Sweeping numerous awards and outstanding recognitions at the Digital CX Awards 2020 by The Digital Banker, Standard Chartered took home the crown as the Best CX Institution of the Year. A rare feat even among the world’s biggest banks, Standard Chartered bagged an award in almost all categories it participated in – from Strategy to Product Innovation to Technology and even Islamic Finance – Standard Chartered showed everyone that when it comes to providing the best customer experience, it leaves no stone unturned.
Rising to the top among the more than 200 nominations in the various awards categories received this year, Standard Chartered’s achievements are truly something the entire team can be proud of. Among the highly reputable line up of judges who helped select this year’s award winners are respected subject-matter experts from companies such as Forrester, EY, Fuji Xerox, Bain & Company, Wipro Digital and KPMG.
“We are passionate about implementing new digital capabilities in servicing and transacting to simplify our clients’ digital banking activities. By putting the control and convenience in our clients’ hands, various products and services within our business have truly been game-changers. Winning these awards further fuel our passion to do more, to do better and to do everything that it takes to give the best to our customers,” said Millie Gillon, Global Head, Client Experience at Standard Chartered.
Nicole Kwa, Head, Wealth Propositions & Solutions, Wealth Management at Standard Chartered Singapore also added: “We constantly seek ways to differentiate our services and disrupt through digitalisation so as to better meet the needs of our clients. But beyond smart technology and processes, we also want to retain the “human touch” for clients who prefer more personal or require inclusive services. Having this kind of recognition is a great honour on our part.”
“By putting the control and convenience in our clients’ hands, various products and services within our business have truly been game-changers.”
Outstanding Initiatives that set Standard Chartered apart
Standard Chartered Fixed Income Mobile
Standard Chartered’s new Fixed Income Mobile platform is a purpose-built disruptive and innovative solution, extending mobile-first trading capabilities to clients in several fast-growing but under-served markets. By offering clients the ability to browse the list of available T-bills and bonds and submit orders from the convenience of their mobile phones, Standard Chartered has delivered a customer-centric application. Clients and Standard Chartered will both benefit from digitised and streamlined processes, as well as increased asset class awareness to help clients preserve and grow their wealth.
To date, FI Mobile has served clients in Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana. Leveraging Standard Chartered’s in-house design team and depth of product experience, FI Mobile presents investment opportunities directly to the client. Along with the ability to submit unsolicited orders it has eased the friction in investing in Fixed Income assets, thereby increasing order flows and associated revenues.
Improved Net Promoter Score
Improving the client satisfaction score and delivering client-centric improvements has been an area of focus for Standard Chartered Singapore. Through a multi-pronged approach to better understand client experiences, the Bank was able to bring about tangible change to certain channels and platforms, and they were able to respond with features that augment and make banking smoother for the client. This has resulted in an increase of 13 points in Standard Chartered Singapore’s NPS score.
Enhanced Digital Capabilities for UAE Market
The bank has been investing significantly in digital technologies that enhance client experience. Over the last year, the bank has delivered 3 capabilities that brought digital banking to a whole new level of convenience in the UAE.
- Card Controls – a feature that allows clients to control everything related to their credit card spending instantly, and on the go. It includes 5 main sub-features:
- Temporary lock (instant lock/unlock of card usage)
- Overseas transactions (control which countries to allow/disallow spending in)
- Transaction Limit (set a limit on a single transaction amount)
- Payment Channels (switch on/off online, contactless, and chip payments based on personal security preference)
- Control which transaction categories to receive SMS alerts for
- Real-time P2P – a new remittance mechanism that transfers amounts across countries in less than 3 minutes. Not only does it cover a wide range of countries, but also digital wallets
- nGEN – an onboarding feature that allows New and Existing clients to apply for credit cards, get instant approval, and start using the card within minutes – by just adding its virtual credentials into a digital wallet.
These new initiatives brought about a better client experience, and higher adoption of digital services for Standard Chartered UAE. Mobile banking is close to 50% and digital active stands at over 65%. Over 95% of transactions are completed on digital channels, and 75% of the top 8 service requests are processed digitally.
State of the Art Digital Capabilities for Islamic Banking
Standard Chartered was the first international bank in Malaysia to be awarded Islamic Banking licence. Islamic Banking operates under the brand name of ‘Saadiq’ – which means truthful in Arabic. It is the only international bank catering to all Islamic client segments which include Retail, SME, and Corporate. Under Retail Banking, Standard Chartered offers the complete range of Islamic products like Credit Cards, Auto Finance, Home Finance, Current & Saving accounts and also distribute Wealth Management products such as Takaful, Sukuk, and Mutual Funds.
Standard Chartered offers a wide range of digital capabilities to its Islamic banking clients in UAE and is expected to continue to do so as the digital adoption and engagement rates within the Islamic banking segment continues to grow. By providing comprehensive Islamic banking services, the digital active rate in UAE is over 65% and the mobile active is close to 50%. The number of Islamic banking clients who engage digitally is close to 40%.
Member-Gets-Member Loyalty Program
Standard Chartered’s clients live in a highly digital world but tried-and-tested behaviours such as recommendations from friends and family still hold weight. In this project, the team had digitally powered word-of-mouth referrals for a seamless new-to-bank client onboarding experience.
Standard Chartered has provided a member-gets-member referral platform where existing clients of the bank can easily refer their friends and relatives through online banking and Standard Chartered mobile. Additionally, they are able to track the status of their referrals on their own. The team has built a simple and intuitive user journey, where both the referrer and referee are rewarded when the referee opens a new bank account with Standard Chartered.
The bank account opening process is real-time, leveraging APIs with the Singapore government’s MyInfo portal. The program was so successful that it contributed to 50% of new credit card sales. Furthermore, the gamification aspect of this program has engaged existing clients and kept Standard Chartered Singapore top of mind.
Making Social Media a Channel for Service
Standard Chartered identified an opportunity to significantly improve the way clients interacted with the bank on social media for servicing activities. To turn things around, the team moved to an in-source model via its contact centre. Part of the strategy is to re-skill qualified contact centre agents to handle the social media channel. Furthermore, due to the reduction in call volumes and the increase in customer interactions in digital channels, Standard Chartered was able to re-deploy its excess capacity into social channel management.
Standard Chartered has extended its operating hours on social media from weekdays, 9am-5pm to seven days a week, 8am-12mn and have committed to achieving 80% of cases being responded to within 10 minutes and resolving issues for its customers end-to-end.
Social media is a key, strategic channel for the Bank, and part of a larger cross-channel build. With a holistic approach for social engagement including publishing, listening, servicing and sales, the Bank is responsive to clients in real-time. To continuously improve efficiency and customer experience, Standard Chartered engages with new technology, including AI-powered solutions.
Read more about the winners at the Digital CX Awards 2020 here.
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