use of Credit Scoring is critical to
  • improving efficiency of processing
  • facilitating the exploitation of CRM and direct
    channels.
  • Credit Scoring is the application of rules
    specifically to the sanctioning of loans. These
    techniques have been applied in consumer lending
    for years and are now being seen in the
    Commercial lending area.

27
Credit scoring - early systems, current systems
  • Early Credit Scoring algorithms granted loans
    using
  • life style data
  • income data
  • demographic data
  • This proved to be more accurate than decisions
    made by bank staff applying their judgement and
    was less time consuming, but did nothing to
    reflect the known behaviour of existing
    customers.
  • Current scoring systems will include
    "behavioural" scoring which reflects the way
    customers have conducted their accounts, e.g. the
    way they have repaid loans, operated their credit
    cards, the monthly range balance etc.

28
Credit scoring - pre-scoring
  • Many Banks now pre-score customers prior to
    marketing campaigns, there is no point in
    arousing a customers interest in a product, which
    the Bank is not prepared to allow them to have.
  • One bank have taken this to the point where a
    limit of approved loan is determined by running
    their model, which uses an algorithm including
    behavioural items, against all customers. This is
    used as input to the CRM process and the amount
    of the "approved Limit" is available to all
    customer facing staff over all channels. Any
    member of staff can sanction, on request, a loan
    up to this limit with no other approval being
    obtained.

29
Credit scoring - responsibilities
  • In cases where the decision has been taken by a
    system, it does mean that the responsibility for
    the loan, should it go bad, is not with the
    channel where the loan was granted, but with the
    centre.
  • That does not mean the Branch has no role to play
    in account management. Reports identifying the
    early signs of delinquency are directed to the
    channel over which the loan is authorised. If the
    account fails to respond further action is
    transferred to a Central Recoveries unit which
    will manage the debt collection from then on
    using whichever channels appropriate.
  • By using scoring techniques to sanction simple
    personal loans, staff with lending skills can be
    used to handle the more complex situations with
    commercial or more affluent customers.

30
Credit scoring - pros
  • Potential Benefits
  • The process is quicker and cheaper
  • Decisions are consistent across the Bank
  • Loans can be approved through any channel
  • Acceptance rates can be increased with controlled
    risk
  • Losses can be easily monitored and controlled
  • A focused team will learn and improve forecasting
    and predicting techniques
  • Competitive advantage through speed and
    convenience
  • Local decision-makers freed to concentrate on
    complex situations

31
Credit scoring - ...and cons
  • Potential Problems
  • Branch staff may feel loss of control
  • Branch staff may feel loss of status, size of
    lending limit ego
  • Local conditions may not be captured in system
  • Sometimes scored decisions can be difficult to
    explain to customers

32
Booking appointments
  • In the past pro-active selling, if attempted at
    all, involved approaching customers who had
    visited the Branch to conduct transactions. This
    lead to regular customers being approached
    several times for the same product at a time that
    they had neither the time or inclination to
    consider a new proposition.
  • CRM processes clearly identify the customers
    needs and the most appropriate treatment
    strategy.

33
Booking appointments contd
  • The Branch has a role to play
  • making sales to customers who are more
    comfortable in this environment
  • for products where the features are complex and
    benefit by being supported by graphical
    illustrations incorporating the customers own
    details.
  • This is best achieved by arranging a time and
    location when the customer is available to meet
    an appropriately qualified member of staff.

34
Booking appointments - requirements
  • In all sectors there are benefits from ensuring
    that the customer is given advance warning of any
    information needed and how long the meeting will
    take. From the Banks point of view it ensures
    that the appropriate resources are available.
  • In the multi channel environment it is necessary
    to be able to arrange sales visits to the home or
    office, telephone interviews by a Telephone
    Banking advisor or an appointment for a meeting
    with an expert from the appropriate segment with
    relevant skills.
  • This requires a support facility which allows
    appointments to be booked at any time from any
    Point of Service location, to schedule with any
    suitably qualified customer facing officer, at a
    designated time, in a designated location.

