Chapter-1

Introduction

E-business has been continuously growing as a new industry during the last decade. The banking industry has been leading this trend in recent years, and now all banking transactions completing through internet applications are sometimes called e-banking. E-banking has revolutionized the way business is transacted by globalizing the business enterprise. E-banking technologies have proliferated in recent years, and the availability of a wide range of products has led to increasing adoption among consumers. These technologies include direct deposit, computer banking, stored value cards, and debit cards. Growth of Electronic banking in a country depends on many factors, such as success of internet access, new online banking features, household growth of internet usage, legal and regulatory framework. E-banking can offer speedier, quicker and dependable services to the customers for which they may be relatively satisfied than that of manual system of banking. E-banking system not only generates latest viable return, it can get its better dealings with customers.A transitional period in the banking sector of Bangladesh has been passing through since shifting from the traditional banking system to the online banking system. These comments indicate that gradually electronic banking is gaining its importance in Bangladesh. At the same time the banking process is becoming faster and easier. In order to survive in the competitive field of the banking sector commercial banks are looking for better service opportunities to provide their customer. There are many e-banking operator in Bangladesh- Bkash (BRAC Bank), DBBL mobile banking (DBBL Bank), Ukash (UCB), Sure kash (First Security Islami Bank Ltd.), Mkash, Mykash, Hello, Mobikash etc. There is another new mobile banking operators called OK mobile banking a product of One Bank Ltd. which is operated by Interspeed Marketing Solutions Limited. The paper has been undertaken mainly to find out whether OK banking can satisfy the customers or not.

1.1 Objectives of the Study

Objectives of this report are: To know how a new company grow in the competitive market. To discover the GAP between customer expectation and perception from this service. To detect problem of OK mobile banking. To make suggestion on basis of findings. To identify the prospect of mobile banking in Bangladesh.

1.2 Limitation

Due to the following limitations the report might not be through enough to achieve the objectives: It is important to conduct small research among the target group to understand the OK Banking total service dimensions. Due to the time limitation it was not possible to do any research in large scale and outside of the Dhaka. While taking the interviews, many of the agents of OK Banking were unwilling to provide any kind of information to us and also we found difficulties to talking with them as they use to be very busy with their own works.However, we tried our level best to make this paper an enhanced one and a strong team work helped us a lot to finish it within the short time period.

1.3 Methodology

Primary Data Source: The primary data is obtained by one interview with Md. Ashikur Rahman, Territory Officer of Interspeed Marketing Solution Ltd. We have also talked with the BRAND Manager of Interspeed Marketing Solution Ltd. Pratik SenGupta. They have given idea about the service development and design of OK Banking and also described about their work regarding this project of One Bank Ltd.Secondary Data Source: To understand how other organizations work and to know industry practices secondary data have been used from survey on the retailers/agents of Ok banking and also from different reports, articles and website. We have taken a survey of 30 retailers to know about OK banking performance and consumer expectation from this service.

1.4 Background

Interspeed Marketing solution is an advertising and marketing communication organization. It is a marketing consultancy helping businesses grow and realize their commercial dreams. Interspeed is one of the first Bangladeshi advertising agencies. It was founded by Enayet Karim in 1968. Over the last 43 years they have consolidated their position as one of the largest independent agency in the country revered and respected for their creative streak and great brand building work for some of the largest clients in the country. (Interspeed Marketing Solutions Ltd., 2000) Their core strength lies in their ability to think differently and act boldly and bring a solution-neutral integrated approach to marketing problems for clients. They build and nurture strong brands by creating communications that circumvent the usual and disrupt the status quo.

Product/Service Offerings:Interspeed believes in 3-dimensional marketing communication solutions for businesses and brands. They have three business units.Interspeed Advertising: is their traditional full service creative agency that provides clients with through the line advertising and brand consultancy services. Interspeed Activation: is their brand activation, rural outreach and events management agency that provides clients with 360 degree touch points on the ground, in-store or anywhere that traditional media fails to touch consumers. Interspeed Marketing Solutions is their direct marketing, trade marketing and one-to-one customer engagement agency that provides clients direct marketing capabilities, trade merchandising support and digital solutions.Interspeed Clients: The clients of Interspeed are Unilever, Akij Group, Radio Foorti, Anwars Group, NuVista pharma Ltd., British American Tobacco, Banglalion, Eastern Bank Ltd., Cocacola, PRAN, Microsoft, Renata Ltd., Computer Source, Bombay Sweets, BRAC Chicken, iCON, HP Bangladesh etc.

