62
4.5 LEVEL OF COMPETITIVENESS OF FBC HOLDINGS IN
63 Most of the respondents suggested that FBC should improve advertising and promotions to increase customer awareness with 29 (43.9%) and 13 (19.7%) respondents coming up with those suggestions. A few respondents suggested that staff education, mass marketing, product visibility, product demonstrations, target marketing and customer education can also improve customer awareness of FBC e-commerce channels and products as shown in Figure 4.3. These factors can be effective if implemented all inclusively and not in isolation (Kotler, 2002).
The elderly customers in the Zimbabwean context may not be comfortable with using master cards or visa cards to buy products such as books or even vehicles online due to techno-phobia, insecurity, lack of appreciation of the concepts or general attitude towards such platforms. It is necessary for FBC
to ensure that customers are educated on how best they can utilise e-commerce technologies and understand the benefits thereof. The
respondents were requested to suggest what they thought would improve e-competitiveness of FBC Holdings Limited and the findings are as depicted in Figure 4.4.
Figure 4.4 E-competitiveness.
64 From Figure 4.4, it was found out that the respondents thought that FBC should make use of advertising and promotions, marketing, improving efficiency, improving system up time, research and development and providing a reliable core banking system to improve e-competitiveness. The research findings also revealed that some employees thought that FBC should increase speed to the market when launching new products, introduce customer relationship management systems (CRM) and document managements systems (DMS) as argued by O’Brien and Marakas (2009).
A sizeable number of respondents indicated that simplifying user functions of e-commerce products promote and encourage the use of e-commerce products. Some respondents indicated that there has been an increased uptake of Mobile Moola and SMS banking due to the simplicity of the functions unlike in internet banking. The FBC employees agreed that FBC should improve accessibility of e-commerce platforms by increasing the number of products as well as through improving the system up time. This helps in capturing as many customers as possible. The next section looks at FBC product differentiation.
4.5.1 UNIQUE PRODUCTS OFFERED BY FBC HOLDINGS LIMITED
Banks that enjoy competitive advantage using e-commerce have to offer unique products. Most banking institutions seem to be offering ATMs, internet banking, point of sale, sms banking and e-mail & SMS alerts. However, only a few banks are offering MasterCard, namely AfrAsia Kingdom and Metropolitan Bank. FBC Bank is the only bank that is offering FBC Blue and Mobile Moola.
The Bank re-launched mobile moola in 2013 having been initially launched in 2012 in partnership with Telecel and Zimswitch. FBC also launched the FBC ACCA MasterCard products in 2013 to tap into the market for staff and customers who are studying ACCA and are members of this professional body. The findings show that Mobile Moola, FBC Blue and MasterCard are not popular amongst staff members. On the other hand, FBC has made an effort in trying to make their products unique. Uniqueness or product
65 differentiation is an essential element in ensuring the success of implementing new technology.
4.5.2 E-COMMERCE PRODUCTS NOT OFFERED BY FBC
VISA - In terms of international debit and credit cards, it was found out that FBC does not have the Visa card although licence fees for the product are being paid. Banks such as Barclays, CBZ Bank, MetBank, Stanbic and Standard Chartered are offering Visa cards. International customers such as tourists usually prefer to use cards rather than cash.
EMV MasterCard - MetBank launched the EMV (Europay/MasterCard/Visa) MasterCard in 2013, which is a chip and pin card different from the one offered by FBC with a black stripe on the back (Metbank, 2013). This type of card is much more secure than the ones offered by FBC. Online customers are susceptible to cybercrime and EMV MasterCard offers enhanced security and safety to the user.
Cardless and in store ATMS - Banks such as AfrAsia Kingdom offer card less ATMs. FBC does not have cardless ATMs. CBZ and EcoBank offer in store ATMS. Some customers may not prefer to carry cash and/or ATM cards.
Cardless ATMs may encourage customers to bank with FBC. In store ATMs offer clients convenience as they can withdraw money before or whilst shopping.
Online Application Forms - FBC customers mostly use hard copy applications to apply for e-commerce products, loans and/or for any other banking products or services. Some (3) respondents suggested that FBC can make use of online applications to save printing costs, paper costs and time.
This will also help in reducing the costs and time from the side of the customers. This may be so because they will not be any need for the customer to visit the bank to collect the application forms nor to print the application forms from their offices. This is consistent with Porter (2008) who
66 suggested that companies can gain competitive advantage through reducing the costs incurred by the customers in accessing a product or service.
Automatic Statements - Internet banking, SMS banking and Mobile Moola have helped in reducing the requests for hard copies of bank statements especially for individual customers. However, several corporate customers still request hard copies or electronic statements. To manage this, it was suggested that FBC adopt automatic statements. This type of facility sends statements to customers after the running of the day end from the core banking system. Banks such as Stanbic are offering this type of facility.
Customer Relationship Management System (CRMS) and Document Management Systems (DMS) - FBC currently does not have a customer relationship management system (CRMs) and a document management system (DMS). This may help in assisting FBC to retain customers and identify areas that may need attention so as to improve customer relationships (O’Brien and Marakas, 2009).
4.5.3 STRATEGIC ALLIANCES
Strategic alliances between FBC and Telecel on mobile moola and FBC, MasterCard and ACCA, FBC and Net One on m-wallet were applauded by senior management respondents. The results show that MasterCard and mobile moola are not popular amongst employees. It is therefore necessary for FBC to aggressively market the e-commerce products to promote customer use, which may ultimately increase profitability.