Customer experience and branding

PROJECT PHOENIX

How Customer Experience Re-Branded a Bank

Prepared by : Christoforos Symiriotis © C.Symiriotis CONFIDENTIAL

1. Background

In the latter half of 2003, the Bank commissioned a series of market studies to determine the health of BANK OF KUWAIT‟s (Pseudo name used to protect identity) image in the market. The results revealed an urgent need to re-brand the Bank and adopt a positioning strategy that will differentiate BANK OF KUWAIT from the competition.

The strategy centered around two major initiatives:

Simplifying BANK OF KUWAIT‟s products and processes

Attracting customers back to the Branch

Two major areas were identified as priorities for a complete overhaul:

The distribution network (Branches)

Communications (Logo, colours, collateral, products, advertisements, and others)

The above produced Project Phoenix, and a project team representing all areas of the Bank, and which upon completion will deliver improved branch design and workflow, and a new corporate identity that will re-launch BANK OF KUWAIT in the Kuwaiti market.

2. Branch Design

To arrive at an ideal branch design, the project team reviewed background research of customer behaviour and requirements. In addition, the role of the Branch as a one-stop retail, sales, and service outlet was emphasized. Furthermore, it was agreed that the customer‟s visit to the branch will be more of an experience rather than a normal visit to a Bank.

This resulted in the new and innovative concept of “Shop”, a location inside the branch where BANK OF KUWAIT partners can promote their products and services with unique offers to BANK OF KUWAIT customers. In addition, the visibility of the brand became a critical factor, and this prompted the consultants to present a design that allowed external visibility of the branch, from all corners.

The internal layout was based on retailing concepts, with the center of the branch designated as the „Club „; an area where staff can meet customers and use state-of-the art audiovisual equipment to promote products and services.

To support the launch of the new identity, an approach labeled as „Kit of Parts‟ was adopted, where all branches would be fitted with a pre-fabricated kit containing new signage, a product wall, a brand wall, and other parts. The aim was to undertake a minimal re-fitting of existing branches to reach consistency across the entire distribution network, as the team found wide variations of the Bank‟s name and logo in signage across the entire network. © C.Symiriotis CONFIDENTIAL

Branches built from the ground up will follow the new design concept, while the project team refurbishes existing outlets. This process will require 3-5 years for completion.

3. Corporate Identity

By late 2003 and during 2004, it became apparent that BANK OF KUWAIT lacked the necessary visibility and exposure in the market. Research showed that brand recognition was relatively low among the banking public.

The lack of a corporate identify manual, and the Bank‟s low profile did not help to alleviate the mixed perception of the public. Furthermore, studies revealed that while BANK OF KUWAIT had good standing within the elderly Kuwaitis, it did not score highly with Kuwait‟s new generation, and in a country where this generation accounts for 60% of the population, this created the necessity to re-launch BANK OF KUWAIT with a new image.

The new logo was driven by research, the need for a degree of association with the group, and the market trends in Kuwait and the world at large.

To support the positioning strategy, the Bank adopted „Making Life Simple‟ as a slogan. The latter has and will continue to have positive implications on the way BANK OF KUWAIT conducts business and serves customers.

The exercise delivered a corporate identity manual that will now govern all communications, and will ensure consistency across all channels. Appendix „B‟ contains elements of this manual.

Furthermore, the slogan was translated further into three distinctive areas: Grow, Shop, Bank. All retail products and services were re-classified under one of the three sections.

Grow would engulf savings and investments, Shop will include loans and cards, and Bank will contain electronic banking, accounts, and various services.

4. Team Effort

Project Phoenix brought together all areas of the Bank, and sub projects were launched to support the initiative. HRD launched a massive training program to educate all staff on the various elements of the new identity, ITD implemented changes on the front-end system making it easier for front line staff and customers. IT also provided valuable technical support for the kit-of-parts and lab branch.

