By Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK – Tienie Mouton, FNB Namibia Area Manager for the Erongo Region, advised that FNB Namibia is aware of the challenge of long queues in his region and has been addressing it for many years.
“The long-term solution is our so-called ‘brick-to-clicks’ strategy”, mentioned Mouton, where FNB actively encourages its clients to change their behaviour from a branch-centric approach to one where they use self-service channels.
“This does not only drive efficiencies for FNB, but also offers clients more affordable, safer and more convenient access to most banking products.” He went on to say that initiatives to drive this started as far back as 2010 when FNB’s Soccer World Cup sponsorship was used to persuade clients to make use of their FNB cards at self-service channels. The intervention clearly pointed out that the thousands of clients that switched to card-based self-service transactions during the World Cup competitions, continued using these services after they experienced its benefits.
FNB Namibia then followed this through additional enhancements to their self-service value propositions such as the introduction of cellphone banking to augment their online banking services. “While the bank continuously increases the number of ATMs and point-of-sale devices, FNB was also the first to introduce other world-class innovative self-service offerings such as eWallet, which allows the customer to make a payment to any Namibian cellphone number, the FNB App and fnbna.mobi services and the ability to buy airtime and electricity via these self-service channels, and do one-off payments to any Namibian or South African bank account without visiting a branch to set up a beneficiary. FNB’s pricing model is structured in such a way that it encourages the use of self-service channels, as it is expensive to service clients through a branch network.” Mouton confirmed that FNB would continue to expand its non-branch network of self-service channels and introduce new innovative services to its clients in an attempt to further enhance this drive. He added: “One such example is the introduction of an InStore ATM and Hero ATM that allows you to do real time cash deposits into a Namibian bank account. This is currently being tested. FNB is continuously investigating opportunities to make more services available through our self-service devices and channels.”
Mouton advised that while the above focus and drive continued, FNB was employing a variety of interventions to improve the efficiencies of their in-branch service models. “We find that ‘floor walkers’ who assist the clients in the queues work well and help us to redirect many to alternative self-service channels. Besides opening more branches, updating the layout and increasing the size of many current branches FNB is also testing a variety of alternative branch models to improve in-branch service delivery.”
He stressed the important role FNB staff plays, adding: “The impact of FNB’s employees and the staff requirements are determined through a scientific resource capacity model. Our staff is trained continuously to meet our customers’ demands while ongoing employee engagement process is key. If it was not for the availability of the self service offerings, FNB would not have been able to render its high service levels through the branch network alone,” concluded Mouton.