As banks are looking approach to the client

Keeping an existing customer costs a bank in an amount considerably less than the new attraction. This statement seems to be clear and undisputed. However, many organizations rather prefer to spend time and money to attract new customers than retaining old ones. For financial institutions (especially banks, which recently started to work in a saturated market) work on loyalty of existing customers is becoming increasingly important. "After the crisis, many banks faced with the need to accommodate the large amount of liabilities accrued during the crisis, after a short flight at the beginning of the crisis - says Svetlana Zakharenkova, director of retail products NB" Trust. " - An important tool for solving this problem is actively working with a system of loyalty. Since this is a sales channel, which allows banks with minimal marketing, without a large advertising company, to sell their products. " "Today, approximately 90% of the total working population of Russia are already customers of banks, - says Andrey Stepanenko, a member of the Board of Raiffeisenbank. - Accordingly, it is especially evident in the post-crisis conditions, the cost of attracting new clients in this market will grow. And over time, will have a decisive influence on the profits of banks, to the point that the mere involvement of a bank guarantee can not profit. " When maintaining a constant customer increases the chance of successful cross-selling, while the "newcomer" is likely to abandon the acquisition of an unplanned banking product in their first visit to the credit institution. The difficulty of the method. In Russia there is no certain method to increase loyalty. This concept is relatively new, not only for bank customers, but also for the top management of credit institutions. So many have to start from scratch. Terms of the products in almost all banks are identical, so one of the main criteria when choosing a bank is its customer-oriented policy, says Vadim Jansson, head of quality and service of Absolut Bank. "Post-crisis period, forces banks to make more effort to maintain customer loyalty. Customers have become more cautious and suspicious, - he said. - It was difficult for them to attract and even harder - to keep. Just then, and plays a crucial role approach to customers, which is important to understand that he does not care just gets - it solves all your financial needs as comfortable and profitable. Realizing the effectiveness of interaction with the bank, the customer becomes loyal. A loyal customer of three new leads, disloyal - would lead the five. " Very loyal market participants understand differently. For example, Andrew Stepanenko said that loyalty to Raiffeisenbank - "this desire to meet customer needs all of its financial through our bank, rather than through competition." Philosophical transcript offered in Binbanka. As noted by Anton Rud, director of retail sales in the literature to define customer loyalty as "a result of the interaction of two elements: the economic and emotional loyalty to loyalty." "Under the economic customer loyalty as the creation of their profits for a company that is economically loyal customer - a customer, revenue from services which are greater than the cost of this service, - he explains. - The problem in this case is not just simply to encourage customers to repeat purchase, but also to ensure that the conditions and amount of these purchases did not bring the company's losses. Moreover, the task of the bank is to create an environment for clients to their economic loyalty to the bank was shown for possible longer period of time, and their life cycle maximized. As world practice shows the "struggle" for customer loyalty, increase the period during which the client is economically loyal to the company, is possible only if the client develop a positive emotional loyalty. " However, the difference in the definitions had little effect on the way to increase loyalty. A set of proposals, as a rule, standard. First, it presents a public contribution or a map (often kobrendingovye projects when, in addition to bank profits and the company gets another partner, immediately providing a mug, scarf, etc.). Second, the discounts for regular customers (reduced percentage of commissions paid by utilities, to obtain the second and subsequent banking products to certain concessional terms, for example, the exchange of Visa Electron card to a higher class - Visa Classic with a 50 percent discount for annual maintenance and r . etc.). Third, the lottery and sweepstakes ("Open the map in March and get a chance to win a ticket to the Maldives" - here, too, as a rule, there is kobrend project). But some banks are trying to find a creative approach to clients. For example, the PC "Elkabank" carries with them "round tables" on current financial topics, organizing corporate events, organizes concerts of foreign stars, in the first place where it is invited to regular customers of the bank. OTP Bank creates a special loyalty program for customers who survived along with the financial crisis. "Loyalty to manage at any time and regardless of economic conditions, - the Bulad Subanov, executive director of division of the" Network "OTP Bank. - A post-crisis market is one of the priorities. Certainly one of the key segments are those customers who have remained with the