Marketing and Business Development re-examined all products and services and produced a new classification that is in tandem with the new approach. The division is also working on infomercials, new cards, forms, products, and all other collateral, in addition to planning the launch, which will be unprecedented in the history of the Bank.

Retail and private Banking provided needed support in terms of access to managers and staff, feedback into all aspects of identity and branch design, including the internal workflow and new roles of branch staff. C.Symiriotis CONFIDENTIAL

Engineering worked towards fine-tuning the designs presented by the international consultants. They also managed the relationships with suppliers for the timely delivery and installation of quality material starting in the Lab branch, and the upcoming kit-of-parts.

5. Support

Project Phoenix could not have succeeded without the unwavering support from the CMD and the CEO. Their input helped the team to meet deadlines and alleviate any issues during the various phases of the project.

6. Brand value vs. Customer Expectations

The beginning of the transformation began when it became evidently Clear that there was a mismatch between the bank‟s own brand values and customer expectations. This was mainly the result of the sluggish change that accompanied the bank‟s privatization.

The new strategy was built around segments, in contrast to extensive products and branding which characterize BANK OF KUWAIT‟s and all commercial banks‟ direction. The strategy stimulates the „bundling‟ of products within 5 segments chosen around a customer‟s life stage. The main impact of the strategy will be:

a) New brand re-positioning for BANK OF KUWAIT in the Kuwaiti market b) Simplified product offering based on features and benefits in contrast to terms and conditions c) Sales driven by customer type and requirements, rather than matching products/packages to customers. I.e. Ask first ; then choose the right product for the customer. This will require a major change in the attitude and behavior of not only branch staff, but HO divisions with influence on products, e.g IT, Operations, Administration, Human Resources, Branches d) Turning BANK OF KUWAIT into a people’s bank as will be evidenced in all corporate communications. „People‟ will be the main theme of BANK OF KUWAIT‟s advertising strategy. e) Less emphasis on product names – diluted by over branding and lack of differentiation. f) Encouraging customers to visit their branch where a range of banking, and affiliated products and services will be offered.

In its strategic plan, the bank decided to re-position itself within the highly competitive banking sector in a way that reflects its new brand value and meets the expectations of the targeted customer segments. This is represented as follows: C.Symiriotis CONFIDENTIAL

The re-positioning towards a personal/contemporary quadrant meant a customer centric approach. However, it was necessary to gauge the previously mentioned mismatch between the brand value and targeted customer expectations in order to prioritize resources and action plans. This re-positioning required a review of the bank‟s brand value and the new mission statement reflected the new value:

“With a long history and proven customer loyalty Bank of Kuwait will re-establish its presence by constantly enhancing its image and updating its range of products and services in line with customer needs and requirements, to become the most recommended bank in Kuwait. The Bank will achieve this through a customer-centric / relationship banking approach”

The common denominator between the new brand value and customer expectations was SERVICE. However, before any initiatives could be launched, the bank had to determine the current levels of service and areas where improvements should be made in the short term. An extensive customer research program was launched to determine customer satisfaction levels. The research was conducted by a professional market research company and included face to face interviews as well as focus groups.

The Image of the Bank of Kuwait could be represented by that of an old educated aristocrat who is still indulged in his past glory. The participant recognized the bank‟s history of leadership; it is an organization from the past that they find difficulty now to see its relevance. They consider the bank to have started a decline since the liberation of Kuwait in 1990. The bank is blamed for its absence, unclear plan, and distance from playing an active role in the market and trapped in stagnation.

Starting with communication, it seems the customers found the ads put by the bank either too little, in the wrong media, or not attractive. In addition, the branches are not visible enough: The logo is not clear, and the signage is either old or not eye catchy. C.Symiriotis CONFIDENTIAL

One customer did not know that a BANK OF KUWAIT branch existed in LOCATION N where he lives even internal communication, with existing customers, is not effective.

