Taking Retail Banking up a Notch

Rotimi Olaoye

One year ago, Skye Bank Plc embarked on a comprehensive transformation of its retail operations, focusing essentially on the customers and the small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs).

The business retooling became necessary as part of efforts to reposition the retail business and make it the centre piece of its business operations.
The retail transformation project known as the ‘Retail Transformation and Growth (R-Tag), was designed to revolutionise retail banking business in the country and serve as a game-changing business model that takes care of all customer segments. It was, among others, expected that the project would bring about customised and needs-satisfying financial solutions in a manner that will exceed the expectations of the customers.

The underlying premise and principle for the change in business model then was the trend in retail banking that it is imperative to know the financial needs of the customer and design appropriate solutions to meet those needs. The approach was seen as capable of helping to effectively meet the bank’s goal of serving as a dependable development partner to its customers across the country.

While launching the project last year, the former Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo, had said: “Our renewed drive and focus on retail banking is anchored on the premise of giving strong impetus to the financial inclusion drive of the CBN so as to bring a lot more people into the financial system and the formal economy”, he said.

According To him, the current banking environ as well as the acquisition of Mainstreet Bank, and its integration with Skye Bank had significantly increased the branch footprint of Skye, giving it a clear competitive advantage in the Retail Banking model.

To ensure quick and clear results as an offshoot of the transformation project, reviews were made to the bank’s existing retail products by streamlining and positioning them for better fit with the identified customer segments. New products have since been introduced targeted at the ‘emerging middle class’ customer segment which forms part of the new focus segment for the bank.
The new retail banking model identified three consumer segments for primary focus, namely mass market, emerging middle class and mass affluent.

Head, Retail Banking Group, Nkoli Okoli, believes the R-TAG project would help streamline the bank’s product portfolio targeted at Individual and SME customers via the identification of primary focus segments, with a maximum of 2 products to serve each segment.

Similarly, the new Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr. Tokunbo Abiru, has announced his intention to focus on the retail and commercial segment to increase the bank’s market share and consequently increase its revenue and profitability in the medium –long term.
He said Skye Bank’s expansive branch network and strategic investment in relevant technology platform already have given the bank a competitive edge to deliver customer centric products and services. Abiru said the steady growth in the commercial and retail deposit in the last six months has confirmed that the bank is moving in the right direction.

The new Skye Bank boss said his team would leverage on the bank’s reputable information technology platform to make the bank not just a frontline retail and commercial bank, but an industry leader

Reach for the Skye Millionaire Promo
To underscore the new focus on the customers by the Retail Group, a new customer reward promo was also launched tagged the ‘Reach for the Skye Millionaire Reward’, it was launched by the bank to encourage savings culture amongst the mass market segment.

The scheme was not just launched to encourage customers to save, but also reward them for doing so. “In the end, the scheme is a win-win for both customers and Skye Bank as we seek to grow our customer base”, Okoli said
The monthly reward scheme comes with monthly draws, with three customers emerging as millionaires, while 10 others would be rewarded with N250, 000 and N100,000 each as consolation prizes for having at least a minimum opening balance of N2,000 with the bank within that month.

Season one of the promo which started in June 2015 and ended in June 2016 produced 36 millionaires and hundreds of other cash prize winners. At the end of the season one of the reward scheme, a total of 36 millionaires were produced, while over 200 winners of N250,000 and N100,000 also emerged during the 12 months that the season one lasted.

Some of the lucky millionaires included businessmen, Damie Morrison, Okoro Donatus, Oguabi Innocent, Uche Kyrian, Kazeem Adewale, a civil servant with the Lagos State government and Adekunle Adeyemi. Others were Mr & Mrs. Titilayo Ogunlowo, Obianyor Patience, Oloyede Abiodun, Ogunesan Olawunmi and Temitope Adekanye.

The Season 2 of Skye Bank’s Reach for the Skye Millionaire promo is expected to start soon, even though those desirous of winning have started saving with the bank. Students, artisans, market women, civil servants and business men were some of the people who became millionaires through the Save for the Millionaire promo.

To qualify for the monthly draw, the Head of Retail Banking, Nkoli Okoli, said “all a customer needs to do is to save a minimum of N2,000 with the bank and leave it for a month. If a customer has N10,000 in his account, for instance, he has five chances of winning.

“As you know, we are very strong in retail and commercial segment where we support SMEs such as: market men and women, students, artisans, civil servants and professionals. We will continue to support them to grow their businesses which will also help the bank’s revenue”, she said.

The success of the season one of the reward scheme has informed the decision to continue the scheme to avail many more Nigerians the opportunity to become millionaires and help them overcome their present economic limitations.

On the imminent return of what has become a customers’ delight, Okoli advised all those who want to win cash prizes to start saving now and become eligible to take part in the monthly draws usually held to reward winners.

Specifically, she urged both customers and prospective customers alike to take advantage of the opportunity offered by the bank to change their lives by embracing the savings culture.

– Olaoye is Business Manager, Forster investments