bank, despite the general boom in times of crisis. For them, developed the special conditions and products. " In the Asia-Pacific bank, according to deputy chairman of the board of Alexander Nepomnyastchy, launched campaign called "Avtopartner", under which is an agreement with car dealers, developed kobrendingovaya plastic card. "It is awarded to all natural persons who apply for a car loan, the bank's depositors and VIP-customers - says the Forgetful. - Participants are granted share discounts from established dealership, which was signed this agreement, the car wash, fuel purchase, and so on. " The practice of evaluation. Carry out the necessary work is sometimes not the most difficult. Then more difficult to evaluate its effectiveness. There are very different ways. For example, many Russian companies as a basis for measuring loyalty index again take recourse to it for the product or service. But experts believe this estimate questionable, because often it just goes where he prepared to give a discount. Someone thinks that loyalty must be assessed through questioning customers and counting the number of active product per customer. However, the most reliable indicator of success is customer willingness to recommend the bank or company to their friends. "If the client is satisfied with the service, but are not ready to recommend the bank you know, it means that the level of his loyalty is low" - believes Ivan Pyatkov, director of products and technologies PSB. In the West popular technique is the Net Promoter Score (NPS). In accordance with her clients every company can be divided into three categories. The first - "promoters," this loyal enthusiasts convince their friends to use the services of the company. The second category - "passive" or "neutral" - customers satisfied with service, but are not ready to recommend the company to their friends. They could easily win over rivals. And the third category - "detraktory" (the literal translation - "insinuatory, slanderers") who are dissatisfied with service. NPS itself in a simplified form is calculated as the difference between the percentage of clients who are "promoters", and the percentage of "detraktorov." In our country, this technique is only beginning to emerge, but it is already using Probusinessbank and Alfa Bank. In Russia, where the NPS methodology used by a few, are having difficulty with the comparison of estimates of customer loyalty, and one other organization. To do this more often use the "Mystery Shopper". So, company "PricewaterhouseCoopers" in Russia is "Customer Experience Index", which is calculated for retail banks to show their strengths and weaknesses, which will be important to potential customers. Each bank receives credit for five indicators - the brand, communication, environment, and culture offer. Leaders in 2010 began descending Alpha Bank, Citibank, Absolut Bank, Raiffeisen Bank and VTB 24. The difference between Alfa Bank, who took 1st place (4.36 points), and Sovkombank who won the last, 41 th (2.37 points), up 1.99 points. The study, which is available on the official website of PwC, shows that the highest score a big impact on sales performance. But the impressions of the clients themselves, such a study does not account for. In addition, according to the position Reyhelda Frederick, the founder of NPS, should take into account not only the loyalty of consumers (in this case, the clients of credit institutions), but also other counterparties - the organization's staff and investors. The current situation. Count achieved results from loyalty programs players start just now. We should expect that only in developing their own methods, based on existing international equivalents, and thus are effective in Russia, will take at least a year. How much will be required for the establishment and proper implementation of such techniques at least the first hundred banks, it is impossible to calculate. It should also establish the authorized department, which would monitor the condition of the market and loyalty, based on certain standards have been analyzing the timing and technique brings ever fine-tuning its provisions. For example, Frederick Reyheld proposed to raise the management on the basis of loyalty to the level of scientific system in the late XX century. Of course, as the establishment and improvement of methods will have to hire specialized companies, but so far most of the banks to cope on their own. The ideal is bilateral cooperation - the authorized department of the credit institution and hired the firm. In this case, on the one hand, the data analyzed within the retail unit of the bank, and on the other - an analysis of responses received from clients and their relation to the realities of the market. For example, Unicredit Bank part of his research is conducted independently of customer loyalty, and some - with the involvement of contractors. Despite the fact that the results of customer loyalty programs can not be considered a significant part of bank profits, revenue, they still bring. More acquisitions are branding as a new customer is a known person. Thus, the client "Alfa Insurance" for 4 years is a composer Maxim Dunaevsky who joined the company on the advice of a friend. In the Investment Bank of the order of 20-25% of new investors came on the recommendation of friends and acquaintances. In the retail banking business segment FG "Life" of clients who have come on the recommendation of friends, is about 40%. 