next incumbent. Unless the previous bank employee kept a comprehensive record of the clients' affairs, continuity of relationship was compromised. The system was fraught with problems and the relationship usually proceeded jerkily from interaction to interaction. It was unheard of for the bank to initiate a sales interaction with the customer. The customer usually did this; if the client needed a product or service offered by his bank, he called on his bankers. The only time the client heard from his bankers was when there were problems such as insufficient funds in the account to meet a cheque that had been issued. In other words, the bank initiated those interactions that were generally of a negative variety rather than those that enhanced or progressed the customer-banker relationship. Whilst this is a generalisation, it is nevertheless the over riding feeling; the author has had ten years experience in a customer relationship role and still to this day hear these comments about banks and their arrogance and the fact that they do not hear from their banks unless there is a problem.
3.5.2 DATA MANAGEMENT POST 1990
From the nineties, the database management system began to change in all the major banks. Customer information other than those of a purely demographic nature was placed onto the database. When a client called into the bank, details of that interaction was captured onto the customers' history file that was housed in the banks computerised database. Details such as customer correspondence, details of bounced cheques, record of transactions passing through the account, and other such information were now available off a central repository to be accessed and viewed by multiple users. Whilst under the previous manual record keeping system, the customers history was only available to the personnel of that particular branch where the account was housed, under the new system, the customers' history was available to users in various areas of the bank. The significance of this will become apparent later. A customer could walk into any branch of the bank and his records could be accessed off the central database without the need for the client to call into his own bank branch. This was the next stage in convenience banking after the appearance of automated teller machines, which whilst it
made life easier, did little to enhance the relationship with customers. A customer with an account in Durban could call in to a branch of the bank in Johannesburg and be attended to in a seamless manner. All the information relevant to that client was available in the central database and with the press of a button could be accessed from any customer interaction point within the bank. If the customer called into his bank in January and thereafter at the year-end in December, a record of the January inter-action will still be on hand to provide continuity. Certain banks such as ABSA offered customers a single account number for life so that the number did not change no matter which bank the customer held his account. Others such as Standard whilst not offering this facility nevertheless focussed on 'bank at any branch' processes so that it was irrelevant where the customers account was held, as she or he could call in at any branch of the bank and enjoy hassle-free banking. Thus a customer re-locating from Durban to Johannesburg did not have to transfer his account to a branch in Johannesburg and suffer the inconvenience of changing account numbers.
3.5.3 OPTIMISATION OF DATA MANAGEMENT
It is difficult to imagine that something as fundamental and as simple as this was not in place until only recently, and is as much testimony to the advances in technological systems as it is to a realisation by the banks of the critical need to manage the customer relationship in a manner that optimises the value of each interaction and offer the customer quality service. With this realisation the have been various initiatives that are designed to enhance valuable relationships and ultimately improve profitability, for at the end of the day valuable relationships mean nothing to stake-holders unless they contribute to the top and bottom line. Customer Relationship Management is one such initiative. Banks have put in place smart systems that are technologically driven to order the client base in a way that allows the bank to tap into the value therein. First National Bank have implemented a system called Common Knowledge, whilst Standard Bank and Nedcor have implemented Siebel. In itself, these mean nothing. As mentioned earlier, CRM
expensive software package called Siebel does nothing, if the fundamental paradigm on which the bank interacts with its customers is not overhauled.
Paradigms are questioned and it is no longer enough to go forward on the basis that that is how things have been done and it has worked well; if it has worked well, then lets try and make it better. With this in mind, we shall proceed to look at the process in Standard Bank.