Tue, Dec 21, 1999 page18

• Taiwan bank customer service rankings reveal some surprises

  CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Buisiness Weekly magazine's yearly poll to find which banks deliver patrons the best overall service shows that some local banks have made remarkable progress. One of those banks, E. Sun Bank, has been a notable success

  • By Stanley Chou / STAFF REPORTER
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  According to the latest survey on "the quality of banking services" by Business Weekly magazine (商業週), E. Sun Bank (玉?s商銀) ranked first out of 52 banks nationwide.

  E. Sun Bank ranked number one in six of ten benchmark areas, which measured the quality of service. The areas included the attitude of bank employees, flexibility of banking services, utility bill collection, ATM services, telephone voice services and back-office services, according to the magazine.

  E. Sun Bank has been among the top five banks over the last five years, coming in first place twice, second place twice and fifth place once. As such, the bank had the highest average rating of any bank over the last five years.

  What, then, has been the secret that has made E. Sun successful?

  "Of the 1,300 employees, Huang Yon-Zen (黃永??, the president of E. Sun Bank, not only knows everyone's name, age and educational background, he even knows what happens at an employee's home," an executive at E. Sun said. "For example, if the mother of an employee had been ill, he would know about it and express his concerns."

  At E. Sun, employees rarely go home on time. It's customary to leave the office after 9pm or even 10pm.

  "Whether it's a job or a career, [success] will require you to work forty hours or sixty hours a week," Huang said.

  But long hours haven't driven the employee turnover rate higher. On the contrary, the annual personnel turnover rate at E. Sun has been only 4 percent, significantly lower than the industry average. Human resources is Huang's top priority, and it shows.

  "Love and discipline are the two major factors that has made E. Sun outstanding in the industry," said Hwuan Da-yeh (黃1F業), a professor of National Taiwan University.

  "Japanese style management is the way E. Sun Bank runs its operation," said Norman Yin (殷?D?), a professor of National Cheng-chi University. "It's a system of apprenticeship between senior and junior staff that has generated a unique corporate culture, which is totally different from many American style banks such as Bank SinoPac (華信銀|?/CHINESE>) or Taishin International Bank (台新銀|?/CHINESE>)."

  Chinatrust Commercial Bank (??信銀), the top bank last year, swapped positions this year with E. Sun, which had held the second place spot.

  After Koo Chung-liang (辜仲諒), the son of Jeffery Koo (辜濂松), took over the helm of the bank earlier this year, Chinatrust quickly began developing its e-commerce business and taking on a leading role in the domestic banking industry, analysts said.

  But the biggest surprise in the survey came from Tainan Business Bank (台南???p企銀), which was ranked No. 3 this year. Tainan leapt from the bottom position out of 42 participating banks just two years ago.

  Business Weekly attributed the bank's success to its restructuring efforts in recent years, including down-sizing operations at its branches and, to reduce badly performing loans, concentrating loan operations at its headquarters. Meanwhile it has improved quality of service and provided services based on many different kinds of customer requirements.

  Taiwan Cooperative Bank (|X作金庫) is another bank that has shown amazing progress, leaping from No. 40 last year to No. 6 this year. It is the only state-owned bank that managed to be ranked among the top ten this year.

  Tsai You-tsai (1/22??~), president of the bank and former deputy director of the Bureau of Monetary Affairs (金融局) at the Ministry of Finance (財政3?/CHINESE>), has been the person most responsible for revamping the organization over the last year, immensely improving its quality of service, according to Business Weekly.

  However, the definition of "quality of service" in the banking industry is rapidly changing.

  "The competition to offer Internet services will completely change the game rules of traditional banking," predicted by Lin Jong-shyong (林鐘雄), chairman of E. Sun Bank. More than a dozen banks, including E. Sun and Chinatrust, have been preparing to offer Internet banking services sometime next year, while everyone is waiting for the Ministry of Finance to say "go."

  "The banking industry in Taiwan is currently at the crossroads of traditional channels and virtual channels. The utilization rate of ATMs, electronic banking, Internet banking and even mobile banking has been increasing at an ever faster pace," said National Cheng-chi University's Yin. "Therefore, how to raise quality of service effectively and how to attract customers in different channels (off and on the Net) to create profits will be the major challenge in the banking industry during the next few years," Yin said.

  "More precisely, in the definition of quality service provided by banks, the quality of a bank's counter service will not be the only element. The importance of product innovation and the application of information technology on customer problems will gradually surpass its counter services."
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