Akbank, Turkey’s second-largest bank by assets and
market capitalisation, has earned a global reputation for being
miles ahead of banks in more mature markets in terms of innovation
and technology. It comes as no surprise that Akbank is one of the
most successful retail banks in utilising social media to its
fullest potential.
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We live in a time where attention has become a scarce
resource. So, yes, banks do need to board the social media
bandwagon.
The rise of new social media
channels that compress content into quick-to-swallow capsules of
information, means that wherever we go, whatever we invent,
whatever we buy, the thing we seek the most is immediate,
actionable information.
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are
increasingly seen as legitimate news sources. Why? Because of the
immediacy they bring and their ability to reach out and mobilise
thousands of people into action at the click of a button.
In Turkey alone, 30m people
currently use some form of social media. From a business point of
view, this clearly presents an opportunity. Moreover, any business
that seeks to maintain its success needs to adapt to its customers’
changing needs. If people expect bite-size accuracy, isn’t that
what we should deliver?
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By GlobalDataAkbank is at the forefront of many
social media initiatives in Turkey. We created our own corporate
Facebook page last year and have already amassed more than 500,000
followers.
Our 15 social media accounts
generated more than 200,000 leads for various banking products
including online banking, credit cards, consumer loans, and
cumulative mutual funds.
Social media works. It can help
create a significant sales base. And not just that, it can build
reputation too. At Akbank, our primary goal is to provide the best
banking experience and highest customer satisfaction to our
customers and consumers.
To that end, we listen to and
communicate with the customers at every medium they use, and social
media is no exception to that. We closely monitor what our
customers and consumers talk about on social media.
We address their expectations,
demands and problems by providing fast, modern and convenient
solutions. Through superior customer service, 24/7 online
monitoring and using several techniques, we promote positive
content and mitigate negative ones, thus enhance Akbank’s
reputation.
The success of our social media
strategy has been confirmed by various prestigious international
accolades and rankings. Akbank’s social media following makes us
one of the top three ‘most liked’ financial institutions in the
world according to data from www.socialbakers.com
We’ve been operating since 1948 and
we pride ourselves in knowing our clients and what they need.
It’s for this reason that our
award-winning alternative delivery channels department, together
with our digital communication department, are staying ahead of the
trend with new competitions and initiatives that not only promote
our products and services but improve them too.
This year we used Facebook to
launch a competition to promote the 21st anniversary of the Turkey
Jazz Festival by creating an app that got consumers to vote for the
official T-shirt design to be worn by the musicians and staff
during the festival.
The app was so successful that it
increased the page ‘likes’ of one of our Facebook accounts – Akbank
Sanat – by 209% (around 25,000 additional likes) in just three
weeks. We then spotted the opportunity to improve marketing and
customer service and were the first bank in Turkey to create an App
that connects customer IDs with Facebook IDs.
How did we do it? The app requested
customers to enter a unique reference code obtained through the
secure online banking site, in exchange for entering a sweepstake
to win a vacation to the Seychelles.
Akbank has also used gaming as a an
innovative means to attract SMEs. On 29 June 2011 we launched Build
& Manage (Kur Yönet) which gets players to create a virtual
manufacturing facility – complete with its own marketing,
accounting and HR departments, a production line and even an
R&D lab.
Players must grow their company as
quickly and efficiently as possible, and can use a virtual Akbank
branch to improve their chances by applying for corporate credit
cards or loans. The top-three ranking virtual SMEs win several
prizes.
This game has been wildly
successful.
47% of the overall number of
visitors to Akbank’s actual SME portal have been led to the site
through the game alone and this month we recorded 83,000
players.
What’s exciting about social media
is how we can really get customers involved in our business
development.
Although marketing and promoting
gets the initial attention with the introduction of a new channel
as usual, now the banks are exploring more ways to utilise the
opportunities provided by reaching a more personal and detailed
information on their customer base.
We can crowd-source ideas for new
products and test our prototypes on a live audience in an immediate
and cost-efficient way.
For our customers, social media takes the chore out of personal
banking and just makes it fun.
Galip Tözge is executive
vice-president in charge of consumer banking at Akbank.
