When the going gets tough, the tough get going. And, when industries get negatively disrupted, the tough turn to innovation and customer-centricity as a gamechanger. That holds true for the banking industry as well, as it re-aligns to new market realities. We recently caught up with Sigit Prihatmoko, VP – Corporate Strategy and Performance at Bank BNI, Indonesia; who shared many interesting insights on how the banking industry in emerging economies can embrace a digital transformation-led recovery. Sigit highlights the following:
Listen on to learn how a major player in the Southeast Asian BFSI arena, in Bank BNI, looks to gather growth momentum in the COVID-19 era and beyond.
Siddhesh Sawant(Host): Hello everyone. Hope your family team and you are staying safe during this unprecedented time. My name is Siddhesh and I am the country head for Netcore Solutions, Indonesia and I manage the entire sales and operations for Netcore Indonesia. While working and networking from home has become the ‘New Normal’, we at Netcore are looking to engage with industry experts who could share their valuable insights and input on things like user engagement, growth, retention, and personalization. With this regard, we are running Asia’s first-ever Martech Focus podcast, where we gather insights from industry leaders, growth practitioners, and product Champions across the industries who are breaking new grounds through the application of marketing technology. We are delighted to host today’s guest speaker, Mr. Sigit who is the VP for corporate strategy and performance for Bank BNI. Sigit, we welcome you today for this podcast.
Sigit: Okay, good morning Siddhesh and everyone. Yeah, my name is Sigit and I’m very glad to be invited by Netcore to talk about these specifications.
Siddhesh: Thank you. Thank you so much.
Sigit: Thank you very much.
Siddhesh: Alright Sigit, first of all, thank you so much for giving us time today. I would like to ask you certain things because currently, you know, though banks have not been hit by this novel coronavirus as directly as other retail institutions. Do you know thoughts and observations about the current state of the market or what is it and what are the observations with regards to this covid-19 situation for you?
Sigit: Okay then, in my opinion, it’s very hit of the industrial cities and especially it what are those that are we know that GDP projection, GDP growth that resulted or effected from covid 19. I think, you know, you also have a reference from the market showing that globally we looked like we predicted GDP growth is from – 2.2 and then 1.3% and especially for Indonesia, but even though the government is slightly optimistic about the GDP growth that is from 5%. Normally Indonesia is a running wheel in 5% 5.1, 5.2. And then a lot of macroeconomic exports are projected in addition to GDP growth. 1.3 until 2.3%. So I assume that there is very low GDP growth, but maybe Indonesia and other Christian countries are slightly positively confronted. If we want to cooperate with other countries, other developed countries, that may be that GDP growth is slightly our positive thing.
Siddhesh: Yeah! Right.
Sigit: I think the industry’s impact is that by bike off the red I think first is the tourism industry and then it might affect your business services, transportation and even now agriculture also is affected so for the bank itself that the bank has customers across a lot of Industry. We were very careful about how to get another what industry was impacted, how we treat our customers due to their business not running well in this time. I think that’s my opinion here.
Siddhesh: That’s right. Absolutely right pointed out as thank you for sharing this GDP as well. Various Industries have been impacted due to this covid-19 situation. Have you seen any particular user Behaviour changes or any consumption pattern changes with your own kind of this situation like people are more heading into retail banking because the branches are closed or certain other behavior?
Sigit: Yeah, of course. Luckily, we prepared a lot of digital initiatives in the initiative last year. So for example, we must close a lot of branches in the course of a lockdown in Indonesia away from the SBB with the limited moving or the outside there. So assuming that a lot of branches are closed and then in the first time that we close the branches there this also shopper because from one print is the crowd is moved to another present already open or still open and then still that from our customers structure that BNI is mostly also the oath of the old parapet of the Demography, so I think they also need to get the prints for the first time. But right now in the Cambrian, we wake up a campaign to the consumer to the retail consumer also to the wholesale that we also have a like a guest management bar that also supported us that for Wholesale customer also they can enjoy to protect them from home, but you know the business is not that growing.
Siddhesh: But at least it is fuelling the movement which is going towards digital Banking and branchless banking because of the covid-19 situation and lots of banks have started doing that. So you were saying something more, please continue.
Sigit: Yeah exactly. It is like a promise for the bank to go running to the new normal, right because of a lot of digital contexts and that increase, and then we must take care about our capacity or capability in the back office. For example, we must ensure that a lot of channels must be available every time. Then we must also prepare the contact center team that also has to be very careful to treat the new customer that enters the new digital transactions.
Siddhesh: Correct. Absolutely, rightly mentioned because say connecting with your existing customers or retention has been focused for each and every big brand and right now people are focusing more on retention so that they can stick with their existing customers. So seeing that a lot of banks across the globe, you know coming up with various Innovative campaign marketing strategies. In India, if I have to tell you about that, you know, there are certain bags that are waiving certain fees that are increasing the credit limits. I believe recently the government also increased the limit for transactions to be done on the app. The limit was also increased, so any particular campaigns or Innovative campaigns or strategies which you are implementing to combat this current market scenario which you would like to share certain use cases?
