Vi har till allas stora glädje fått svar från Aktia gällande deras verksamhet, strategi, och dylikt. Frågor & svar enligt följande:
- Vi har hört att Aktias mål är att år 2015 vara Finlands bästa bank på service; hurdana åtgärder och hurdan strategi har ni för att genomföra målet?
* Vi har ett proaktiv sätt att arbeta gentemot våra kunder
* Vår focus är att ha en vältränad, effektiv och spänstig organisation som arbetar på kundens villkor med ett personligt och modern sätt
* vi fastställer varje år mätare för att följa upp hur bra vi är på kundservice
* även externa/objektiva mätningar används i kombination med egna mätare/kundförfrågningar för att få en helhetsbild
* Mätarna baserar sig på: aktivitet gentemot kunder, tillgänglighet då kunden behöver få tag på oss, smidighet och enkelhet i att sköta sina ärenden, vår sakkunnighet att kunna betjäna kunderna i alla deras utmaningar/frågor samt trevlighet (det är roligt att vara i kontakt med oss).
- Har Aktia planerat att göra eller håller Aktia på att göra en "bank-app" till smarttelefoner? Hur kommer den att verkställas och vilka tjänster kommer den att innehålla?
* ingen bank-app lanseras för olika platformer som går att ladda ner t.ex på Appstore
* istället lanseras en mobil browsing-version av nätbanken i början av hösten 2013 som innehåller de mest väsentliga tjänsterna man som kund behöver (betala räkningar, se saldo, bekräfta betalningar/e-fakturor, se förfallande betalningar)
- Vilken är Er viktigaste målgrupp/kundsegment inom private-banking?
* Inom privatkundssegmentet är våra viktigaste kunder förmögna och/eller höginkomsstagare, familjebyggare och unga kunder med bra potential (utbildning, yrke...).
* För dessa erbjuder vi olika kundförmåner och -erbjudanden såsom Aktia Premium.
* Private Banking är vår avdelning/kontor för våra mest förmögna privatkunder
- Vad upplever Aktia själv att är dess starka sidor som en bank i Finland och vilka kunde utvecklas?
* Styrkor: tvåspråkighet, lokal närvaro där vi känner kunderna personligen, inhemsk och självständig retailbank med lojala ägare, konkurrenskraftiga tjänster/priser och kunderbjudande
* Utvecklingsområden: kännedom på finska marknaden, nivån på kundservice, moderna och smartare system t.ex. mobila tjänster och tjänster i telefon/nätet, större möjligheter online, attraktivitet som arbetsgivare
- Hurdan skolning har Aktia för arbetstagarna och hur ofta håller Aktia skolningar?
* Arbetstagarna utbildas enligt ett schema årligen med information kring produkter, försäljning, aktuella förändringar i lagstiftning/marknaden, kundförmåner, ledarskap.
* Totalt ordnas årligen tiotals utbildningar både fysiskt på plats, via telefonkonferenser och genom e-learning
* Alla nya aktianer har ett eget introduktionsprogram
- Mikael L
Monday, 15 April 2013
Sunday, 14 April 2013
Yes we mean you!
Dear reader,
what are your thoughts on the future of banking?
Do you think that face to face bank encounters and branches will totally disappear?
In which direction will the business evolve?
What might be the future trends in your opinion?
Share your thoughts with us! The team is excited to get some new insights and inspiration from your viewpoints :-)
Matthäus for Team Royal Mess
what are your thoughts on the future of banking?
Do you think that face to face bank encounters and branches will totally disappear?
In which direction will the business evolve?
What might be the future trends in your opinion?
Share your thoughts with us! The team is excited to get some new insights and inspiration from your viewpoints :-)
Matthäus for Team Royal Mess
Future Trends
Branches
Dissenting
with many forecasts, there will still be branches, because people want to see
who copes with their money, it is a matter of trust. But the branches will
change.
New fresh
bank counter design will provide an open and trustful image of future banks.
Generally the branches will look more inviting and more open to the customers.
There will most probably be fewer branches and smaller ones with less staff.
New technology will be provided inside. It might be possible 24/7 to get face
to face assistance via monitor and teleconference. Many services can be done by
the customer himself within the branch on special counters.
Further
also smaller developments have to be stressed, like new design for ATMs which
increases privacy.
Do-it-yourself
It is
estimated, that the customer can do 90% of banking services on his own. So why
not encourage the customer to do so and through this make banking faster as
well as save costs?