1.5 Mobile Banking in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, the expansion of e-banking is beset with several infrastructural, institutional, and regulatory constraints such as inadequate availability of reliable and secure telecommunication infrastructure, poor ICT penetration in the banking sector, lack of skilled manpower and training facilities, absence of supportive policies, guidelines, rules and regulations relating to e-transactions and the like. To make Digital Bangladesh the Bangladesh Bank has brought competition among the scheduled banks to improve banking services and rapidly adopt e-banking on a wider scale.

Mobile banking is a new banking concept in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bank is influencing banks to operate this mobile in a serious manner to reach to the unbanked people of Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bank believes that mobile is the easiest way to reach to the rural part of the country with the banking service. Still now, Bangladesh Bank has given license to 23 banks to run this mobile banking operation. Among these, 14 banks have full Mobile Financial Service permission and other 9 banks have the permission for international remittance transaction only through mobile. Currently many banks are providing this service, among them BRAC Bank Limited mobile banking service named Bkash, One Bank limited mobile banking, Islami Bank has its banking services named M-cash, UCB has its U-cash and one bank has currently launched its mobile banking service named OK Banking.Mobile Banking service can be provided in two different processes. One of these processes allows banks to give the mobile banking service towards the customer directly. In this process banks have their own network system. In the second process banks use 3rd party to give mobile banking service. In this process banks have only the database system and the service providing duty is relies on 3rd party. Now, based on these services providing process, service can be delivered in two different ways. These are application based (GPRS protocol) and the other one is SMS based.

Chapter-2

GAP Model

2.1 Customer GAPThe customer gap is the difference between customer expectations and perceptions. Whatever the company promised to the consumer if they fulfill it properly then customer becomes happy. If company provides more than whatever they promised, customer becomes happier. But, if company fails to fulfill their promise, customer becomes unhappy. Customer expectation becomes higher when company promise higher. GAP rises when customer finds differences in between expected service and perceived service.

Expected service

Customer Gap

Perceived service

Figure: The Customer GapTo find out the GAP of Ok banking we have done a survey on their agents/retailers. We have found out the gap between the customer expectation and perceived value is higher. Customers expect many things from their service like- regular communication with retailer,advertisement and promotioncommission, service availability,flexible account opening system, easy process, respond on time,building Relationship with Retailers, training and seminar etc. But actually they are not getting from this service as they expected. For example- a) Service representative respond on time: Retailers expected that the SR of OK banking will respond time, but from survey we have got the actual perception of retailers.Strongly AgreeAgreeNeutralDisagreeStrongly Disagree

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Figure: SR on time respondsb) Maintain good network coverage: The survey result is-Strongly AgreeAgreeNeutralDisagreeStrongly Disagree

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Figure: Good network coverageMost of the people dont know about their network quality, because after opening the accounts the company didnt recharge the balance of agents account to operate the business, thats why the retailers have less idea about their network.c) Strong commitment towards service:Strongly AgreeAgreeNeutralDisagreeStrongly Disagree

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Figure 2.4: Strong commitment towards serviceMost of their retailers/agents say that their promises towards the service dont match with their work.2.2 Provider GAP

GAP.1To close all customer gaps, the gap model suggest another four gaps.The Listening GapThe difference between customer expectations of service and company understanding of the expectations is listening gap. When we talked with territory manager of OK banking, he said that they know about their customer expectation properly, but couldnt start work on it properly as they are the new service in the market. The reasons for this gap are:i. Inadequate marketing research orientation: Ok banking now doing many surveys on their customer expectation. They have find out what their customer mainly want from their service. But the sorrow matter is they are not working to solve this problem properly.ii. Lack of upward communication: They have a huge communication gap between their lower employees to higher employee. Even the SR of the OK banking doesnt maintain regular communication with the retailers/agents. Some retailers said that the SR came once in their shop to open their accounts, after that they didnt meet with them within 6months.iii. Insufficient relationship focus: OK banking wants to keep good the relationship with their customers, but it is not maintain. Their territory manager said that they are trying to maintain the relationship with customers. But their agents said that their number of customer is very low, maximum people asked for Bkash service because of their brand value, people even dont ask OK banking service. So its indicating that their relationship with customers is not good.iv. Inadequate service recovery: Ok is not following appropriate steps to recover their service. Their customers are already dissatisfied with their service quality. So, they should do something now which can encourage their customers to use their service. But they are saying that they will start working after 1months from now.

