Delivering Excellence in Client Service

By Dirk Kronshage Head of Implementation and Service for Asia [email protected]

Given the prevalence of electronic banking services and products today, it is very much the ease and quality of the initial onboarding and ongoing service provision that sets cash management and trade finance providers apart. This has long been the Deutsche Bank philosophy and, in accordance with this, we believe there are three building blocks of high-quality customer service: an on-the-ground presence, a single point of contact and a personal touch.

While a number of providers have been swept up in the waves of centralisation responsible for the common "one size fits all" approach to products and solutions, Deutsche Bank has remained true to a "high-touch" philosophy. This means no call centres but rather expert local teams in 14 countries across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region to maintain ongoing — and local language — dialogue with our customers around their servicing needs.

Certainly, regular client contact and feedback are crucial to delivering optimal services, as client needs are continually subject to change in accordance with adjustments in the financial landscape. As a result, Deutsche Bank takes a proactive and attentive approach to gauging its clients' comments and constructive feedback, commissioning a yearly survey — with the support of TNS Infratest — to measure client satisfaction.

This survey, which has been conducted globally since 2007, measures client satisfaction across six service dimensions that are aggregated into a single index score (also known as a TRI*M Index).

TNS Infratest's research for Corporate Banking in Asia shows that the top 10% of all providers reach an index of 84, while index scores above 70 indicate a retained client base. The 2011 index score for Deutsche Bank's Implementation and Service team is 89, thus outperforming the top client segment benchmark in this region. This is evidence that our clients share — and value — our staunch belief in the importance of a personalised approach, and reinforces our unwavering commitment to offering market-leading client service.

Meeting the Evolving Demands of Clients

While some client needs are constant — such as the requirement for a broad range of proffered services, convenience of service hours and regular contact with their bank partner — some change over time. What is today considered to be good service may not be so tomorrow, meaning that client service needs constant monitoring and review.

A chief emerging requirement is the availability of diverse access channels. In this sense, it is not just the sophistication of products and solutions that is of interest to clients, but their ease of use. In response to this growing demand, we are taking a customisable and intuitive approach to technology — focusing on what we call the "user experience." Such customisability also ties in well with the increasing role that social media looks set to play in servicing, as well as the rising client demand for so-called "self-service" tools and capabilities.

In order to meet this requirement, Deutsche Bank is in the process of developing a new platform that gives customers an option of having a direct window into the Bank to allow them to better manage their servicing requests and requirements. Rollout of this new platform to Asia is targeted for the first half of 2012. We are also looking to roll out across APAC a series of process-related improvement measures that have yielded in other regions a decrease in onboarding cycle time of around 20%. Both of these developments will be complemented by a live workflow management platform; gradual rollout of the new platform began in second quarter 2011.

Yet technology is only half the solution. We understand that success in one market may equal failure in another, making knowledge of local market peculiarities and business cultures crucial to successful delivery of services. Such knowledge is best gained from strong relationships based on trust and the high quality of the service proposition.

Looking Beyond Technology

As client needs are in a constant state of flux, client servicing must be viewed as a continuous cycle. This means that banks need to take both a long-term and client-centric approach to their customer relationships.

Indeed, many banks are now waking up to this idea and realising that customer service is one of the few remaining areas of differentiation. This is leading them to step up their efforts in this area. However, trust between banks and their clients is established through consistency of approach over time, meaning that investment in innovation — though important — cannot compensate for a less-than-excellent track record of good work and relationship-building. In this respect, our longstanding belief in personalised client service has stood — and indeed continues to stand — the Bank in good stead.

At Deutsche Bank, we know that understanding is the key to successful client service. As tools and products become increasingly commoditised, the knowledge gleaned from trusted client relationships is crucial to ensure they are packaged correctly. Our personalised approach to client service forms the basis of these relationships and is crucial to our success in this area.