But the communication is not considered the core of the problem. After all “Kuwait is small and success when exist is always known”. In that sense, the participants considered the banks performance when judging its image, not the mere corporate identity.

The staff of the banks is “friendly” but “not professional”. They are “effective” when a personal relation is developed, yet the staff turnover is high. Another problem lies within the bank‟s policy which lacks flexibility. In comparison to its peer, BANK OF KUWAIT is viewed at the bottom. Even banks which generated negative image attributes, such as CBK or KFH, were considered successful with a pale image. CBK is very practical and sometimes innovative. “It was the first to introduce many accounts including the Certificates”.

Back to BANK OF KUWAIT, in spite of its stagnation, yet its image does not suffer from defect as the remains of its past glory is still in the minds of the elder participants. In addition, its English past gives the bank a kind of prestige and status. Unlike Al AHLI, whose image is low and passive?

BANK OF KUWAIT is viewed on the side of the market. When making the positioning analysis, BANK OF KUWAIT was not mentioned among the competing banks. It was described as impartial to the market and out of its game; not due to an inherent weakness in its performance, but due to the management, the heritage of the institutions ruled by the government. “BANK OF KUWAIT did not change when the rest did”.

When defending BANK OF KUWAIT, participants referred to the past; they repeated the words “Previously” and to “Easiness”. On the other hand, when attacking the bank, the participants referred to its lack of Ads / weak products / and bad Service (or absence of recommendation by those who deal with the bank).

There is no reason why to open an account in the bank in the context of its image. Even existing customers found it difficult to recommend the bank as “the service is good as long as you have personal relations with the staff”. Yet, the study demonstrated that the loyalty of customers to their own banks is weak. Most of them deal with many banks, in order to get the best of each. They would be pleased to open in BANK OF KUWAIT provided “the bank starts moving”.

What BANK OF KUWAIT is asked to do is to work on its image, products, and customer service. The participants recommended that the bank firstly start internally by improving its staff and its procedures. Makes it more customers oriented and recognize the differences and needs of the market.

Second, the bank can introduce proper accounts or products. “BANK OF KUWAIT is not asked to reinvent the wheel, it can imitate what comes up in the market” . Then, and in the end, the bank can talk about it. There is no point to claim what the bank does not have. The last Loan campaign, and the credit card campaign seem to have fired back, “there were empty promises”.

C.Symiriotis CONFIDENTIAL

After what proceeded, it is clear that The Bank of Kuwait is suffering from a weak image. The bank is too far to be understood. Being the first bank of Kuwait, and once leading the sector through its modernism coupled with its English heritage, helped the bank maintaining a certain degree of prestige and respect to the bank. But there is a lack of admiration. The market feels pity for the bank. It is clear to what extent BANK OF KUWAIT is subject to „Self Unfairness‟, especially that it had the privilege of having a history and a potential to be different.

So far none of the banks seem to be really caring about its customers individually. No gifts for new customers, no interest or special treatment for old customers, no record of needs and requests, are but few examples. When asked about the ideal bank, the participants mentioned basic requirements as their priorities, mostly “Loans” and “Good customer service”.

The first step was to determine the relative importance of various attributes of the branch environment to customers; a cross section of the results is shown below (weight out of 100)

Criteria Weighting

%

Staff image

10

Complied with dress code

Good personal hygiene

Visible BKME ID worn

Good posture

Serving the customer 40

Acknowledged

Smile

Appropriate greeting

Customer's name used

Friendly tone of voice

Courteous and friendly manner

Eye contact maintained

Undivided attention

Inter-staff discussion discrete

Excused if leaving to wait unattended

All transactions completed by one employee

Asked if any further service required

Thanked

Cross-sales initiative 10

Effort made to sell another product / service

Product knowledge 10

Sound product knowledge demonstrated

Confidentiality 10

Transaction and customer information handled

discretely

Transaction time 10

Transaction completed within BKME time standards

Branch telephone service 10

Picked up within 3 rings Call answered with BKME standard response Customer‟s name used