Future
branches might therefore rather resemble check-in counters at airports, where
the customers can do their banking business on their own. There will only be a
few people assisting these actions in case of questions or insecurities.
The most
opportunities for do-it-yourself banking most probably offers online banking. It
is accessible every day and during all times of the day. Further you can reach
it from your home via computer or mobile phone app. These online services will
be further redesigned to make it even easier in the future to do your business
from the place you are at the moment. Along with online and do-it-yourself
services comes mobile banking and customization.
Mobile
banking
Mobile
banking via the internet is definitely still a trend and a growing market. It
allows the customer to transfer money from every place he is. It paves the way
to 24/7 omniscient service, which also means 24/7 possibility to make business
and spend money, possibly increasing spending.
Furthermore
mobilization also concerns the field of assistance. The customer will connect
his device to the bank and get assistance via teleconference or video
conference directly on his mobile device or PC. This advantage makes assistance
faster, accessible from everywhere and every time. No longer the customer has
to go to the branch and queue or make an appointment if a problem appears, he
gets help instantly.
Customization
A trend for
the future is surely also customization. User interface will be tailored to the
customer´s needs in order to make access faster, easier and more efficient.
This might also reach new customer strata who are not using online services by
today. The advantages of the digital age, offering much data to analyze your
customer gives the company many opportunities to customize services, offers and
profiles.
There will
be new ways to perform research on customization. Demographics will no longer
play such an important role, the trend will shift to psychographics. Nowadays
many offers are tailored to life-stage banking but more efficient might be
lifestyle banking guided by the customers´ attitude, values and beliefs.
Cooperation turns to co-creation
Cooperation
is still essential in the future. But even more crucial is creating new
services and offers. In an interconnected world this will more often only be
possible in cooperation. Banks, retailers, technologists and telecommunication
providers will cooperate to co-create new trends. A focus should be especially
put on the cooperation between banks and telecommunication providers. Banks
have the knowledge, experience and licenses for the money business while the
telecommunication branch provides leading-edge possibilities to reach customers
as well as an overall network and infrastructure to offer services everywhere.
Cooperation
can also be regarded under the fact that people no longer strive for owning
things as long as they can still use them. Car-sharing schemes or internet
services like Spotify are an indicator for this trend. This might inspire some
new co-creations.
Digitalization
Digitalization
can be as well a blessing as a curse. Firstly it opens up new opportunities to
offer services to customers and make banking mobile and therefore everywhere
accessible. Secondly it provides the opportunity to gather more information in
an easier way, which allows the company to tailor its services and marketing
better to the demands of the specific customer.
However, digitalization
and major shifts triggered by it in the market of financial services also
changes the environment. New competitors in this field might appear, like for
example Google. The company recently started the Google Wallet service and
payment services are one of the three top priorities for Google in the future.
There are already real life examples how digitalization can change whole
markets and the structure in it. Apple is nowadays the world´s largest music
retailer with its iTunes online store, totally disrupting the market with its
initial actors.
Digitalization
also means "Bye Bye" paper, which has the advantage that many tons of
it will be saved, decreasing costs and having a positive effect on the
environment.
Sources
Matthäus
Is NFC technology the payment system of the future?
Touch-less
and cable-less data exchange can be definitely identified as one of today´s
most emerging trends. Ranging from the commonly used wireless data
communication, internet through WiFi and mobile phone networks, over
identification cards to enter buildings or the bus up to cable-less charging of
the new Nokia Lumia phones. And the trend might also be used in the banking
sector by implanting the NFC technology for fast payment of small amounts.
Fields of application
Most
commonly NFC technology is already used in identification cards, for example
giving access to local transportation networks like busses and metros or
allowing persons to enter buildings. Further Stickers with NFC are put on
packages in order to locate them faster in storages or integrated into labels
as anti-theft measures.
A very
interesting application is the usage for fast payment with credit cards already
implemented in some countries, mainly North America, Austria and recently
Germany . This service is called PayWave by Visa or Paypass when provided by
MasterCard.
Further
phone manufacturers are starting to provide phones with already integrated NFC
chips or add special NFC stickers to be put on the back of your phone in order
to use new payment services like Google Wallet.
Advantages
So what are
the advantages of this technology?
Basically
it is a very fast and not complex way to pay small amounts of money. However,
it also increases daily security, as you are not obliged to carry that much
money with you in everyday life as most payments can be done by your NFC
smartphone, making it less attractive for thieves to rob people.
