To sustain the growth in innovation and position themselves, banks should adopt at least four necessary strategies - focus on core strengths and outsource or partner for other necessities; optimize the prospective customer relationship; exploit the available good workforce with effective performance management; and, adopt technology that will be the critical success factor in customer management.

Economic prosperity has changed consumer demo-graphics and technological factors have made consumers demand better quality and efficient services. The service industry is now becoming a major contributor to the economy in many countries which were earlier dependent on the manufacturing sector. Service industry, particularly the banking sector, is not left behind in the competition.

The banking industry has been highly commoditized. To be in the business, every retail bank should have competitive differentiation and this can be realized to a great extent through customer service excellence. The aim of retail banking industry should be to satisfy customers and deepen its relationship with them. This can be achieved through cross-selling and upselling opportunity. The availability of advanced technologies helps in boosting the cross-selling, increasing customer retention and differentiating the brands in the retail banking sector.

Professional Banker Magazine, Customer Management, Retail Banking Sector, Performance Management, Customer Management, Customer Relationship Management, CRM, Business Strategy, Automated Teller Machines, ATMs, Risk Management.