Sigit: For companies, we have a thing but we are very normal because in this situation our company policy is okay. We have thought through business this year, so assuming that the growth from March maybe until December is certain to be the same. So I believe that a lot of the campaign is only to educate the customer. Mostly it’ll get the customer to use digital and then educate them that there is a lot of phishing or hacking in the media and then we also make a very active social media also compared to big banners. So assuming that our campaign is mostly to educate the customer but it will get them and then don’t not really to target the new one or something but in between I think we also consider new customers. So social media, it’s like we mostly make very serious about it like the one and then for Wholesale customers too. That they don’t get targeted to expand anymore. For example, a adjust to maintain the level of the floor of the level of the funding that they have and then we try to build a lot of digital solutions to and of us and then the third one is we also have the government back because the government also have a lot of coming to social as they gave some money to other than we do try to accept that business. Also further. This is not a real business, this is just a social business, but we tried to reach the new type of customer also from the program. This may be in this field this year. And in the meantime, also, we prepare some types of savings, the same thing about strategies that may be more digital and more acceptable to the new generation next year and we must expand by next year.
Siddhesh: I like the way in which you said that we are focusing more on educating our existing customers. That shows that you care about your existing customers and retention is more important for you or your brand. You also mentioned that you’re doing certain strategies to acquire new customers and educate new existing customers that land on my next question. How is that, because there are so many users and they have so many different experiences across all the products. Do you feel personalizing or sharing personalized content, how important are personalization for user experience, and something that can kind of AI-driven recommendation or personalization can help your brand or other brands or banking industry as well?
Sigit: Okay. We already employ people over that big data organization and that is entering to be the new face of analytics. I mean that We can try to propose a product to a specific customer, then the properties of the material are going to have this kind of product. That’s our reason for what we are trying to do now, but I think I believe that artificial intelligence is not really our solution right now. So it’s just we try to properly analyze that time to make a proper model and then we try to give the prospect that as to the cells or to other segments. For example, if we have a Wholesale customer and they have a lot of employees, then we try to find the property of the employer and then we give it to Retail sellers to do something. So that’s what we did right now and then for artificial intelligence, I think we still haven’t implemented it yet.
Siddhesh: Okay that is great. I completely understand your points and that, but I just wanted to also understand because you mentioned the propensity model. Because it is more important in the banking industry when it comes to predictive analytics and it comes to propensity analysis and the marketing analytics which you do anything. It’s future of mobile marketing or app analytics or how digital banking can play a very vital role? Any thoughts on this technology wherein you can attract your customers through the digital?
Sigit: We believe that a mobile solution is to come by next year. So we try to put a lot of things into mobile right now, but the simple thing is that Mobile Banking BNI initially is only for six years, and I’m now able to open an account from mobile. Also, of course, the authentication is still manual because of Regulation. And also to sell other products rather than bank products like a mutual fund, insurance. So I believe that and then for marketing but yeah, we tried to marketing. It’s because like if you want to say that the Mobile Banking and then and there is no doubt that probably higher than the pumping to our mobile banking app and then there is a pop up to sell something. I believe that’s also the solution because it’s personal now. It’s I think we do that we just don’t know something like that.
Siddhesh: Great points and definitely you should explore the power of marketing automation or the power of artificial intelligence or machine learning because that’s where the world is heading towards and definitely I feel that that would definitely give your brand or your bank much more conversions than what you are getting currently. That brings me to the last question: any feedback on any thoughts or any suggestions which you want to share with other fellow marketers from Indonesia? What should they do in this situation? A lot of people have already cooped up or are trying to cope up. How should they take this covid, any suggestions on that?
Sigit: Yeah sure. After covid 19 I think the landscape of the bank has changed because right now a lot of people cannot go to the office and they can still do business. So I believe that the solution from artificial intelligence is pumping the prospect up for marketing. The mobile device of the customer is very beautiful if the next and then we also try to make an engagement also to the customer I think is very important because the switching cost of the customer right now switching from one bank to other bank is very long you just and like other mobile app and then you register and then You can switch every time right. So I think artificial intelligence that it’s based on the new big data that we could Implement as an analytic and then the next phase is also artificial intelligence to marketing and Prospect the mobile app. I think is a beautiful new normal after covid.
Siddhesh: Absolutely. That’s basically data-driven personalization marketing wherein you connect the right set of customers with the right content at the right thing with the right Channel and yeah, definitely, I believe that or everyone believes that The New Normal and the next phase of covid should be more focused on. We are coming to this situation, we are all in strong weather and we will overcome this situation very soon and we should all Focus on how we should Target or how we should think of the situation after covid-19. Thank you. Thank you so much for your valuable insights Sigit. It was absolutely a pleasure talking to you. I learned a lot of things and I’m sure people on the podcast will definitely learn a lot of things when it comes to GDP when it comes to the banking industry of Indonesia when it comes to banks. Vienna is doing different strategies and how they are helping the society along with the government. Thank you for your valuable insights Sigit.
Sigit: Thank you, Again.
Siddhesh: Thank you so much, everyone. It was really nice talking to Sigit on our today’s podcast and staying safe and staying healthy.
