Miguel Montes leads the operations and corporate
development division at Banco Sabadell, Spain’s sixth-largest bank
by assets. He tells Douglas Blakey that Sabadell is investing
heavily in self-service channels and has thrown itself
enthusiastically into promoting the use of social media, all backed
by a major ad campaign.
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Offering
clients an integrated customer experience across the channels
including branch, online and mobile and integrating same with
social media – service excellence in brief – is an oft-repeated
goal of retail banks around the world.
Many banks strive to achieve
customer excellence but few deliver.
In New Zealand, ASB has attracted
admiring glances for its attempts to differentiate itself on
service excellence; ditto OCBC and DBS in Singapore.
In North America, Royal Bank of
Canada would have valid claims to lead in terms of customer service
while in Europe, la Caixa springs to mind in Spain as do perennial
innovators in Turkey such as Garanti and Akbank.
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By GlobalDataAnd then there is Banco Sabadell,
the sixth-largest lender in Spain by assets.
Although Sabadell is hampered in
one sense by geography – the ratio of digital transactions in Spain
typically lag those of Scandinavia for example – Sabadell says that
it is leaving no stone unturned to promote digital banking.
In particular, Sabadell views the
mobile channel as a great opportunity and has also been among the
most enthusiastic banks in Europe to promote the use of social
media.
In January, Sabadell became the
first bank in Europe to offer remote cheque deposit functionality
and in March rolled out a Personal Financial Management (PFM) tool
for its online customers.
Sabadell’s commitment to promote
its digital channels has also been backed up by a major advertising
campaign, pushing its mobile offerings, which incorporate all
leading platforms, including iPhone/iPad, Android, Blackberry and
Windows Mobile.
Sabadell chief operating officer
Miguel Montes leads the operations and corporate development
division at Banco Sabadell and since joining the bank in 2001, has
been involved in a number of strategic and technological projects
designed to transform the bank.
Montes tells RBI how
Sabadell is progressing towards its aim of ramping up digital
channels’ use and the thinking behind its current advertising
campaign.
Retail Baker International (RBI): Can
you share some numbers with us on take-up of your mobile banking
channel?
Miguel Montes
(MM): Currently, more than 16% of our online customers are
active mobile banking users. This means that one out of five
individuals who access our online banking platform does so from a
mobile phone.
In companies, this ratio is one out
of ten. Moreover, 80% of service transactions are conducted through
remote channels. This is very significant in a country like Spain,
which is not at the head of Europe in internet penetration.
These figures only refer to our
mobile banking platform. Additionally, we have approximately
700,000 users of our SMS alert service, which is about 30% of our
customer base.
RBI: How has
Sabadell sought to differentiate itself via digital?
MM: We were the
first bank in Europe to offer remote cheque deposit by mobile
phone… we were pioneers.
We were also the first financial
institution in Europe to offer an iPad application and the first
one in Spain to have an application for all mobile devices [iPhone,
Windows Phone, Android and Blackberry].
Innovation is one of our values and
is very much related to service. In our effort to innovate, we
learn more about customers and their needs and we believe this
brings us closer to them.
RBI: What about
tablet banking?
MM: In 2010, we were the first
financial institution in Europe to launch an iPad application. It
has been well accepted by our customers and we keep improving it
(ie, we integrated social media in the application). Other
institutions have followed suit.
RBI: On to social
media… how is the bank using social media? How important is
social media to the bank’s brand/communications?
MM: Management at
Banco Sabadell understood from the beginning that we needed to be
present in social media.
We think that the web is like main
street and social media is like bars or pubs where people join to
chat.
We saw quickly that people talked
about us and that we could talk to our customers and potential
clients and provide service.
We started in 2010 by listening to
what people were saying about us. Later, we started to use it as a
communication tool and integrated video content.
We saw that, in some sense, it was
more powerful than traditional communication tools, since it
allowed us to have conversations with our clients.
Finally, we included social media
as an additional service channel and integrated it in our mobile
application.
RBI: Any upcoming
social media initiatives?
MM: We have many
projects regarding social media. I’ll point out two.
One is to involve our employees and
maximise the potential of their use of social media; this involved
a decision about the role that employees need to play, which is not
a straightforward question. The other is to generate our own
content to include in social media.
RBI: How about
using social media to have sales discussions with
customers?
