2009 was the year Emeka’s ex-employer joined him with a GTBank account.
“All employees were opened mandatory salary accounts with GTBank and Zenith Bank. I stuck closer to the GTBank account although I do occasionally use my Zenith account to much benefit. GTbank, however enjoys the larger patronage by far of my banking needs”, says the young businessman.
According to the ex-banker turned techpreneur, “A lot of Nigerians seem to have GTBank accounts and this has been a big hassle especially on the mainland where GTBanks are quite heavily utilized by Nigerians from all walks of life. There are oftentimes when the volume of traffic in GTBank compared to neighbouring bank is 75:3. That’s 25 is to 1.
“This is made especially more painful when you have to conduct a transaction that requires interaction with a teller, customer service rep or marketer and not just an ATM machine.”
Emeka says he recently praised a staff at the GTBank on Herbert Macaulay Road, Yaba, for the remarkable improvements in customer response witnessed in recent times.
He attributed GTBank’s success in reducing “people clutter” in its banking halls to
- its increased focus on cashless banking,
- improving overall customer service delivery experience,
- greater emphases on Social Media
- a well organized team of hard, smart and fast workers
“For instance, one of the smartest things the management did which many customers noticed was it moved its customer service delivery unit to the first floor, freeing up enough real estate on the ground floor for people who need to execute teller transactions to do so seamlessly.
“I’d say the average wait time has reduced by over 15 minutes. I breeze in and out of the bank now”, says Emeka as he hits the round button to open the security door.
Emeka said shifting the customer service unit upstairs “was a brilliant stroke of genius” but not the only smart thing the management did. He says that the bank also deployed a special unit to man an in-branch ‘Mobile Money Team. This team comprises marketers who convince customers to download GTBank (via an application) on their phone.
Sandra, one of the mobile money marketers at the branch, says “my team saves many customers the trouble of coming to the branch as we assist them to acquire the banks services on their handsets.”
Speaking on the safety of cashless banking products, Mr. Lekan Bakare a consultant at Nexus Capital Partners says “the products are regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC for the most part. The banks have spent a lot of money in boosting the security infrastructure. The burden falls on the consumer to protect his passwords and other personal banking details.”
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