Card Summit to tackle poor customer service by GCC banks

Posted on 22 October 2010 with no comments from readers

Customer service just is not up to global standards in the GCC banks and in difficult times banks are not being very helpful to their customers. This is a theme that will be taken up at the GCC Cards Summit 2010 in Bahrain from 1-3rd November.

But the good news for consumers is that increased competition and stagnant economies are exerting downward pressure on card fees across the region.

Fees under pressure

This is clearly something the banks issuing credit, debit and pre-paid cards would like to change. But instead they face the twin challenges of doing more business with less marketing resources and declining revenues.

That said pre-paid cards are the rising star of the moment. These are cards charged up with salaries and then used to pay retailers or obtain cash from ATMs. It’s a technology that offers greater security than cash and is more efficient for the distribution of large volumes of salary than cash.

Yet it is hard to know how card issuers can square the circle of improving customer service while cutting costs through outsourcing operations, for example. But this is important because customer acquisition is not as fast as it used to be in the region.

Put that down to the regional recession since the oil price spike of mid-2008 and the global financial crisis. Many expatriates have left and not so many new expatriates are arriving these days.

Even the co-branding of credit cards with airlines and retail groups is not happening as fast as in the boom times, while in the West co-branding continues apace. The new Carrefour Visa card is a rare exception.

Social media on the Internet is the brave new frontier for global bank marketing departments, and yet this inexpensive and effective promotional area has not yet been accessed by card issuers in this region. Maybe that will change. The Card Summit is briefing delegates on social media.

Plastic transfers

One boom area is for money transfers through plastic, mainly to the Subcontinent from the Gulf States. It’s also cost efficient and marries nicely with the increased use of pre-paid cards for salary payments.

Further out and card issuers will undoubtedly go mobile, given the importance of the mobile phone in the Arab World. But nobody has done mobile payments very effectively yet. It is the next frontier to cross.

In the meantime, end users will clearly be delighted if banks can get their act together on customer service. It ought to be possible. This is about user relationships and being sensitive to the needs of the client and their past relationship with the bank.

Taking complaints seriously

All too often this relationship is left in the hands of a junior employee with little experience in handling multi-cultural misunderstandings, and the banks also need to learn to give a little now in order to take more later so as not to lose valuable and hard won customers.

Of course, banks sometimes excel. This correspondent can still recall the head of cards from Citi in Dubai handling his customer complaint personally and getting things sorted out very quickly. Career-minded bankers might learn their lesson as he is now a regional CEO.