GAP.2The Service Design and Standards GapIf company fails to have right service quality designs and standards, the gap will arise. The reason for this gap is-Poor service design: OK is using Banklet software where other companies are using Telcolate software which is user friendly. But OK gives strong security protocol to their customers. But this process takes much time than other mobile banking operators. So if others company take 10minutes to open an account, OK banking is taking 15 minutes to open an account. So, here the gap is 15-10=5minutes.

GAP.3The Service Performance Gapi. Failure to match supply and demand: As the company has done some promotional activities in different retail shop, sometime customer ask for this service, but the retailer cant provide them the service because company didnt load balance time to time in retailers account. For that reason, the supply doesnt match with the customer demand.ii. Customers not fulfilling role: As OK is a new mobile banking service I the market most of the people have no clear idea about the roles and responsibilities of this services.

GAP.4The Communication Gapi. Lack of integrated services marketing communication: They have lack of strong marketing program. They just fixed their festoons in different retailer shops, but they are not involved in strong promotional and marketing activities.ii. Over promising: OK have promised different service features to their customers, but sad thing is their main 3services those they have started to serve Cash-in, Cash-out, P2P is not working properly.iii. Inappropriate pricing: Ok is charging high price than other operators. They charge TK.20, where other operators charge TK.18.5. So, the gap is 20-18.5=TK.1.5. Moreover, for checking of the balance by OK banking, it charge TK.2/check, other company dont charge here any money.

Chapter-3

Consumer Behavior of Service

3. Consumer Behavior of Service:In order to classify what kind of category the service of OK Banking falls under, at first we have to understand the classifications of service properties. Search qualities attributes those can be determined before purchasing a product. Experience qualities attributes those can be discerned only after the purchase of the products. The last one, credence qualities characteristics those are impossible to evaluate even after purchase and consume. With respect to the three qualities of services, the services OK Banking offers falls under the category of experience qualities. This is because the quality of service the OK provides cannot be determined before the purchase, but can be realized after the purchase or during the consumption.

3.1. Consumer Decision Making Process

Need Recognition: This is the first step of the consumer decision making process and it starts with the recognition that a need or want of a mobile banking service exists. Person can feel the need of doing day to day transaction through mobile phone account which he is using without visiting banks.

Information Search: The next step is the search for information regarding the need that had been recognized in the previous stage. Once the person has realized that there is a need for mobile banking service, he/she will begin to gather information of whether there is any such service that exists in the parameters accessible to him/her. For example: I need to open a mobile bank account for that I will search for sources to have it.Once the person is confirmed that there are such service available, information search will then be directed toward the gathering of information as to the personal and non-personal sources (online and web-based) etc. Once all the information is gathered the person moves onto the next step in the decision-making process.

Evaluation of Service Alternatives: After searching all the possible information the next step will be evaluating the alternatives. People will evaluate based on their requirement. For instance, the quality and availability of the OK Banking service in his or her nearest location.

Service Purchase: Once person decides on receiving the services of OK Mobile Banking, for example, the consumer will go to the location area most convenient for the purpose. Based on the service that consumer will get regardless of how good or bad it is, the consumer will change the service with an experience. It might be good or bad. This experience will have its own lasting effects on the decisions regarding future service consumptions.

Post Experience Evaluation

Post experience evaluation occurs when the customer has already experienced the service. If the customers expectation is not fulfilled fully the customer will be dissatisfied. If the service is up to the expectation of customers, then the customer will be satisfied. And if the expectations were exceeded, the customer will be delighted. If the customer is satisfied or delighted there is a chance that the customer will turn into a loyal one. The more brand loyal customers that OK Mobile Banking can get, the more word-of-mouth opinions will spread about OK Mobile Banking.

