By Adam Wakefield

Banking today, in the words of Barclays Africa head of customer solutions, Jan Moganwa, has seen a shift in bargaining power from the banks themselves, to the customer. In the past, “you just had to open up and the customers came in and they did banking” and in small towns, banks formed an essential part of the community, where tellers would often personally know those they assisted.

According to Moganwa, speaking at Barclays Africa’s Johannesburg head office on Thursday, 29 September, accelerating urbanisation has seen the personal link between the customer and banks being severed. Digital banking is also causing fewer and fewer customers to enter a branch.

Banks “find themselves at a crossroads”. How do they differentiate themselves from one another while offering similar financial services? The answer is understanding who their customer is, with banks having not “done a great job of ‘Tell us who you are’.”

Absa, owned by Barclays Africa, find their customers have less time as banking becomes easier through automation. Their customers demand a personalised solution regardless of their income, in an era of shrinking physical social circles as digital ones expand.

An answer to this dilemma lies in the mobile phone. Through the data mobile phones provide, Absa is able to better understand who their customer is, resulting in improved and individualised service.

Returning to his earlier point, Moganwa said; “Differentiation is not by offering a better cheque account. We think differentiation will be by personalising the experience. The segment of one might have been a pipe dream at first, but the mobile phone gives us a chance of getting to a segment of one.”

Ashley Veasey, chief information officer at Barclays Africa, followed Moganwa and noted how when he joined the bank in 2014, he was not impressed by its online systems nor its lack of personalisation.

“Customers want ease of guidance into their banking needs and to improve on their banking needs. Many banks globally have been quite arrogant on how we think customers should bank with us,” Veasey said.

“Our whole reason in life is we need to listen to our customer and our customers’ need to tell us how they want to bank on their terms.”

Subsequently, over the last two years, Absa have overhauled their online customer touch-points, its own company culture and the culture of how they deal with their customers. Non-traditional banking employees were hired, from designers to data officers to product teams, people who brought a different mindset to the bank and the work it did. 

As a result, a “spaghetti” online presence has been made into something simple, with a whole new design implemented, leading to increased leads from their customers.

Further illustration of this change saw Absa become, according to Veasey, the first bank in the world to introduce full banking services on Facebook Messenger, in addition to the Twitter banking function they have introduced.

Why did they do it? Because they know their customers use chat services and apps such as WhatsApp every day. They want to be where the customer is.

He then turned the conversation to the physical realm, where Marius de la Rey, head of customer channels and distribution, noted how there is a “natural tension” between banking’s digital future and its physical present, with banking worldwide becoming an omnichannel game.

“The quantum leap is CX, UX and UI on the digital platforms. You can’t leave the physical behind. There are two drivers in the physical environment; people cost and naturally your premises do not come cheap,” Da Le Rey said.

“It’s a tricky balance for us to make sure we have sufficient digital and sufficient physical as it doubles the expense.”

What Absa are seeking to do is bring in a retailer mindset into their branches, making the customer experience as positive as possible. Digital had set the standard, so it was a question of how they enhance it within the physical space.

This has led Absa to design branches, such as the one at the Mall of Africa, around the themes of modularity and flexibility. Branches need to be physically adaptable to the change that will take place within the sector.

“I don’t want to go to a branch and break brick and mortar,” De Le Rey said. “We can’t build a physical branch that can’t adapt to change. What is happening in-branch will not be happening in five years’ time."

For more information, visit www.absa.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook or on Twitter.