The next step was to measure the degree of customer satisfaction with various criteria within a branch environment. The following table is a sample of some processes measured:

Branch

Branch environment report

He

ad

Off

ice

Fa

ha

d A

l S

ale

m

Ah

ma

di

Salm

iya

Fa

ha

he

el

Haw

alli

Ja

hra

Gh

aza

li

Jabriya

Ya

rmo

uk

Sa

ba

h A

l S

ale

m

Salw

a

Airport

Fa

rwaniy

a

Al D

em

na

Gh

arn

ata

Kaifan

Al R

aya

Staff appearance

Staff appearance 3 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 5 5

Behaviour 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 Teller counter operations

Queuing for teller: good queue management? Queuing system: ticket dispenser operating? Queuing system: teller indicators working? Cash counters: all operating correctly? (one per teller) Printers: all operating correctly? (one per teller) Waiting for PB & Mgr: appropriate waiting facilities? Documents/forms: PB & Mgr have correct documents / forms? Marketing material: PB & Mgr have current marketing material?

Systems: all PB & Mgrs PCs operating?

1 5 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 5 4 4 5 2 5 5 3 5

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 1 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 1 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

5 3 5 4 5 4 5 5 5 5 3 5 4 5 5 5 5 5

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

3 4 5 5 5 4 5 1 5 5 1 5 5 5 4 5 5 5

5 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

5 4 5 5 5 4 5 4 3 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 3 3

5 5 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

Branch facilities

Signage: highway

1

3

1

1

1

1

5

4

1

4

1

1

1

1

1

5

1

1

direction signs?

Signage: BKME

external name in good 3 3 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 2 4 5 5 3 3 5 2

condition, illumination

working?

Signage: opening hours

notice clearly visible 1 5 5 1 1 3 3 4 1 5 3 4 1 1 3 4 5 1

outside branch?


The following provides a graphical representation of the satisfaction index over a period of6 months:

Branch Environment Index 120

100

80

60

40

20

0

Red: Critical / requires immediate attention Blue: Can be improved but not a priority Yellow: High satisfaction score / capitalize for strategy Model: Source: G-CEM


The processes and touch points that required further investigation and were deemed important to customers underwent further research. Below is a sample of the findings:

Average Queueing Time at Tellers 25

20

15 Time in Minutes

10

5

0

Location Model: Source: G-CEM

In the above example, the stars show lowest queuing time while red dots show higher than acceptable queuing times in four branches.

Research demonstrated that there were key areas of “Pleasure” and “Pain” as per customer evaluation of the branch environment. These areas were as follows:

Pleasure Signage at Tellers System availability Cleanliness ATM availability

Staff Friendliness

Pain External Signage and Directions ATM Signage Brochures Holders

Poster Displays ATM enclosure Staff product knowledge Queuing time


It was becoming evident that the status quo showed a mismatch between what the bank‟s management thought of brand value and what customers really wanted. The following displays this mismatch: Model: Source: G-CEM

The above shows that while customer considered the bank‟s image as a key differentiators and motivation to open and maintain an account ( N.B. this is due to cultural influences in the country ) , the bank‟s executives paid little attention to this fact.

By considering customer experience across touch points and processes, the bank was able to focus resources where they were mostly required. This gave birth to project “Phoenix “ that sought to re-brand the bank in line with the new strategy. Within the project, branch layout, signage, queuing , and others factors that were considered as critical were integrated into a new service model that portrayed the bank as modern and understanding of its customers‟ needs.

Examples of the re-branding outcome are included in the following pages. The underlying premise was that of a “shopping “experience rather than a traditional visit to the bank. The branch became welcoming and customers were visiting the location more often to enjoy the unique in-store interactive marketing technology and other innovative features. C.Symiriotis CONFIDENTIAL






© C.Symiriotis 2015 CONFIDENTIAL