Attributes of Dissatisfaction: There are some attributes of dissatisfaction that customers have experienced when they use the service of OK Mobile Banking. The first features of dissatisfaction the customer talks about that OK Mobile Banking is lacking of having features like their competitors. As this mobile banking technology is new to the market, they find less promotional activities and information about the whole system from OK. There are numbers of features like communication, security, network and system complexity making them dissatisfied. Communication problem with the retailers is the most basic setbacks of OK. Basically, the Sales Representative (SR) of OK Banking did not appear for last 3 to 6 months and the communication outside Dhaka is very poor. The Sales Representative (SR) does not respond on time when the retailers need them to sort out any problem. Many retailers have a question that the money they gave to the Sales Representative (SR) for the purpose of account opening, actually they do not know whether they will get the money back or not in future. Again, some Sales Representative (SR) just came to their shop and opened an account and they did not contact with the retailer further. Security issues come with money which the retailers have given to the service provider. As they did not know when they get the money back, so there is no security of money. Network problem is another issue with service provider. Retailer wants network coverage over whole Bangladesh, as they can improve their network like competitors. Complexity of system is lagging behind the OK Banking as one the retailer of Uttara complained about it. The account opening system is not flexible. There are some issues that the retailers consider as vital from the service provider. As the OK Mobile Banking system is new in the market, retailers see the company as it is lacking in providing extra benefits, seminar with the retailers, providing training to retailers. Finally, overall post experience evaluation of OK Mobile Banking is to come with more informative approach about mobile banking technology and more promotional and related marketing activity towards users or retailers.

Chapter-4

Customer Expectation of Service

4. Customer Expectation1) Regular Communication with Realtors: The first and most wanted expectation of the OK retailers is making regular communication. They want to talk with SR regarding their service. Retailers said that, though OK mobile banking is new in market, they need to keep in touch with them as well as customers. They also said that, OK authority doesnt maintaining proper relationship with retailers. As a result, this thing is making a huge gap between company & retailers. Therefore retailers want a regular and strong communication from OK authority. 2) Advertisement and promotion: In the second position retailers want sufficient advertisement and promotion activities from OK mobile banking. They believe this is the only strong step which will help OK to catch the attraction of their customers. In addition, they said OK must do advertisement in such a way, so that customer can feel that this company is better than others in term of service, network, and promise.3) Commission Facilities: Commission Facilities/ Extra Commission are a big issue in retailers expectation point of view. Retailers directly said that, if OK gives more commission comparing to the other operator, they will spread positive word about OK. Furthermore they said, they will influence customers positively to use OK mobile banking but the condition is OK needs to make them happy by giving extra commission.4) Service Availability: most of the retailer wants available service not only in Dhaka but also all over country. They expect OK will be making their service available in every single corner of Bangladesh like Bkash. In addition they said, most of the of the mobile banking transaction are happing for sending money from Dhaka to outside but OK doesnt have available service coverage over there. For that reason, customers dont feel any interest in OK mobile banking. As a result, retailer gets only or sometimes number is zero and their benefit goes down automatically. Therefore, they want available service form OK in every possible place throughout the whole Bangladesh.5) Active Features: OK have so many features but those not working properly. For that reason, retailers cannot run OKs line on time they want. They highly expect that OK will seriously look after on that issue and give some positive result to the retailers.6) Flexible account opening system: Retailers want the facilities of open account as many as they want. They also want less rules regulations and hassle free process of opening account. In addition, they expect that time in between account opening and activation will be as early as possible because if it takes more time customers feeling bored and they start keep them away from this service. For that reason, retailers want an easy and user friendly account opening system.7) Easy Process: Account opening system, money receiving and sending would have to be easy so that, all type of customers can enjoy this service. Retailers shared that, most of the customer outside of Dhaka are uneducated, too many rules regulations could be the reasons of their unwilling to take this service. Therefore every retailer wants an easy service with every possible features and facilities.8) Respond on Time: SRs of OK are not working properly with responsibility. They do not come to retailers regularly, not even one single day in a month. In some area they did come only once in whole time period. For that reason, retailers are totally disappointed about SR because they want SRs presence in their shop at least one day in a week. They believe that this is the only easy way to get update information about companys recent activities. Some of the retailer shared that, they do not have any idea of OK and it is just because of less communication of SR. Therefore, retailers one of the most important expectation is SR will respond on time so that, they could at least know either company exist in market or not.9) Building Relationship with Retailer: Retailers want to get a well relationship with OK company. They believe that, good business is totally impossible without having flexible and comfortable relationship with them. To establish that they expect regular interaction from the authority of OK. In that issue most of the retailers indicate the customer relation policy of other major mobile banking company. For that reason, all the retailers highly expect a strong customer relationship with OK, otherwise they believe OK will not be able to sustain in market in future.10) Training and Seminar: One particular part of retailers wants to get training on the operating system of OK mobile banking. They expect that they will have to have proper competence on OKs system, only then they will be able to ensure the proper service to the customers. Some of them talking about seminar on different issues so that, retailers can have enough information about company. Furthermore they said, by giving proper training OK can create a milestone in mobile banking industry. Therefore retailers want few training session as early as possible.

