Have a smart card, get royal treatment at Canara Bank

Source:Anjana Chandramouly,Business line:Bangalore,13,Sep 2010

Mr Sivakumar, a 57-year-old headmaster, has been banking with Canara Bank for the last three decades. Though he's a valued customer, the century-old bank now hopes to bring his 27-year-old tech-savvy daughter into its fold.

With its new ‘smart' customer relationship management (CRM) initiative targeted at select customers, the bank, with a clientele base of over 37.5 million, is looking to infuse a younger profile into its client mix.

‘Select' customers

‘Select' customers across segments, who the bank feels require special attention, such as professionals and youngsters with time constraints, will soon have bank staff greeting them as they walk into their lobbies to ensure personalised service. The sensors fitted in the branches will alert the staff whenever these customers walk in with chip-based smart cards provided by the bank.

“The minute the customer walks in, his/her details with photo will pop up on the screens of at least three staff in the branch. The staff will receive the customerand make him/her feel important and take care of theneeds,” Mr Jagdish Pai K.L., Executive Director, Canara Bank, told Business Line.

Good response

In fact, the bank had done this on an experimental basis at its Cantonment Branch in Bangalore two years ago.

With good response from customers who enjoyed the service, the bank now plans to launch the service in some of its urban branches across the country.

The bank having achieved 100 per cent CBS (core banking solution), the ‘select' customer could expect such a service at any of the select branches. “The challenge for every bank, post-CBS, is to leverage technology,” said Mr Pai, explaining the timing of the service.

‘Tierisation'

The bank would follow a ‘tierisation' procedure, and this is where a chip card comes in handy. According to him, ‘tierisation' is one way of identifying these young customers, whose expectations from a bank include technology-based products and understanding their requirements.

With public sector banks receiving strong support only from people above 50 years of age, “attracting young people is one of the action points to leverage technology,” he pointed out.

Gen-next branches

In fact, the bank is also in the process of evolving its medium-term business plan, which includes launching products and services sought by the younger generation, said Mr H.S. Upendra Kamath, Executive Director, Canara Bank.

The plan includes setting up of gen-next branches, greater thrust on acquiring young customers — particularly from the IT profession, garnering payroll accounts, generating fee-generating activities, structuring and launching products and services sought by younger generation customers.