An update - a little birdie told us that SBI printed 500,000 new account opening forms recently - they were over in 3 days!!
Our elders and seniors are secretly laughing at us and saying 'I told you so!' After a few years of being completely bowled over by the posh ambience, hi-technology and superior service at the numerous HSBCs and Citis and Standard Chartereds, we, the middle and upper class customer group, are slowly but surely returning to the down-to-earth portals of the nationalised banks.
Yes, walk into SBI and you see a queue for new account openings and fresh FDs. And its not the retired crowd - its the young professionals who are lining up. Sure, interest rates are lower than ICICI or HSBC - but we believe our money will be safer. With stock markets collapsing, who wants bank accounts also wiped out!
All it takes is a global crisis of confidence for us to scurry back to the safe havens of the government-protected (or so we believe) PSU banks. And so...... we willingly stand in queues (where only recently we were calling up a relationship manager), we move from counter to counter and we wait 10 days for an FDR to be delivered......We do so because we TRUST. What power the brand has....
And hey, the change is refreshing! Suddenly, we feel at home - not so alien. Counter staff are smiling and welcoming, even if a trifle sloppy. And yes, SBI is airconditioned - so what's the problem with long waits!
Creating and sustaining a channel program is an extensive and exhausting exercise- Cartesian gives you 11 pointers to know and measure the success of your program
Essentially, when it comes down to the nuts and bolts, every business is about creating and keeping a customer.
When a business is launched, it is all about creating awareness, placing the product of service in the market, finding the prospects and getting them to become customers. Acquisition is the name of the game. Simple and straightforward. I’m not in business if I don’t have a customer; So where’s my best prospect and what’s the best way to convert him or her?
Leena Basrur and Sandeep Mittal of Cartesian Consulting conducted sessions on using Loyalty Progams and Analytics for Direct Marketing at the DMain conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan on the 26th of October 2008.