Chapter-5

Customer Perception of Service

5. Customer Perceptions:Customer perceptions are always considered relative to customer expectations. Expectations evaluation may shift over time from person to person and culture to culture. The customers perception is your reality-Kate Zabriskie. By this saying we can easily understand that if your customer perception is good that means your company is giving value added service to your customer. But sometime its difficult to satisfy all customers at a time. Sometime customers do not even know what they have to expect from a particular service. So, its become a challenge for marketer.5.1 Determinants of Customer Satisfaction:As our report is on OK Mobile Banking, first of all we have to find out the how they determine their customer satisfaction. There are four determinants of customer satisfaction.a) Product & service features: There are currently 3 services activated for Ok banking service. The services are: Cash-in, Cash-out and P2P. Likely, People can pay passport payment by OK banking. Along with that in the future they have plan to give some others services:

Future Services of OK Banking

Statement

Merchant Payment

Bill Pay

Air Time Top Up

Remittance

Though Ok banking has promised that they will provide all of these service features to their consumers, their previous services (Cash-in, Cash-out & P2P) are not working well in the market. Customer Emotions: It can also affect customer perceptions of satisfaction with product and service. OK banking has not got success yet in this section. Because, the service which they are providing to their customer that is not satisfactory to customers. So, customers emotion to their service is not working properly. Attributes for service success or failures: The perceived causes of events influence perceptions of satisfaction of a customer. By doing survey on OK mobile baking, we came to know that they had many lacking in providing service to consumers like- communication gap with agents and customers, less responds from SR(service representative), less trust on this new service, network failure, commission giving problem etc. All of these attributes says that their customers are dissatisfied with their service. Perceptions of Equity and Fairness: Where other service companies like Bkash, DBBL mobile banking etc. are trying to fulfill the expectations of customers, in that situation Ok banking is not responding properly with their agents/customers. For that reason, their agents are thinking that they are not working fairly like other operators. Other Customers, Family Members, and Coworkers: Maximum people in Bangladesh think that mobile baking means Bkash. Because, Bkash has taken first mover advantage. When they start their first business it almost cover all the area of Bangladesh, where other companies still cant do it. Now people have faith on Bkash mobile banking. Though, there are many mobile banking options in a retailer shop now, customers ask for Bkash mobile banking rather than other operators and one retailer see that other retailers are using Bkash than other mobile banking. So, its clear that Ok banking still cant meet the expectation of customers.5.2 Service Quality:Another important thing is to know about the service quality of Ok mobile banking for know the perception of customers. Service quality is the combination of two things:a) Outcome, Interaction, and physical environment quality.b) Service quality dimension.From this two most important is service quality dimension. Because dimension is something without it company cannot express their service.

