Steward Bank, the subsidiary company of Econet Wireless, has been grappling to contain its stakeholders’ anger over its failed banking systems, which have seen delays in real time gross settlement (RTGS). Its social media platforms are clogged with complaints that the bank has failed to live up to its payoff line, “everyday banking for everyday people”. Infuriated customers on its social media platforms had no kind words, with some of them reminding the customer relations team that the “purple experience has turned grey” as they referred to its purple corporate colours and subsequent shortcomings.
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After months of failed efforts to contain the stakeholders’ anger, the bank announced on May 29 2017 that it had restructured its information and communication technology (ICT) department to address the systems failure. So bad was the system failure that money transfers that under normal circumstances take 24 hours would go up to 14 days hanging in the balance.
This article seeks to assess the implications of the bank’s restructuring and its impact on brand performance and customer satisfaction.
It is imperative to note that when Econet Wireless acquired the bank from TN Holding in July 2013, it launched and positioned it as a mass-bank that sought to provide banking services through the use of technology. Its failure to effectively and efficiently service the target market on the very technological founding premise is a compromise to its unique value proposition. In other words, without its cocktail of technological offerings, Steward Bank is just like any other ordinary bank. It loses its competitive advantage in serving as an “everyday banking for everyday people”.
In this regard, the move to restructure the ICT department falls short in meeting the requisite remedies. The reason why the system is failing is a strategy problem, rather than a departmental failure. Therefore, there is need for an organisational self-assessment process and rebooting of strategy if the bank is to remain true to its positioning statement and brand promise of delivering banking solutions through efficient and innovative use of technology.
The bank faces five major challenges that I located after assessing its brand promise and performance notably:
- Maintains an aggressive client recruitment spree while turning a blind eye on the infrastructure which is supposed to cater for the cliental base.
- Low capacity of branches to service the ever ballooning client base because of the dwindling staff-to-client ratio.
- Overburdened ICT system which has become susceptible to slowing down service thereby denting the quality of service.
- Launching new products and services on the already overstretched platforms.
- Social media platforms being clogged by complaints and the staff being overwhelmed in handling the grievances, which further weakens the corporate reputation.
It is therefore imperative for the company to take a holistic approach towards reviewing its strategy so that it responds to the above-stated issues. I will therefore attempt to recommend a six-step marketing strategy review and formulation process aimed at rebooting the brand performance and promise so that it can once again satisfy its frustrated stakeholders.
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Don’t start from marketing
Marketing strategy is an offshoot of the entire business objective and strategy; the marketing strategy should be a derivative of the business objectives. To understand the business objective of the bank, it is critical to refer to its vision, “To become one of the biggest banks by customer and balance sheet size by 2019”. The bank intends to achieve this objective through its mission statement, “We provide customised innovative world-class products and services through convenient channels, technologies and dedicated employees.”
The marketing strategy that emerges from this crisis, should be aggressive enough to regain lost zing and dominate the market in two years. Therefore, the company needs to invest heavily in infrastructure and technologies if it is to remain true to its billing as a brand.
Assessment of context
In failing economies like ours, it is critical to continuously assess the environment to remain rooted in the ever-changing tastes of the customers, competitor activities and emerging market opportunities. It is from that assessment that the brand can fully appreciate opportunities that might not have existed before and its ability to make a promise that it can keep. Steward Bank’s promise presently is that of providing banking solutions through effective utilisation of technologies, which it is struggling to keep.
Understand your customer
The marketing strategy review process is an opportunity for the bank to invest in understanding its customers, since they already have the data critical to map their tastes, strategy will gear the organisation to best serve the customers. The bank also needs to root its understanding on the feedback that clogged its social media platforms rather than to take a denial approach.
Remain strategic
In sifting the data and analysing it, the company should remain strategic in outlook. Strategy requires an in-depth understanding of the overall company so that it can manage to leapfrog into an orbit of opportunities that arise from the analysis. In this regard, Steward Bank should tap into the advantage that comes with being a subsidiary of Econet Wireless in developing its banking capabilities. Both the bank and its parent company pride themselves as aggressively innovative. It is an embarrassing moment to be explaining why the system is failing. It is not strategic to continue recruiting new customers when the bank’s system is clogged. This is typical of Air Zimbabwe behaviour that always overbooks customers, knowing very well its own capacity limitations.
Hinged on budget
Every strategy’s success is hinged on the availability of resources, both human and financial. Budgeting should be driven by the business objectives and in this case, the bank has to curve its resources towards innovatively dominating the industry.
Define the milestones
Finally, it is critical to define the strategy into small and measurable steps to enable ease of measuring progress.
Till then, let’s hook up every Wednesday on Capitalk FM 100.4 on the programme, The Brand Pulse for high-voltage brand management strategies.
Tabani Moyo is a chartered marketer, brand strategist and communications officer based in Harare. He can be contacted at [email protected]
