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Published on January 4, 2008

Gone are the days when a bank clerk would snap irritably across the counter if a customer filled out the wrong deposit form.

Instead, today's bank clerks smile pleasantly and offer to fill out the correct form for the customer.

It is all symptomatic of the cut-throat competition in the Thai banking industry, which has gone through a period of brand-building and is now locked in a contest for best service and most customer satisfaction as individual banks battle to build customer bases and maintain long-term growth.

Over the past few years, the images of various banks have lit up with now-familiar colours: blue and orange for Bangkok Bank, green for Kasikornbank (KBank), blue mint and navy blue for Krung Thai Bank, purple and gold for Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) and yellow for Bank of Ayudhya.

With the recognition, customers are demanding more from their financial-service providers. They want customer-friendly clerks, speedy front-office service, comfortable and attractive banking halls and everything else that makes them feel important. The banks are well aware of the trend and demanding that their clerks turn on a warm welcome. High-end customers are treated to luxurious lounges.

Under universal-banking coverage, Thai banks are now allowed to offer a variety of financial services in addition to traditional lending and taking deposits. Many now offer products they say are unique and difficult to copy, ranging from commodity markets to simple differentiation. SCB and KBank appear to be the leaders in this regard.

SCB is believed to have snapped the others into alert mode with its modified front-office services under a "world-class standard" policy. The move has not only been the talk of the industry, but also had the desired effect: customers are expressing greater satisfaction with SCB's services.

At its branches, all staff are able to answer any question about financial products and provide assistance with all financial business transactions offered by the SCB Group - including filling out deposit forms. Service speed is another key factor. Customers spend an average of only five minutes in completing any single banking transaction at the bank's front counters. The time taken was once 38 minutes per transaction, and more recently 15 minutes. The race for front-office efficiency has teamed up with an aggressive marketing strategy.

More than half of SCB's 860 branches around the Kingdom have now achieved its world-class standard. The rest are under pressure to achieve the standard as soon as possible. Seventy new SCB branches to open this year will upgrade to world-class standard within 12 months of opening their doors.

"We position ourselves as a service provider, not just a bank," said SCB chairman and CEO Vichit Suraphongchai. "SCB will maintain its 'Bank of Choice' slogan. We want to provide services the others cannot copy. To be different - that is the concept of SCB."

KBank has introduced two new services to maintain its customer base. The country's fourth-largest bank has launched K Now, which offers free advice and information on both financial and non-financial matters via the bank's website. It advises and informs about financial products with the objective of giving customers greater efficiency in managing their personal and business budgeting. The free advice is also offered to general inquirers, not only to KBank customers.

KBank CEO Banthoon Lamsam said his bank wanted to offer different banking services that were hard for others to copy.

Better services are a key factor in attracting customers when they are looking for financial products.

For example, retail customers applying for housing loans are given information about acquiring new homes on a limited budget. Through its website and K Home Smile Club, KBank offers information on finding new homes according to location, feng shui, furnishings and home renovation. One month after K Now was launched last October, another product was introduced: the K-We Plan, a free financial-planning service covering preparations for education, lifestyle and retirement.

Before launching the two services, KBank focused mainly on services for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The bank created K SME Care, in order to provide them

with venture capital, advice from business experts, research and education via seminars and training courses for SME operators around the country.

Although other large banks have said they will pay more attention to customer services, such improvements have not been obvious. Bangkok Bank, the country's biggest bank, plans to concentrate on staff training as a means of developing customer service. The bank acknowledges that in the recently hot competition, it still has some weak points, but it is quick to add that it also has strong points.

Bangkok Bank chairman Chatri Sophonpanich recently said service improvement depended mainly on human-resource development. It is not easy to make all staff offer the same quality of customer service, he said. Besides, the bank is planning further investment in infrastructure systems, in order to upgrade the quality of its customer service.

One analyst at a local research house said customer service had gathered new importance for the banking industry. He explained that customer service could be used to differentiate one bank from the others, whereas financial products could be copied.

Somruedi Banchongduang

 The Nation