ResponsivenessTangiblesEmpathyAssuranceReliabilityService Quality Dimension

Reliability: OK banking service is not reliable yet to consumer. Because reliable is something where company 90% time deliver their service to consumer properly. But OK banking is now a developing mobile banking. It has started last year; people are now comfortable with other mobile banking. OK needs time to capture that reliable position from customers. Responsiveness: Responsiveness is something which proves that how quickly a particular service responds to their customer. This experience is very bad in OK banking. When we went for survey, we recognized that most of their agents are unhappy with their service. They said that the SR of ok banking just meet with them once or two time only. They just hanged the banner of OK mobile banking in the store and opened their account. After that they didnt even come to meet with their agents again. Assurance: Customers of OK banking are not sure about company service. So, how can they trust on the service? The service is new to the customer. The company mainly focuses on Dhaka city. They opened accounts of customer in Dhaka mainly. But most of the people who use this mobile banking, they live in outside of Dhaka city. So, company already has created a GAP here. They couldnt reach to all people of the country. Thats why most of the people are using other operators. Their faith on this service is low. Empathy: As we have said that OK banking is a growing mobile banking service company, their dedication to customers has not seen yet. Customers are still unaware about their service quality. Tangibles: Here, we have to express service in trams of number. We have asked to the agents of OK banking that out of 10 how many points they wanted to give OK mobile banking. Some people give 2/3 and some agents said that they didnt give any specific service to them; so, how can they evaluate them.5.3 E-Service Quality:Furthermore, mobile banking is a part of e-business. So, this service also has to maintain proper e-service quality. But here also we have seen some failure of OK banking. They are- Efficiency: Ok has offered cheap cost rate for their service, but couldnt reach quickly to every customer. OK banking use Banklet software which is very costly and its security protocol is very high, but it is not user friendly. Fulfillment: Whatever company promised to their customer, their duty is to fulfill them. Ok banking has promised about good networking, low charging, and high commission payments to agents, user friendly processing etc. but couldnt fulfill all of these promises yet. Reliability and Responsiveness: About reliability we have already talked in service quality dimension. As the service is new in market, people dont have devotion on this service. Privacy: OK banking use Banklet software which provide a good security protocol towards their business, where other mobile banking company in Bangladesh use Telcolate software. Though, Telcolate is user friendly, but cant give proper security which is very important for M-Banking. Compensation: In E-Business if anyone suffered by the service of any company, that company has to compensate for that suffer. Ok didnt face any problem like this. To recover the communication gap and to build up employee relationship they are going to their agents shop and fix festoon there. Contact: In E-Business, contact address is very important, but most of the company fails to provide proper contact number/address. OK banking maintains a proper online address. We can find the company on ONE Bank website in detail. But problem is their employees (SR) dont maintain proper relation with retailers and also with their customers. So, their communication policy is very weak than other competitors.

Chapter-6

Listening to Customer through Research

6. Listening Customer through Research:To make this report an authentic one, we have done a survey through the response of 30 active retailers of OK agents. For this, they filled up a questionnaire or form where they were asked few questions about OK mobile banking service and there we set up answers in the way of liker status. Based on the survey, we actually tried to find out the service quality, companys communication, promotion, service flexibility, product satisfaction level and retailers expectation and suggestions. However, our survey analysis is given in details below: According to the survey we have done on 30 retailers, as it was a new mobile banking service so retailers were usually having either positive expectation or they were with empty mind. So it was a good opportunity for OK that retailers were ready to take the service where they had BKASH as market leader. But OK completely failed to gain the competitive advantage of the market. It becomes completely clear to us when we conducted the survey. We found that, retailers complained about less communication (23%), low area of network coverage (20%), sales representative responsiveness (10%) and lengthy process of account opening (7%). Besides, there was no one to listen about these entire problems which clearly show the service inconsistency. So we can say that company is totally avoiding the most important portion that is helping them to be in the market. Service representatives often visit to the retailers. So there is no direct connection between the retailers and the company. In this situation, it is very difficult for the company to maintain a proper relationship with the retailers. Retailers already complained about it as well. 23% of the retailers complained about relationship issue and 10% of them also complained for responsiveness. Next to it, it will become impossible to maintain better service quality if this situation goes on. Here, we want to add retailers well-thoughtful opinion. They said that if OK mobile banking wants to establish them in the mobile banking market, the first thing they have to concentrate on marketing and promotion. Around 20% customers talked about it. So they told that it will help them to grab the customers attention. They also added that people always says BKASH but OK banking should give them a reason to find OK. Secondly, they suggested OK to focus on the network coverage because the market leader BKASH is covering all around the country. 20% retailers told to improve it. Then 10% of them focused on attractive features. As Bkash is already a market leader so OK banking has to struggle a lot to prove them. So they need to do something unique like UCB recently doing. They are paying customers interest on the money they are having in the account. But unfortunately, none of these activities are observed. So there we can see two damage 1) OK is unaware of what their customer wants. 2) OKs service quality is not going to be improved. Finally we can say that OK service quality is not satisfactory at all. While we were conducting our survey, we never found any types of inquiry done from the service provider to the retailer that can be related to prost transaction surveys. Complaint solicitation only makes the feedback of dissatisfied customers whereas post transaction surveys cover every satisfied and dissatisfied customer. It also works as a customer service. So OK banking as a new service provider should emphasize more on post transaction inquiries. But unfortunately, OK mobile banking didnt provide these services to the retailers which clearly appeared to our research. As OK mobile banking is a new service provider so its a challenge for them to fulfill the service expectation. While we were working on the survey research, retailers mentioned about few expectations like higher commission (17%), special benefits (10%) and attractive features for the consumers (10%). Even few retailers made their mind to be an OK agent to raise more commission. We found that each and every expectation remains ungratified. There was 1 retailer in our survey research work who left OK mobile banking after using it for few days. So we asked this retailer about the reasons he left and anything he encountered from the company to make him come back. Then his response was very frustrating and we confirmed his issue as right when we completed the survey. This issue was about service responsiveness. Around 10% of the retailers complained about low quality customer service and weak relationship with the retailers. For example, we came to know that even when few retailers tried to talk with them over phone for network failure issue, their response was not enough to solve the problem and the server were down for few hours. Retailers also added their own valuable suggestion for OK banking. 7% of them told about area of network coverage. So it becomes a vital issue to them because they mentioned most of the transaction happens form division to division. So if OK does not strong their network outside of Dhaka City it will be impossible for them to grab the market. Another thing they mentioned that OK mobile banking transaction is only possible through Grameen and Citycell operators. So they really found it very difficult to provide the expected service to the customer only with this 2 mobile operator. So retailers claimed that its service should be opened for all the operator. There are currently 3 services activated for Ok banking service. The services are: Cash-in, Cash-out and P2P. The money transfer from one mobile account to another mobile account is called P2P transfer. In the survey, we saw that retailers demand more flexible features. The market leader BKASH recently introduced Buy Air Time facilities for the BKASH accounts holder. That is from now on, people can recharge from his BKASH account. Another example can be UCASH which is giving interest for the money customer have in their account. OK banking service should provide these types of extra benefits to the customer otherwise they will fail to compete in the market.

