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Some banks don’t seem to understand that offering innovative customer care through social media channels is an invaluable convenience in this day and age

Digital dialogue with Delta Milayo Ndou
In digital parlance, the phrase “disruptive innovation” often bodes ill for established industries but contrariwise it speaks of the bestowal of convenience to those who embrace innovations. Mobile money (i.e. EcoCash, Telecash, etc) is a great example of how an innovation can ride on convenience to ensure profitability.

The convenience afforded to the public via cashless transacting cannot be overstated and would require a separate article to do justice to it – particularly within the prevailing context of cash shortages.

Opting for mobile money is very much about convenience and many people are happy to bypass the formal banking system to save themselves from the hassle of adhering to traditional banking rituals. The advent of mobile money has done several things that benefit and offer convenience to the clients whilst simultaneously disrupting the banking sector.

Mobile money has made life easier and more convenient for many Zimbabweans, and mobile money operators have reaped the immense benefits (sometimes exploitatively and undeservedly). Unlike banks that have several barriers to accessing services, mobile money requires a phone, a mobile line, identification, basic numeracy skills (riding on aggressive digital evangelism to raise awareness of how to use the services) and whatever cash one has on hand. It has contributed to financial inclusion on a grander scale by catering for people of all income levels.

Where banks demand proof of residence, a payslip or proof of employment and other documentation that some people cannot produce, mobile money has lowered the barriers to accessing financial services and provided convenient transacting alternatives. A bank account is no longer a strict necessity. Many people receive and make payments via their mobiles, they can shop, pay bills and transact without setting foot in a banking hall, having to join a queue, fill in a deposit/withdrawal slip and be told to adhere to a withdrawal limit.

If businesses are willing to leverage on technology they can offer their clients considerable convenience and transcendent customer experiences. Although some local banks seem to have been dragging their feet, there are few that have invested in digitally transforming the ways in which they conduct business.

Of banks and social media obscurity

Social media affords businesses multiple channels of communicating with their clients, so it is disheartening to note the number of local banking institutions that don’t harness these channels. Every banking hall has an enquiries desk and, typically, a neat queue of long-suffering clients waiting for their turn to be assisted. Banks don’t need to be schooled on the necessity of having an enquiries desk – the purpose of this desk is too plain to require further elaboration; especially at a time when there are conflicting messages about the cash crisis and the imminent bond notes currency.

What is perplexing, however, is the insistence by local banks, on restricting such essential enquiry-related services to the physical confines of the banking halls when they can easily replicate them on social media and afford their clients invaluable convenience and accurate information. There is something shortsighted and imprudent about banks failing to harness social media when their business is to provide services to people who have entrusted them with their hard-earned money and deserve to be informed of any circumstances that may negatively impact on their ability to access their funds. Is it necessary for bank clients to jump through hoops just to get answers?

A quick survey of the social media presence and engagement of local banks shows that our banking sector is not only taking clients for granted; they don’t understand that offering innovative customer care through social media channels is an invaluable convenience in this day and age. Banks like FBC, MBCA, BancABC, NMB, Agribank, Standard Chartered, Barclays, Metbank and EcoBank appear to be astonishingly indifferent about social media engagement – their websites don’t even carry social media widgets.

Point of correction: Agribank’s website has social media widgets but they are static and are presumably just for display. Basically, the clients of these nine banks can only get enquiry-related services by calling (at their own expense) or sending an email (if it’s not time-sensitive and the bank is reliable in responding to email enquiries) or physically going into a banking hall and joining a queue (a likely scenario) to ask questions they could have easily gotten answers to remotely via social media.

Why must helping clients get answers they need to make informed decisions about the hard-earned money they have entrusted to banks be such a tall order in the age of social media? Social media obscurity on the part of banking institutions is a symptom of severe narrow-mindedness, if one is to put it bluntly. As the cash crisis deepens, banking institutions need to be extremely agile, communicative and responsive to ally the fears of their clients and communicate the correct positions relating to currency changes as outlined by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which, incidentally, has been quite dismal in articulating issues around bond notes.

Rating banks on social media

If one were to rate the local banks that are on social media in terms of how they engage and respond to clients, a good starting point would be authenticating the existing social media accounts to make sure they are actually genuine. The best way of doing this (in the absence of verified social media accounts) is to begin with the websites of the respective institutions because due care will have been taken to ensure that the website carries the accurate url link to redirect users to the appropriate social media accounts. ZB bank has an active Twitter account often responding to queries from existing and potential clients as well as a Facebook page where their social media personnel, commendably, try to ensure regular updates.

Stanbic Bank has the largest following on its Facebook page and regularly posts updates whilst addressing queries raised by clients on Twitter. Steward Bank has a considerable following on its Facebook page and often gets inundated with complaints that go for hours, even days without being attended to which appears to foster a combative approach from their clients in attempts to get attention. However, on Twitter, Steward Bank has the largest following and is consistent in providing updates and engaging with users.

Meanwhile, CABS has a Facebook page that has some updates but the response rate to enquiries is too long and the same goes for the POSB Facebook page. Whilst CABS is not on Twitter, the POSB is on Twitter although they are not utilising the platform full; meanwhile CBZ Bank, has a Facebook  page and is also on Twitter.

These banks need to do more in terms of training and deploying dedicated social media personnel to provide remote and convenient customer care services to clients online. It is not enough to offer Internet banking without also offering social media channels of instant and direct communication for clients who need help. I invite the sceptical banker to do a cursory study of how South African banks are leveraging on social media to communicate, engage, build loyalty, promote their brands, publicise their services and attract new clients – all from behind a keyboard.

An immediate example of how social media can help bridge the communication divide at a time of such rapid and conflicting policy pronouncements relating to the cash crisis is how an NMB statement advising its VISA cardholders that the platform is down has been shared on Twitter and reached a wide audience within a short frame of time. It’s not too much to ask and expect our banks to give us information and to engage us at a time fraught with uncertainties such as this.

• Delta Ndou is Head of Digital Services at Zimpapers and a PhD scholar researching on digital media, disruptive technologies and journalistic practice. Follow her on Twitter: @deltandou