Relationship banking in a client-centric context

[摘要] English: Banks place more emphasis on building mutually beneficial relationships with theirclients in order to capitalise on cross-selling opportunities that improve profitability.By collecting information, they are able to identify the needs of their clients and builda relationship that is mutually beneficial. This relationship is between the contact personneland clients and occurs through multiple interactions in the branches over a period of time. This study focuses on this bank-client relationship in five locationswhere three of the Big Four South African retail banks are situated. Data wascollected from both clients and contact-personnel in branches in Bloemfontein,Bethlehem, Kimberley, Kroonstad, and Welkom. This was done in order to comparethe perceptions of clients with those of the contact-personnel who the clients interactwith in the branch.Six constructs are identified that reflect various stages or aspects of the retail bank clientrelationship. These are bank selection criteria, service quality, clientsatisfaction, client loyalty, the nature of the relationship, and aspects of client centricity.The findings reveal that the most important bank selection criteria forclients to choose a bank for the first time relates to their perceptions of servicequality, image and reputation of the bank. Furthermore, using an adaptedSERVPERF questionnaire, service quality is found to be an essential determinant ofclient satisfaction, with only the empathy dimension reflecting no statisticalsignificance in the perceptions of clients and contact-personnel. There is therefore astatistically significant difference between the perceptions of clients and contact personnelfor all the remaining dimensions of service quality. Clients are also moresatisfied and loyal to their main bank than what contact-personnel perceive them tobe and contact-personnel feel that they are in general empowered to achieve theclient-centric objectives of the bank. Contact-personnel feel that support frommanagement and up-to-date information on clients through effective technology isessential, and in some cases, however, contact-personnel indicated that linemanagement was not always supportive of the day-to-day functions of contact-personnel. Smaller branches in more rural-based areas in particular found this to bethe case.A structural equation model (SEM) was used to test whether a relationship existsbetween the relationship dimension of service quality, client satisfaction, and clientloyalty. The findings indicate that if the contact-personnel within a branch areaccessible, offer sound advice, communicate effectively, and are able to makespeedy decisions, client satisfaction and loyalty is improved. Further to this, the SEMfound that if client satisfaction and loyalty increases, clients are less likely to considerswitching to another bank. Therefore, building mutually beneficial bank-clientrelationships causes client satisfaction and loyalty and also reduces the likelihoodthat clients will switch to another bank. This holds important implications formanagement of the Big Four banks as it confirms that their current strategy ofbuilding relationships in a client-centric context does improve client satisfaction andloyalty. Several studies have found that if loyalty improves, profitability concomitantlyimproves and due to banks being privy to client information based on theirfundamental role as an intermediary, they can capitalise by cross-selling additionalbank products and services to clients and increase the revenue generated from eachrespective client.Therefore, because a client-centric approach facilitates an approach whereby theneeds of clients are addressed, banks must ensure that they pursue a strategy thatis proactive in nature as this will attract profitable clients. This strategy is furthersupported by the findings that client perceptions of service quality are importantthroughout the relationship. Indeed, service quality is an important antecedent toselecting a bank for the first time, and is also a major reason for clients to stay attheir main banks for over twenty years.

[发布机构] University of the Free State