Jibun Bank Corporation

Jibun Bank selected ABeam as the partner to develop and implement the CRM strategy because ABeam had displayed deep insight in marketing and CRM in general, sufficient understanding of Jibun Bank's business challenges, and rich experience in providing consulting services to banking and financial businesses. "Several proposals presented by other companies deviated from the issues we were facing," reflects Mr. Toru Yoshikawa, Jibun Bank Executive Officer.

"On the other hand, ABeam’s proposals showed that they were sharing the same viewpoints with their client. Their proposals were firmly down to earth and precisely grasped the problems the bank was facing, regarding how to improve the business results to the profitable level. They proposed the step-by-step plans to solve the problems without making an unrealistic leap." Before the project kicked off, the personnel of Jibun Bank had reached consensus on the direction of the CRM strategy that they were to improve the profitability by establishing and reinforcing customer relationships. The most urgent issue to tackle to achieve that goal was the shortage of the staff who would propel the project. What the venture company stepping into the growing phase needed was human resources who would develop and implement the new CRM measures and the solutions they would produce. ABeam's proposals contained the contents that were just suitable to solve the challenges the bank was facing, including how to concretize the vision of the CRM strategy and how to prepare the abundant staff lineup.

In April 2014, Jibun Bank kicked off the CRM Project, and ABeam participated in it to assist the bank to establish the user experience (UX) mainly focusing on the smartphones and expand the bank's information systems. ABeam started to assist the bank in reviewing the customer preferential treatment system in June. In July, it also started to help the bank integrate relevant measures and upgrade the entire CRM measures, which included developing the concept designs and setting up the requirement definitions and work plans in the Management Strategy Department and the Marketing Department. "As soon as the project started, we found that our evaluation on ABeam during the competition was right,” says Mr. Daisuke Inoue. "ABeam’s performance satisfied all our expectations. They gave us the progress reports at the major project milestones as a matter of course. What impressed us most was their response to the questions issued by the management. They never gave us stock answers. Instead, they would run around the premises, collect the relevant information in detail, and then present us with solution that would not affect our business practice. What was also helpful was their thorough documentation. Usually, we need to explain 70 to 80% of the whole picture before obtaining a proposal that would truly meet our expectations, but in the case of ABeam, with only 20 to 30% of information, they would provide us with highly accurate materials. While we were on a tight schedule, that assisted us greatly, especially when we had to explain to our management about the direction we should choose and persuade them to take it."

Having the typical characteristics of internet-only banks, Jibun Bank deploys business and implements programs extremely fast, maybe approximately 30 to 50% faster than conventional banks. Needless to say, speedy implementation is indispensable for this project. "Even in the situation that would require an ample amount of time to make a serious judgement, ABeam, taking the hint, would prepare the framework before our request and plainly present us with the milestones," says Mr. Naoki Inoue, Jibun Bank Director for Marketing Department and Web Planning Department. "Due to the shortage of the assigned staff,we occasionally had to handle multiple assignments simultaneously. In such situations, ABeam facilitated the discussions by flexibly assigning the right staff for the right posts, satisfying the needs of the scopes of work and those in the various hierarchical positions. That made us feel extremely reassured. In the beginning, we dealt with each other as consultants and bank staffs. However, we gradually became able to frankly discuss with each other as if we were both staffs of the bank."

In June 2016, Jibun Bank launched the CRM Project and disclosed the special website in order to notify their customers of the programs to improve their service and convenience. As the first stage for deploying CRM regarding the smartphones as its key element, the bank completely renewed its smartphone app and started to provide Timeline, Summary, My Menu, 3D Touch, and Touch ID. The Timeline function, in particular, was the first introduction of its kind among domestic banks. It chronologically displays information on the campaigns linked to the deposit/withdrawal details of the accounts and the customer transactions and enables customers to enjoy the intuitive service to acquire their past deposit/withdrawal details simply by swiping the smartphone screen. Summary displays the monthly income and outgoing and the changing balance of the yen ordinary savings accounts. It also displays in easy-to-read graphs the realtime financial status of the yen/foreign-currency savings accounts. My Menu displays the applications in order of higher use frequency.

Jibun Bank, as the smartphone-based bank, is planning to implement additional new services aggressively. Specifically, the bank will focus on the following six areas: 1) to extensively utilize smartphones, 2) settlements, 3) to advance UX, convenience and robotics, 4) to reinforce strong interfaces with KDDI/au via API, 5) to make more sophisticated the relationships with the customers by further utilizing CRM, Big Data, Data Management Platform (DMP) and AI, and 6) to strong security. Using the smartphones as the main channel, the bank is intending to enhance the service lineup and functions, and, by refining the quality, aims at advancing the smartphone apps, which will function as the traffic node to the real world and as the communication channel.

Regarding strengthening the customer relationships by further promoting CRM, the bank will pursue the ultimate UX that will exceed the level of “usability and convenience,” realize the higher “delight, fun,” and innovation, and promote One-to-One services based on its understanding of customers by utilizing the Big Data. In this endeavor, the bank will strengthen its digital marketing, deploy state-of-the-art measures, increase the frequency of contacting its customers, strengthen the establishment of the enduring relationships with customers, and improve its efficiency.