Players in the banking market offer approximately the same range of services. In such a situation, a CRM system can provide a competitive advantage that will allow you to win over the consumer by improving the quality of service and responsiveness to requests.

From Mass Marketing to One-to-One

Many banks already understand that it is impossible to expand the business by selling only a set of standard services, and when working with clients who bring the largest amount of money, it is necessary to adjust the service to individual requirements or create a new type of it. It is such approach that allows you to keep the client. Even if another bank offers cheaper services, then a person will think more than once whether he should change a partner and at the same time wait until he learns to meet his needs. Old customers bring most of the income, and the cost of working with them is 5–10 times lower than attracting new ones. After all, if the buyer of services is loyal, then there is no need to spend resources on such stages of his “life cycle” as establishing the first contact, creating awareness about the features of the service and making the first sales. One of the serious problems affecting the loyalty of service buyers is the information inconsistency in the use of various channels of interaction with them. In this regard, customer relationship management systems (Customer Relationship Management), which automate the processes of attracting, developing, retaining customers, and designing banking products and services, are becoming increasingly important. The ideology of CRM provides for the transition from the strategy of mass marketing and mass sales to individual (One-to-One) sales or services, customized or modified so that they meet the personal requirements of customers. As a result, this will make relationships with customers more comfortable and effective, designed for the future. Iroda Ibragimova, head of department for the development of branches and mini-banks of Hamkorbank OJSC says: “Before the introduction of CRM, such tasks were solved separately using separate banking automation tools in the form, for example, of numerous excel files, which made it much more difficult to obtain complete information about the client. Now it is possible not only to optimize the internal process in working with client information, but also to provide the client with an individual approach and efficiency.” Rustam Fayziev, Head of Development, Development and Implementation of Information Technologies at Asia Alliance Bank: “The introduction of CRM systems allowed front and back office employees to quickly receive all information about the client, including a client card with sample signatures. There is no need to look for paper versions of documents, control their expiration dates, etc.”

"Sharpened" solutions

The advantage of industry-specific CRM systems designed specifically for banks is that already in their basic version they take into account the specifics of the banking industry: they automate the attraction and servicing of corporate and retail clients, the work of the call center, and allow you to effectively manage the product portfolio, document flow and return of problematic debt, as well as allocate customer segments according to a given set of parameters. In this case, data on applications and contracts, financial indicators, data from the front office can be used.

“Before the introduction of CRM, we used separate automation tools in the form of, for example, numerous excel files, which made it much more difficult to obtain complete information about the client”

For example, all clients from the region who have not met with bank consultants for the last 3 months, or had a turnover of more than 80,000 USD last month, or did not use a loan, can be selected. Segmentation allows you to select the best products for different customer groups, plan marketing campaigns, highlight different levels of service, calculate the potential and actual importance of the customer for the bank, determine the phase of the customer's life cycle. In addition, the banking CRM system has ready-made tools for integrating and using all channels of communication with customers.

“CRM made it possible to quickly receive all information about the client, including a card with sample signatures. There is no need to look for paper versions of documents, control their expiration dates, etc.”

In addition to implementing a standard solution, a bank can independently develop an IT system, which will include a CRM block.

“Implementation of the CRM system helped the bank solve a number of the most urgent tasks: advising and servicing the client through a single front office, optimizing the processes of attracting and retaining clients, and increasing their loyalty. So far, the system covers work with corporate clients of the bank, but starting from the second half of 2013, we plan to adapt it for individuals as well,” notes Iroda Ibragimova. To select the right CRM solution for a bank, it is necessary to analyze in detail its product line and front-office business processes on its own or with the involvement of consultants. Without this, it is impossible to make a choice. In addition, the need to integrate CRM with other software used by the bank should be taken into account.

Local approach

One of the difficulties that awaits a bank in implementing a full-scale CRM solution is its integration into an already established work technology. After all, departments have different ideas about what exactly the client needs. Existing and/or new business processes should also be optimized, regulations and standards be developed. At the same time, special attention should be paid to compliance with the regulations, since it allows:

• firstly, to comply with a unified business policy aimed at achieving the goal and minimizing costs
• secondly, not to lose customers with the departure of a specific manager from the bank (that is, the principle works: “People leave - the process and data remain”)

If it seems that the costs of deploying a full-scale CRM system for a bank are currently excessive, you should not install a CRM system that covers the needs of all departments at once. It may even be worthwhile to purchase products from different suppliers, best “tailored” for specific tasks (for marketing - from one supplier, for sales - from another), and so gradually approach a comprehensive solution to the problem of interaction with customers, “along the way” debugging all business processes. Asia Alliance Bank followed such path. As Rustam Fayziev says, “this year, a lot of work was done to create the Web Asia Bank project, which made it possible to automate the business processes of the foreign exchange division for working with clients, in particular, accounting for export-import contracts, applications for conversion and accounting letters of credit, where the processes of notifying customers were also automated. Currently, we have developed the concept of a new project "Call Interactive Assistant". We plan to launch it in the first quarter of next year. The launch of this CRM-system automates customer service by phone. For example, as our client, you can call your bank manager to find out if the account has received funds or the balance of the account. Information about each of your calls is accumulated in the system data storage, analyzed by the program, and the processing result is displayed on the manager's monitor. According to our calculations, this system will increase the number of clients served per manager by several times, as well as save time for bank employees.” In addition to implementing a standard solution, a bank can independently develop an IT system, which will include a CRM block. The main "plus" and at the same time "minus" of our own development is that it does not violate the established business processes. Indeed, often with the introduction of a CRM system, a bank usually wants to improve the existing state of affairs. CRM automates not only any bank process (issuing a loan, issuing a credit card, opening a deposit account), but also ensures the work of employees in a single information space, establishes uniform work rules for bank branches. All these allow us to respond as quickly as possible to the requests of potential and existing customers, speeds up the procedure for verifying information about the borrower, as well as the documentation process. Thus, with the help of CRM, the bank moves the activity of working with clients from the category of art to the category of technology.