Chapter-7

Building Customer Relationship

7. Building Customer Relationship:As Peter Drucker said, Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it. Its quite inevitable to make this conclusion, that the customers are the final decider whether your service is up to the mark or not. Hence, building and maintaining a productive relationship with customer is very important. When prove into our assigned organization OK Mobile Banking, we saw several lacking in this arena of service.We will depict the whole scenario in terms of Goals of relationship Marketing.

Goals of Relationship Marketing

EnhancingRetainingAcquiringSatisfying

1) Acquiring customersHaving a better relationship with existing consumers would lead to a Snow Ball effect to other people after hearing about the service from the existing consumers. However, when we conduct our survey, we found out that OK Mobile Banking is failing to maintain these criteria. When we went for the agents, we documented that most of their agents are discontented with their service. According to them, the service provider of ok banking just meets with them once or two times only. They just hanged the banner of OK mobile banking in the store and opened their account. After that they didnt even come to meet with their agents again. For this reason existing customers are having second thoughts whether to continue with their service or not.

2) Satisfying Customers

As mentioned earlier, OK authority doesnt maintain suitable relationship with retailers. As a result, this thing is making a huge gap between the company & retailers. Hence, we saw most of the customers are not happy. In addition, as a new organization its quite vital to regulate a suitable communication between customer and organization. In contrary, Ok Ltd is failing to do that.3) Retaining CustomersThe key mantra of retaining customers is you cannot let your customers go to your rivals.Where rival companies like Bkash is providing trustworthy and nationwide service, Ok Mobile Banking is new to the customer. The company mainly emphasize on Dhaka city. They opened accounts of customer in Dhaka. However in reality most of the people who use this mobile banking, they live in outside of Dhaka city. Thus, company already has created a GAP here and several customers are switching to the rival companies.

4) Enhancing CustomersBy building loyalty and conviction, organization enhances their customers. According to our survey, most of the of the mobile banking transaction are done for sending money from Dhaka to outside but OK doesnt have available service coverage over there. For that reason, customers dont feel any interest in OK mobile banking. Moreover, the time in between account opening and activation is a time consuming process. Hence customers feels bored and they start keep them away from this service. SRs of OK are not working properly with accountability. They do not come to retailers often, not even one single day in a month. In some area they did come only once. For that reason, retailers are totally dissatisfied about SR because they want SRs presence in their shop at least one day in a week. They believe that this is the only easy way to get update information about companys recent activities.By analyzing all these criteria, we can conclude by saying that Ok Mobile Banking is failing to construct proper relationship with customers.