35
Requirements for an enterprise wide appointments
system
  • An "enterprise wide" Appointment System could be
    achieved by the creation of an information base
    which records
  • Each member of face to face staff and the level
    of qualification or registration they hold, hence
    the products they are permitted to sell or give
    advice on
  • Details of any "Home Visiting Staff", their
    territorial boundaries and visiting hours
  • Each interview facility, e.g. office or bay
    within branches, the degree of confidentiality,
    the equipment available etc.
  • Each Branch or specialist unit, details of its
    location, opening hours, parking facilities, plus
    any other items of information likely to be
    needed to be conveyed to a customer by a member
    of staff neither of whom has ever visited that
    location

36
Requirements for an enterprise wide appointments
system contd
  • Each product the bank sells with details of the
    qualifications needed by staff to sell or give
    advice on that product, the requirements the
    customer must satisfy in order to buy the product
    (e.g. over 18)
  • The creation of an algorithm which matches the
    preferred time and location with a suitably
    qualified staff member to sell a given product to
    a qualifying customer
  • The creation of a diary which records bookings of
    staff and facilities and is capable of access and
    authorised update from any channel at any time
  • The construction of interrogation tools to
    provide Management Information on the
    effectiveness of the process
  • The creation of a Culture where sales staff
    accept that their work can be effectively
    scheduled by a remotely based colleague. This
    must be recognised as beneficial for the customer
    and the sales person.

37
Benefits of an enterprise wide appointments system
  • Enhanced customer service
  • Appointments can be scheduled to meet their
    needs, often a choice can be offered
  • Confirmation of an appointment can be given at
    any time through any channel
  • The match of staff to customer eliminates
    unqualified staff meeting customers necessitating
    re booking

38
Benefits of an enterprise wide appointments
system contd
  • Effective Recourse Utilisation
  • Face to face staff do not have to be involved in
    booking interviews
  • The algorithm used can favour the times when
    interviews which occur naturally, or are prompted
    in branch and follow customer flow, are less
    likely
  • A high match of the right qualification level to
    the right interview will reduce over or under
    qualified staff being allocated.
  • The Management Information provided enables the
    resources to be maximised. Like any retailer the
    effective utilisation and location of its
    "floor-space" is critical as is the mix of the
    staff skill set. This Bank-wide information can
    be used to determine the location and skills mix
    to satisfy customer demand.

39
Enterprise wide appointments system - issues
raised
  • There are certain business and implementation
    issues raised
  • Initially there may be resistance to centralised
    allocation of Appointments, this must be overcome
    by demonstrating the benefits in terms of
    increased "hot " leads
  • The Management Information which will be
    available and shows the way resources are being
    utilised must be used to plan resource provision
    in favour of local or anecdotal information
  • Responsibility for ownership of the information
    files within the system must be allocated and
    accepted by the appropriate line function.

40
Enterprise wide appointments system - issues
raised contd
  • The Appointment booking system may not be
    successful
  • If sales staff resent what they may perceive as
    interference in their role and do not co-operate
    with the concept
  • If customers see no advantage in having
    appointments
  • If the Information Files are not kept up to date
  • If the Algorithm is not effective
  • If sufficient flexibility is not provided to
    allow common sense to prevail.

41
Sales
  • Top performing Financial Institutions have
    recognised that in order to maximise the
    effectiveness of the leads generated from a CRM
    campaign and increase the sales of their products
    to customers they must first create a culture in
    which sales skills are fostered and given due
    recognition.
  • Having established contact with a customer either
    as the result of a CRM pro-active campaign or as
    the result of a customer originated request the
    Sales Process must be optimised for efficiency
    and effectiveness.
  • The aim will be to close the sale as quickly as
    possible. This will be consistent with maximising
    the opportunity to meet as many of the customers
    needs as can be achieved, and where possible get
    commitment for a "Financial Health Check " at an
    appropriate time in the future.
  • These goals will only be achieved by staff
    motivated to succeed supported by comprehensive
    training and IT support.

42
Sales - component requirements
  • The components needed to achieve the new sales
    goals are
  • Strong management support for a sales culture
  • Physical location and surroundings
  • A customer prepared for the business in hand
  • Focused staff with no administrative duties
  • Energising, training and coaching sales employees
  • Introducing performance measurement and incentive
    systems
  • IT support systems.

