Customer experience as strategic differentiator in retail banking

The challenge that retail banks face is to find a sustainable strategic differentiator that will give the organization a competitive advantage. This paper investigates the possibility of customer experience as strategic differentiator through a literature review on customer experience as a concept and its elements and comparing it with the marketing mix. Measuring the total customer experience quantitatively and qualitatively adds value to organizations through the interpretations of the results and therefore understanding the customer

Context and strategy : managing Sanlam for and in change, 1945-2013

Abstract: Business sustainability of corporations a hundred years old, is not a regular occurrence in Africa. A qualitative historical study of the development of an insurance company succeeding on the trajectory of adapting to challenging context constitutes the core of this study. The historical analysis illustrates the role of social context, international political economy and management agency in negotiating a successful company to overcome contextual constraints. The South African Life Assurance Company (Sanlam) arrived at the end of the Second World War in 1945 with a basic business strategy focusing on sustaining its growth since 1918. Dynamic contextual changes mandated strategic management changes in the business focus, empowerment strategy and strategic vision of the company. This article explains how management responded to change, relying on international management practices to secure a century of African business success

Technology Enhanced Single View of Customers as a Predictor for Effective Performance of the Modern Banking Institutions

While using confirmatory factor analysis, this paper examines the pivotal factors and values associated with the use of the technology enhanced single view of customers as a predictor for effective performance of the contemporary banking institutions. It is posited in the overriding hypothesis that the effectiveness of the technology enhanced single view of customers and the ability to achieve all its associated business values are significantly moderated by variables encompassing technological compatibility, structural philosophy, executives’ commitment and employee education. Testing and validating this underpinning hypothesis was undertaken according to four main steps; model specification, sample size estimation, data collection, and the calculation of estimates and interpretation of indices. RMSEA (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation) and Chi-squared ( 14x2"> ) analysis did not indicate good model fitness. However, the overall interpretation of the findings revealed most of the incremental fit indices, and the standardised regression weights (factor loadings) and squared multiple correlations co-efficient ( 14r2"> ) to strongly support the overriding hypothesis that the effectiveness of the technology enhanced single view of customers and its ability to influence improvement of the performance of the contemporary banking institutions are predicted by certain four pivotal factors (technological compatibility, structural philosophy, executives’ commitment and employee education). The study concludes with a conceptual framework highlighting critical steps and pivotal factors that banking executives can adopt in the endeavour to ensure the successful development and utilisation of technology enhanced single view of customers. Keywords: banking institutions; performance; single view of a custome

Die invloed van handelsbetrekkinge tussen Suid-Afrika en die te stigte Europese enkelmark op die vervoer van massavragkommoditeite per spoor

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Customer experience as the strategic differentiator in retail banking

Thesis (PhD (Business Management))—University of Stellenbosch, 2009.In 2008, retail banking in South Africa is a highly competitive industry with extensive customer bases that expect increasingly more from their banking experience. The retail bank with an appropriate strategic differentiator will gain a sustainable competitive advantage in the changing retail banking environment and add value to all its stakeholders. This study was conducted within the evolving retail banking industry and investigated customer experience as a possible strategic differentiator in this industry. The investigation included a literature study on the evolution of retail banking globally and in South Africa, the concepts strategy, differentiation and sustainable competitive advantage and customer experience. Quantitative and qualitative measurement frameworks were applied to measure the total customer experience and thereby illustrate through the research results the value of understanding the customer experience as differentiator in an organisation. The researcher determined through the investigation that customer experience can be a valuable strategic differentiator in retail banking today as it gives an organisation a competitive advantage through the focus on the total customer experience which includes the previous differentiators in the industry, namely product, price and service. The researcher also indicated that customer experience evolved over time and includes service quality and customer service from which it evolved. The implications of the study focus on management‟s role in developing a differentiated strategy which describes customer experience as the differentiator and implementing such a strategy implies a thorough understanding of customers and their experiences when interacting with the organisation and entrenching a customer experience culture and orientation in the organisation on all levels

Convergence of logistics planning and execution in outsourcing

Background: Logistics service providers (LSPs) are becoming increasingly involved in their clients’ businesses. Beyond just providing vehicles and buildings, LSPs are now becoming involved with knowledge-related work that is connected to the traditional services provided. Objectives: To investigate the likelihood and potential value of LSPs extending their range of services to their clients by means of a convergence of planning and execution activities. Method: In the research through a literature review and empirical study presented here, attention is given to the practical impact that convergence planning and execution functions have on business success, as well as how selected clients of an LSP (referred to in this article as logistics company A or LCA) perceive the impact of increased integration of LCA within its businesses. The results should assist LCA and other LSPs considering the same objective to ascertain the opportunities and key requirements associated with a strategy to converge planning and execution activities for their clients. Results: The study found that the vast majority of respondents see value in the convergence of planning and execution activities. Conclusion: Such convergence will be challenging, owing to the importance of the planning function for clients, as well as key collaborative and measurement requirements that will have to be put in place for successful business integration