Risks
Every new
technology has also some risks, especially in the electronic sector and when it
comes to money.
Critics
revolve around the safety of data on the card. Experts argue that the cards can
be read out through the pocket within a range of 10 centimeters, making it easy
for thieves to get credit card data, particularly in crowds or public
transportation. Additionally the authorization processes on the terminals might
increase the traceability of the persons, further leading to a glass customer.
If someone
loses his card, fraud is made even easier, as for these small payments with the
NFC technology no signature or pin code is checked. The thief is able to buy
things until the card or phone is blocked. Although only small amounts can be
paid in this way, still a striking financial damage may be done to the customer
Eventually
some companies doubt, that NFC technology is the payment scheme of future. It
is still bound to check-out terminals, which might create queues. Service providers
like PayPal strive for more mobile payment systems, making it for example
possible to pay things from every point inside the shop just by scanning the
barcode with your smartphone.
Crucial
questions will be: how long will this technology for mobile payment take to be
implemented? Does this make NFC technology only a bridge technology, not worth
to make large investments into it?
Outlook
The NFC
technology will definitely enter the market. It might be successful in a world continuously
yearning for faster utilities. Whether it will finally make a fortune can be
observed in the following years. The break even point might be reached already.
Sources
- webpages
of companies involved in this business
Matthäus
Face to Face vs. Internet - Will Online Banking completely substitute Face to face service?
More and
more banking services are offered online nowadays. Companies transform their
business into more online banking as this saves costs and gives the customers
as well as the bank itself the opportunity to do business 24/7.
Face to
face means trust and trust is especially crucial when it comes to money. Hence
still many people prefer to do important business on the bank counters and not
online. Particularly the current generation 50+ still does not trust the
services offered on the internet. Furthermore they worship the opportunity to
get assistance and advices.
Online
Banking opens up many new opportunities to offer new services to customers.
They now can check their business from home and do transactions all around the
clock, not bound to any opening hours of bank counters. Further, the online
banking desktop can and will be customized to the need of every single customer
in the future, making this way of banking even easier and more efficient.
Services on the internet save costs, as there are no longer needed branches in
expensive downtown areas with employees to be paid, which of course can also be
seen as an disadvantage when people lose their jobs.
What to do?
Both types
of services can melt and adapt attributes from each other. Face to face
marketing will still play a large role in the future, but has to be
transformed. Future face to face assistance can also be done 24/7 in banks, for
example through video counters connecting to a customer service center or advices
through connection to the customer via webcam. Face to face marketing can also
adapt lessons learned on the internet, like for example increasing customization
of services. There have to be found ways to prepare bank workers for the next customer
in order to offer him better service and help.
Concerning
online banking there still have to be made developments in the user interface
as well as to be found new measures to increase payment security. Other
advantages of the well connected world can be used, like for example a shared
desktop, where bank advisers can directly assist the customer, whether in the
banks itself or on your own computer.
Matthäus
Friday, 12 April 2013
Portfolio: Jasmine
You can find my parts I've written on this blog for the individual portfolio by klicking on the tag "Jasmine" on this blog. Or you can find them here.
Only two days to Kunstenniemi, exciting!
SWOT-analysis
I've done a SWOT-analysis of Aktia. The analysis is based on the information I've collected from Aktias annual report and from the meeting at Aktia. So here it goes:
Strenghts:
Weaknesses:
Opportunities:
Strenghts:
- Striving to have the best Finnish customer service in selected customer segments by 2015.
- Aktia is a relatively small bank and it strives to offer even more personal service and learn to know their customers.
Weaknesses:
- Their biggest competitors such as OP, Danske Bank and Nordea.
- Because Aktia is a smaller bank it has a smaller budget than it's bigger competitors and therefore it always doesn't have the fundings to keep up with their competition in terms of new technology and such.
Opportunities:
- To do better customer service than it's competitors for private customers and smaller companies.
Threats:
- Uncertain economic situation
- Competitors (see above)
- Fluctuations in stock-, interest- and currency rates -> demand on services depends on these factors
- Changes in intrestrates, output and credit margins influences the interest margin -> can influence profitability
- New regulations can result in higher capital requirements, sharper competition on deposits, higher fixed costs and in the long-run higher lending margins -> less people willing to take loans
/ Jasmine
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