Using Social Technology tools to Increase Client Base and Engage Customers

The focus of today’s blog is about how an organization has explored the use of social technology value levers to its advantage. The company studied in this blog post is a large financial institution based in Africa - Guaranty Trust Bank. The bank was founded in 1990 in Nigeria, and it has grown to be the largest and most profitable bank in Nigeria with an asset base of over US$15 Billion and an annual revenue of over US$ 1 Billion. To this day it is loved by customers because of its excellent customer service and adherence to standard global financial practices.  

In this blog post, we will highlight how Guaranty Trust bank Africa is using social technology value levers in two functional areas of their business – sales and marketing, and customer service.

Guaranty Trust Bank has been using the sales and marketing social technology value levers to gain customer insights that have led to the development of new strategies and new decisions in key business areas such as placement of ATM machines in new locations based on customer insights gained through social media platforms. These types of insights are gained by asking themselves simple but powerful questions such as ‘what do customers and prospective customers really want from their bank? ’

The bank has executed a strategy to help it generate and foster sales leads through social media platforms. To achieve its purpose the bank recently launched an application online that allows new customers to open a bank account on Facebook. The bank's management has announced recently the development of a social commerce application that allows customers to securely transfer money to other customers, pay bills and confirm their account balance through their facebook account.

Based on Guaranty Trust Bank’s commitment to maximizing the potential of social technologies to engage, communicate and interact with its customers and potential customers, it has developed some digital marketing properties such as the Ndani TV on youtube, the Ndani blog and the Ndani facebook page.

Customer service through the use of social technologies has led to quantum leaps of improvement in a lot of companies’ client relationship management. Guaranty Trust bank has used it to improve its communication with customers on enhancements and problems with its products and services. In 2012, the bank used its social media presence to handle customer complains when part of its internet functionality was down due to security upgrades.

Using these social technology levers, Guaranty Trust Bank has been able to move far ahead of its peers including big banks in Europe and North America. The bank has been able to generate so much buzz in the online social media arena with over two million ‘Likes’ on Facebook alone, making it the most liked bank in Africa. The power of social technology levers cannot be underestimated. With the fast pace of disruption in different areas of our society caused by the advent of social technologies, the potential threat it has to disrupt industries such as traditional banking cannot be compared to any other technology of its kind leading to fear in the hearts of top bankers around the world. Not until the well-established banks around the world find a way to seamlessly integrate this new technology into their everyday business, their enterprise would be at the messy of the ones that find profitable and useful ways to integrate this technology.

Reference

Social media lessons from banking insiders 

http://www.kpmg.com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/social-banker-v2-social-media-lessons-banking-insiders.pdf