HSBC Revolutionizes Account-making With Digital Technology In An Essay. (70 Characters)

About HSBC as a global banking corporation

Discuss about the HSBC Bank for Wealth Management and Commercial Banking.

HSBC is one of the biggest private banks in the world originating in Honk Kong, however the bank is actually a “British multinational company and financial service company”. The bank is ranked seventh in terms of the total assets it holds. The bank has its origin mainly in Hong Kong and some of the resources from Shanghai and it has branches all over the world. The company serves about 38 million customers through 4 sectors “Retail Banking and Wealth Management, Commercial Banking, Global Banking and Markets, and Global Private Banking” (Hsbc.co.in). The bank has its network in 67 countries in various parts of the world including “Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, North America and Latin America.”.

The process of making new accounts was perceived to be long drawn and problematic in many cases the customers complained of experiencing a complicated process which required multiple signatures at various places and also required physical visits to the various stores. The customer complaints were addressed by the company in a very unique and innovative manner. The company developed the process of digitally making accounts with the technology known as the Vizolution’s technology, LinkScreen, the company made the process much easier and faster for the customers (Vizolution.co.uk). However after the technology was built it was perceived by many of the customers to be long drawn and painful. Deborah Samuel, the Associate, Commercial Customer Solutions Team states “Customers actually put off calling us because they think the process is going to be painful. They are simply amazed when the whole thing only takes a few minutes.”

The employees are often wary about new technologies that are being implemented in the companies. The problem lies in the fact that the new technologies are often not compatible with the existing systems. There are many employees who would not be tech savvy enough to take up the new systems that are being implemented. Apart from that there are often complains about the fact that many employees may be losing their job because of the newly developed automated systems. The existing employees who were doing the job in a manual way would not be needed anymore because of the implementation of technology in various fields. Therefore the apprehension lies in the fact that the existing employees might be losing their job in the process and the employees who would be finding it difficult to adapt with the new technology may be then alienated from their job. However there were the other side of view which state that the many of the employees are asking for a new technology to adopt a new technology in order to lessen the existing time to make a new account, and also to make the process more transparent so that the trust of the customers are higher. 

HSBC's account-making process and customer service using Vizolution's LinkScreen technology

The traditional banking system is generally perceived to be more time and labour consuming. This is very evident for the fact that the customers has to be present in the banks in order to make the accounts withdraw money or do similar banking activities (Kuur and Jacobsen). The traditional banking system has lesser space for technological advantages as it is mandatory for the customers to be physically present in order to complete the transactions. However there are much more technological windows in the case of internet banking. In the case of internet banking the customers can perform all the banking activities from their mobile device itself, at any locations they are in and at any time they want to perform such activities.

The new technology that is being devised by HSBC, is the system of a virtual digital phone call and interaction where the customer can complete making their new accounts on gadgets without being present mandatorily within the location of the bank. “Using Vizolution’s technology, LinkScreen sets up a digitally assisted phone conversation – as easy as the branch experience, but more efficient. Customers complete and sign applications electronically, quickly, and can see all information required by regulators” (Sprenzel).  This gives much more ease and comfort to the customers as they can access all the information they need in any place they desire on the screens. The main challenge in this case was to provide the customers with the necessary information which are actually relevant in that situation. “A reduction in the number of face-to-face sales visits has made the team more productive and reduced the cost of sale”. Face to face visit by the customers actually increases the engagement of each of the employees. When that is reduced the employees can concentrate on other aspects of business.

The customers of HSBC are from various socio cultural backgrounds which makes it possible for the company to offer their products and services in various packages as per the requirements of the customers. Examples can be given by stating the fact that the way HSBC Australia would be offering service to the customers and the products it would be offering would be quite different than the products and services offered by HSBC China or HSBC Nepal. Therefore this particular project was first launched in UK as a pilot project to understand the customer reaction to the product in that particular context, in the framework of socio cultural setting of UK (Buil, Catalán, and Martínez). It is generally seen by the Hofstede model that UK is a country which is masculine in nature which implies that the country will be more interested in result oriented activities which are productive and giving immediate results (Hofstede). The customers who checked this product found gaps such as the lack of transparency about how safe the personal data is within the software and how the software might be using the particular data in transmitting information about the customers to the different entities within the bank. Various bank employees and departments might be using the customer data in processing various tasks. However there must be transparency in the process and the consumers must be aware about how their data is being used by the bank in what ways. This problem can be solved by programming the software in a way that explains the customers how their data will be used by a flow chart. 

Employee apprehension towards new technology

The customer also found at rare occasions there were technical glitches and bugs that are hampering the smooth flow of the operation of the application. In some occasions there were instances of the application being stopped abruptly. The customers also stated that the software lacked a very interesting interface and the process was fast but boring as it lacked transitional effects. This can be solved by hiring technical experts who will identify and solve the bugs.

As it is already stated that the bank has presence in countries all over the world and it si serving customers from all ethnic and cultural background therefore it is imperative that the customers from different socio economic strata will be negotiating with the bank as per their own perception of economy. This is the reason that the customers are stratified by the company and various types of products and services are formulated by the bank.

This particular software is developed and launched in the UK market. The country UK in itself is culturally diverse and supporting people from all nations around the world. The attitude of the people are different who belong to different nationalities.

The technology must be friendly to people from all cultural backgrounds by addressing their problems and perceptions about life. Customer identification can be done through the program that is fed into the new technology. The new technology would at one hand make the process hassle free for the customers to make new accounts or participate in online banking, on the other hand the technology will be enabled to stratify and identify the customers by the trail of attitude they would reflect in their online activities.

The various categories of customers in the banks are those who take Business loans and other loans, those who have Savings accounts, those having Debit and credit cards, the Merchant services (“credit card processing, reconciliation and reporting, check collection)” and the customers availing Cash management services (“payroll services, deposit services”, etc.).

Reference:

Buil, Isabel, Sara Catalán, and Eva Martínez. "The importance of corporate brand identity in business management: An application to the UK banking sector." BRQ Business Research Quarterly 19.1 (2016): 3-12.

Hofstede, G. "Cultural Dimensions: Country comparison." (2017).

Hsbc.co.in. "About HSBC | HSBC India." About.hsbc.co.in. N.p., 2018. Web. 29 May (2018).

Kuur, Mathias Lundsgaard, and Jon Brandt Jacobsen. "Innovation in banking-a study of team dynamics." (2016).

Sprenzel, Ulrich. "Innovation in Banking." (2015).

Vizolution.co.uk. "Main Home - Vizolution." Vizolution. N.p., 2018. Web. 29 May 2018.