MM: We see social
media as a new service channel. From the moment we have
conversations with our customers, many of these are about the
services and products that the bank offers.
The issue is that these
conversations are often taking place without being directed by
us.
For example, we had a taxi driver
praise Banco Sabadell’s service and the point of sale terminal that
was installed in his cab. After reading his comments, we had
contact from other cab drivers, who also wanted the product.
The magic is that we didn’t start
the sale process directly. A satisfied customer did, and the
virality of social media made the rest.
It is also a pleasure to see how a
customer who had a problem with the bank is able to solve it in an
agile way through Twitter or facebook.
We had a recent comment on Twitter
from a customer which, after an incident, said: “Immediate online
response; you closed the circle with the branch.”
That’s what makes us feel proud of
the service.
RBI: Does the bank
monitor social media comment by customers?
MM: We do. We
carry out a monthly monitoring of our presence, what people say
about us, the number of people talking about us and so on.
There has been strong support to
use social media by senior management from the start. Before
incorporating social media tools in our client relations, we had
already incorporated social media in our internal innovation and
improvement process.
We created BS Idea, where employees
can collaborate and present their ideas to be enriched, criticised
and voted on by other colleagues.
In 2010, more than 3,000 ideas were
generated by employees.
RBI: What has the
bank learned from the use of social media?
MM: I think we
have learned much. I would say first, contrary to what some people
think, maybe the biggest risk is not to be present in social
media.
Second, I would say that companies
should not be afraid of participation. In general, it increases
customers’ engagement with the brand.
Third, social media and digital
revolution makes it necessary to rethink the relations among all
the channels.
We have strengthened our Direct
Branch [similar capabilities to a brick branch but phone-assisted]
to play an anchor role in the coordination of all channels.
Finally, I believe there is a need
to involve all employees in the use of social media; they are also
our presence on the web. However, we still have a bunch of
unanswered questions and challenges!
RBI: Digital is at
the heart of Sabadell’s current advertising. Can you explain the
thinking behind the campaign?
MM: The ad tagline
is ‘This isn’t remote banking; it is taking the bank with you’.
With this campaign, we wanted to
show all the servicing capabilities that the bank can offer
customers from a very dynamic, versatile and modern
perspective.
On the one hand, service is at the
heart of Banco Sabadell’s value proposition and we have a strong
reputation for service quality.
On the other, the evolution of
technology has allowed people and companies to overcome the limits
of time and space through mobile devices.
However, in the words ‘remote
banking’, there is an implicit perception of distance or separation
between customer and bank.
Therefore, we wanted to show that
customers can enjoy the advantages of service (24×7, from home,
immediacy, etc), without losing the proximity and the service that
are inherent to our values.
‘Taking the bank with you’ implies
that we will be close to our customers when they need it, wherever
they are.
Banks have introduced new channels
to serve and communicate with customers. However, we believe this
is a new paradigm.
Accordingly, what we have done is
to rethink the full customer experience to make sure that customers
can enjoy a seamless multi-channel experience throughout their
relationship with the bank, whatever is the channel they decide to
switch to, including the branch.
RBI: What is the
bank looking to achieve from the campaign?
MM: We launched
the campaign in the summer, when many customers are away from home.
We wanted to give customers and non-customers the opportunity to
test our service and to experience what they see in the
campaign.
Every campaign builds on our brand
image and, with this one, we wanted to build on our service
reputation.
Additionally, we also wanted to
strengthen the pioneering image that we have in the use of new
channels to serve customers. This innovation effort brings value to
our franchise, since it is valued by customers, suppliers,
investors, etc.
RBI: What does the
ad campaign involve?
MM: The campaign
was launched both online and offline. Online media included banners
at external sites and on our home pages, social media messages with
the possibility to view the video (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube),
etc.
Offline media included print and
radio, as well as point of sale material in the branches. We also
included e-mailings and letters to customers.
It has been important to combine
the external campaign with internal campaigns, where all our
employees have been able to see and understand the advantages of
the service that we are promoting and could be viral about it.
RBI: And initial
feedback from the campaign… is it positive?
MM: The campaign
has been a success. The video has been viewed nearly 300,000 times
in one month.
Though, initially, we did not plan
to have the video soundtrack available for download, we made it
available a few days after the campaign began, given the volume of
requests. We plan to continue using this campaign in the
future.