43
Sales - staff requirements
  • In common with almost every workplace activity
    the staff will only take the objectives seriously
    if they feel the Banks executives are serious in
    their intentions to boost income by selling to
    meet customers needs. The concept of building
    long term sustainable profit must not be
    sacrificed to the demands of short term targets
    which staff can only achieved by selling anything
    to anyone.
  • This CRM culture of selling to needs must be
    reinforced by how the message is communicated in
    internal and external literature, and by how
    achievements are recognised and rewarded.

44
Sales - staff requirements contd
  • In most organisations there is no incentive for
    staff to capture accurate customer information,
    e.g. in one Bank customer dates of birth are
    defaulted as 11,11.11, the quickest and easiest
    way to complete the data fields (48 of all
    customer records held by this Bank have the above
    default date of birth).
  • This is not because the staff are deliberately
    sabotaging the CRM process. It is because valid
    customer information has not been firmly linked
    to sales and rewards and no value set upon it.

45
Sales - customer requirements
  • Customers are most likely to discuss their needs
    in an atmosphere of privacy and comfort. This may
    be at their home or office, where they will have
    chosen the environment. This means that the
    seller has little control over the degree of
    third party interruptions.
  • Where the interview is on the Branch premises the
    type of interview area will depend upon the
    actual location.
  • The appropriate space should be made available by
    prior booking. During pre-booked appointment
    sessions the sales officer should not be
    disturbed.

46
Sales - customer requirements contd
  • The availability of support systems (see IT
    Support Systems section) should ensure the
    following
  • the customer need not be left alone during the
    interview
  • all information on the following should be at the
    point of sale terminal.
  • customer
  • the product
  • the decision making rules
  • the screen of the point of sale system should be
    located such as to enable the graphical displays
    to be shown to the customer as illustration of
    the various product features.

47
Preparing the customer
  • Where the sales interview has been pre booked,
    the customer will have been aware of the time
    needed to conduct the business at hand and the
    type of information likely to be needed. This is
    ideal in that the customer is already in the
    right frame of mind to consider the proposition.
  • Where the customer has initiated the process with
    no pre notice the sales officer should set the
    scene for the discussion. If certain information
    needed to close the sale cannot be made available
    at the time the process should continue assuming
    the information would be positive and a
    provisional sale made subject to the production
    of whatever is needed by the customer.
  • Arrangements should be made, (Perhaps using a
    Case management system) to schedule the
    collection of the information by the appropriate
    channel, e.g. a Telephone Channel outbound call
    or an pre paid envelope addressed to the central
    unit.

48
Focusing staff - separating sales and back office
  • Within many financial Institutions the common
    current situation is still one where
  • Account managers perform diverse tasks with
    little time left for sales
  • The overall culture is administrative and
    bureaucratic
  • Constant interruptions occur.

49
Energising, training and coaching sales employees
  • Training sales management and staff should be
    ongoing and dynamic. It should
  • be a mixture of off site and on site activities
  • be related to the particular campaigns under way
    .I
  • involve use of the support technology
  • include role-playing and analysis of video
    recordings.
  • The desired behaviour patterns should be
    reinforced by frequent communication and
    achievement recognition.
  • Activities should include off site group training
    designed to bond and generate high levels of
    energy and enthusiasm

50
IT support systems - pre-CRM selling
  • In the pre-CRM world most selling is "Reactive",
    responding to a Customers request for a product
    or service.
  • The handling of "new Business" normally involves
    the customer answering questions which are
    written down on a form in a public area of the
    Branch.
  • There is then an often lengthy period when the
    customer has to wait for a decision and lengthy
    processing before the product is fulfilled.

51
IT support systems - world best practice
  • Identify "leads" making the process "Proactive".
  • Supporting the sales event itself, making the
    collection of information interesting and
    validating customer information already held.
  • Providing visual aids to explain the features of
    complex products.
  • Automating the decision making process.
  • Providing a link into the Product processing
    systems, avoiding re-keying.
  • Printing a completed application and product
    documentation

52
IT support systems - world best practice
  • World Best Practice Banks have transformed this
    process by the introduction of Technology to
  • Identify "leads" making the process "Proactive".
  • Supporting the sales event itself, making the
    collection of information interesting and
    validating customer information already held.
  • Providing visual aids to explain the features of
    complex products.
  • Automating the decision making process.
  • Providing a link into the Product processing
    systems, avoiding re-keying.
  • Printing a completed application and product
    documentation

53
IT support systems - point of service problems
  • In many financial Institutions the only systems
    currently supporting staff at the point of sale
    forms part of the branch automation
    implementation. As such they are normally
    optimised for transaction processing and the
    efforts involved in updating the system, and the
    restraints of screen format do not make it either
    attractive to use or suitable to show the
    customer.