6 out of 10 investors VTB24 recommend their bank to friends, acquaintances and colleagues. Experts point out that increasing customer loyalty prevents a number of factors, including the complex regulatory environment, strict control by the regulator, the inadequacy of internal corporate rules and regulations for private clients, a variety of technological failures in the organization, as well as ill-built work with claims. For example, a citizen's hard to explain why the number of banking operations, it can not be implemented without a passport, although the currency, in spite of all the Central Bank decision, he can buy at almost every corner without presenting any document. Also, many customers believe that their identity may certify a driver's license, and strongly resent when it turns out that it is not, and no passport with him. Of course, customer loyalty is greatly reduced when he is refused the operation. Insurers are among the leaders. Loyalty programs are similar to insurance companies, banking. The difference is that the insurers for which the renewal of the policy (for example, in the case of the CTP and home insurance) is critically important work on the loyalty of their customers (and appreciate it) longer than the banks. "Improving customer loyalty - one of our key objectives - said Renat Konurbayev, vice president of the company" Rosgosstrakh ". - It is obvious that only the company, significantly superior to its competitors in the level of customer service and, consequently, the level of customer loyalty, may be unattainable in a successful long term. " According Konurbaeva they have in the past two years, regular customer surveys from different regions. "In order to measure customer loyalty, we use two main instruments - continues Konurbayev. - One of them is designed for companies "Rosgosstrakh" and is called "customer satisfaction index" (CGI). The challenge of measuring and analyzing the ICU - one of the strategic objectives of the company, based on the measurement results of the index client satisfaction with management decisions. However, we already spend more than a year of customer loyalty measurement of NPS ». Renat Konurbayev also said that the recommendation of friends and acquaintances are the most popular source of information about insurance. NPS also uses another major player in the insurance market - "Rosno." Here, on an ongoing basis with regular reviews research clients with the help of focus groups, which involved specialized organizations. "We use the expertise of our colleagues from the group Allianz. We gradiruem customers by the number of purchased products, the size of the introduced client premiums and years, "performed" with "Rosno", "- said Artashes Sivkov, Deputy Director General" Rosno. " Now the company is working on creating a comprehensive loyalty program. This is done quite deliberately: according to studies, approximately 40% of the surveyed existing customers have come on the recommendation of friends. The company "Alfa Insurance" is also trying to increase the loyalty of all available means. According to Irina Shaposhnikova, deputy director of the Moscow Regional Centre "Alfa Insurance", the loyalty is tracked by the system of measurements, survey through special agencies, with the service quality of service, etc. In Moscow, the surveys were conducted in the department for payment or given a questionnaire to the service quality of customer service. "Currently we are studying the experience of other companies. I think, his own scoring system will be customer satisfaction in the Moscow region in the second half of this year ", - commented Shaposhnikov. Oleg Lebedev, director of marketing, "INTOUCH Insurance", said the loyalty shape the quality of personnel, the system of settlement of losses and discounts to customers for profitability. The sum of these factors and in deliberation is crucial to extend the client's policy. "The survey data, we conducted three weeks ago, shows that approximately 30% of our new customers come on the recommendation of existing clients - said Lebedev. - It is also an important indicator of loyalty to the company. For us, these data have been surprisingly pleasant, since we are not so long ago, are present in the market, but trust us, we recommend that it is important for financial services company. In gratitude for what we recommend, we provide our clients with a certificate for 50 gallons of gasoline. " Gay future. But the experience of insurers to work on customer loyalty is rather an exception for the Russian financial market. And banks and asset managers still have a long way to come close in this respect with colleagues from developed countries. "For example, in the retail banking sector in France used the practice of securing personal manager for a group of customers, - says Igor Orlov, head of sales animation Rosbank. - If, for example, the client Societe Generale change jobs, the new employer is not forcing its workers servicing bank to open an account / credit card to these accounts listed salary. On the contrary, an employee in employment itself provides the accounting details of their accounts in SG, where he served. This is the customer loyalty. This situation - the norm for almost all European countries, Russia will come to that in 5-10 years. "