The Banking Sector has become completely dependent on technology as the service/product delivery channel. Gearing up technology for the benefit of customers has been the order of the day after the economic liberalization, globalization, deregulation and opening up of the economy in India. Technology is identified as the single strongest factor that provides a bank with a competitive edge over others. The excellence in customer delight has been the essence of success of service industry, banking being no exception. The financial reforms have led to stiff competition in the banking industry world over with the firm belief that the competition enhances quality in service. The general strategy adopted by almost all the banks was to become unique in the marketplace using technology, creating a differentiation between different players and attracting new customers and retaining the old ones.
The dire competition in the banking industry between the public sector banks, old private sector banks, new generation private sector banks and foreign banks is mainly through technology innovation, upgradation and modernization. The whole exercise is centered to improve customer relationship and deliver quality services to customers. For making any technology-based product or service successful attributes, that should be invariably present should be speed, imagination and excellence in execution. The outcome of the prospective thinking is to improve the customer benefits out of the technology convergence. The customer is interested in knowing how the bank and its products are beneficial. It becomes necessary for a bank to differentiate its products from others. Some of the ways in which differentiation can be introduced are through specialization, new products and increasing added value by technology convergence. The operational excellence is a key factor for effective differentiation from the competition with the support of technology. It is imperative that the banks identify and understand the customer needs for the benefit of customer satisfaction and delight.
|