54
IT support systems - POS solution
  • It is proposed that new software environments be
    used, if possible on existing hardware platforms,
    enhanced if necessary, to develop a graphic rich
    point of sale system to support the full new
    business range.
  • This implementation should be architected to
    provide a separation between the Presentation and
    Processing layers. This will facilitate an
    implementation which should common across all
    channels, with only the Presentation layer (the
    way the information appears on the screen)
    changing to reflect the channel attributes e.g.
    scripts and narrative descriptions for the
    Telephone advisers, graphic representations for
    face to face sales. In both instances the
    underlying processing logic would be identical.

55
IT support systems - the new POS
  • Any POS system should interface to the following
    CRM support systems
  • Customer information
  • Case management
  • Rule bases
  • Product information file
  • Leads management
  • Credit scoring
  • Appointments booking

56
Branch layout - pre-CRM
  • Financial Institutions, over many years, have
    designed their branches giving the highest space
    priority to the primary business of cash delivery
    Services, this resulted in rigid and inflexible
    design.
  • At least 85 of the space was allocated to
    counter and back office clerical activities
    usually located in the prime are in the front of
    the branch, the remaining 15 to the customer
    area with very limited customer interviews
    facilities located within secondary areas.
  • With the progression towards automated cash
    delivery services direct channels and centralised
    processing the opportunity is available to take
    full advantage of the space released and redesign
    branch layouts to create sales and service
    outlets

57
Branch layout - the new outlets
  • In the new outlets the traditional length of
    counter has been replaced by modular units
    optimised to support the specific function e.g.
    enquiries, open plan tills, secure tills and a
    variety of interview spaces.
  • The interview areas should be welcoming and
    private, open-plan and enclosed areas both have
    their place since surveys of customers show
    almost equal preference for each layouts.
  • Branches following world best practice design
    applications in most cases have achieved a
    reversal in space allocation resulting in the
    redesigned branch having
  • 80 sales, marketing and interview / sales
    facilities
  • 15 cash services
  • 5 clerical functions

58
Planning optimum distribution to serve a community
  • Historic network expansion
  • Financial institutions have historically expanded
    their networks in an unstructured way, driven by
    external forces including
  • Population trends
  • Mergers
  • Requests from commerce and industry
  • Competitor network developments
  • In most cases when an individual branch was
    opened it was regarded as a single profit centre
    in which it would develop its new business from
    an undefined catchment area, which also included
    other branches .

59
Planning optimum distribution to serve a
community contd
  • Accounting systems
  • Many accounting systems at that time were not
    "transparent" (allowing customers to transact
    business at any branch within the network) and as
    a result Internal transfers took place which were
    costly and only moved profitability internally.
  • The development of new transparent accounting
    systems, allowing customers to retain their
    accounts at any branch of their choice but
    purchase products from across the whole group.
  • This "transparency" along with the high cost of
    the branch networks and the attractiveness in
    cost and customer convenience of alternative
    direct channels indicated that a review of
    network configuration was required.

60
Planning optimum distribution to serve a
community contd
  • Communities
  • Organisations carrying out best practice reviewed
    their networks and redefined catchment areas,
    known as "Communities" or Micro-markets".
  • These communities were examined in terms of the
    existing and potential customer needs and were
    viewed as profit centres, rather than individual
    branches.
  • The optimum configuration to support that
    community in terms of branch and direct channels
    was determined guided by the CRM predictions. The
    studies often revealed that the number of
    traditional branches could be reduced with no
    reduction in income or customer retention
    providing the benefits of the new channels, e.g.
    the telephone and more conveniently located ATMs
    were introduced as part of the initiative. Often
    the location and facilities of branches were
    changed.

61
Planning optimum distribution to serve a
community contd
  • Communities contd
  • This was, "sanity" checked by the local
    management, and in order to reinforce the
    "community" inter-channel agreements were
    reached e.g. The branch would sell x Telephone
    banking accounts, the call centre would generate
    y branch interviews.
  • These service levels were monitored in order to
    meet the requirements of the area.
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