Chapter-8

Service Recovery

8. Service Recovery:Service recovery is the actions taken by the organization to minimize the service failure. OK Banking authority also follows several strategies to satisfied the dissatisfied customers and fulfill their requirements. From our finding after doing the survey, most of the customers are not satisfied with the commissions they get, promotional strategies, problem with server system etc. Due to the server problem, sometimes the customers face problems with the network system. OK Banking is well aware of the situation and they try to solve this problem by ensuring better quality service to minimize network errors and also they talk to the agents frequently whether the problem is solve or not. They give 1800 taka bonus to their agents if they can open 100 accounts and also give flexible bill paying offers to their agent to make them satisfied. They try to act immediately for any kind of complaint received from their agents and the territory managers try to build a strong communication by visiting the shops frequently. After Eid they have a big plan to cover all 64 Zillas with their brand promotions and for these they have already taking steps accordingly. Also, they are conveying the current situations to their agents and trying to create trust. They are also offering extra features like, giving fees of making passports to hide their current inabilities. This can satisfy the customers and minimize the dissatisfaction of the present service. If any of their dissatisfied customers call to their customer service number and the customer agent fails to provide adequate information, territory officer of the respected area takes the responsibility to solve that immediately.We have also proposed some facts in our recommendation that can help OK Banking for service recovery and cut the disappointment among the customers.

Chapter-9

Service Development and Design

9.1 Service Development One Bank limited has a policy for OK banking that includes suggestion and some advices to Interspeed marketing Solutions .Interspeed Marketing Solutions acts as a strategic partner of OK Banking. The activation of OK Banking strategy includes the reliable contract between One Bank and Interspeed Marketing Solutions. One Bank is monitoring the whole working process. One Bank Limited is compensating Interspeed Marketing Solutions with a handsome amount of money. While building a brand they work as strategic partner to create a better and more effective brand to ensure long term success for OK Banking. To adapt to this dynamic world of mobile banking market Interspeed Marketing Solutions have created an activation strategy to make OK Banking project successful.

September 2013:Product Name: A catchy name fulfills all the requirements to establish any brand and which help people to remember easily are also. Interspeed Marketing Solutions Ltd, came up with the name OK banking which refers to its origin One Bank Ltd. OK means one cash on the other hand it have an acceptance among general people. Production Description: One of the extending services with modern technological advancement is Mobile Banking. In this process of banking customer are allowed to access into the banking system in anytime from anywhere. During the activation period money transfer is most important service. So, they designed their product in such a way that the product will be highly acceptable to the customer.Marketing Research: According to the territory officer of Interspeed Marketing Solution Ltd before launching the product into the market they have done a lot of market research regarding customer demand, market condition, competitors activity etc. they use these information to formulate market strategy, branding and other necessary decision making. Market research is indeed the most important part of activation. System Requirements: As mobile banking service is a online process Interspeed Marketing Solutions Limited have built a strong server for OK Banking. They are using banklet software. Interspeed Marketing Solutions Limited also set up call center to provide customer service.Channel Selection: Channel Selection is important to deliver service to the customers for any type of business. For mobile banking it is the telecom service providers. As OK Banking is a new service they just choose Grameen Phone to be their first channel. As Grameen Phone have the highest number of customer and very strong network, it is appropriate for Ok Banking to start with them. Secondly they made contract with Citycell which is another most popular and the oldest telecom service provider in Bangladesh.Promotional Strategy: Initially in September 2013 Interspeed Marketing Solutions Limited did not go for any promotional activity. As they are new service provider they just spend that time on making plans for rest of the year.

October 2013:Product Launch: On October 2013 ONE Bank Ltd. and Interspeed Marketing Solutions Ltd. jointly launches OK Banking. Agent Selection: After launching the product the most important part agent selection process started. As it is a new product retailers with high visibility and location advantage were given preference. Agents are the media to the customers, so agent selection is the most important part after launching a product.Advertising Placements: For the advertising purpose they took easy steps at first. They use print media advertisements and for the agents brochures to make them understand the product. Interspeed Marketing Solutions Limited have 6 month long advertisement plan. In the first month it was to ensure retailers know about the product.Providing KYC Papers: After making agents, they started to functioning by making customers. Primary agent selection process was concentrated to get loyal customers. They provide the KYC forms to agents to register customers who do frequent transaction. November 2013:Customer Acquisition: Only registered customer will be facilited through OK banking. So, new customer acquisition means new business for them. From November 2013 OK Banking started to get to the customers. Employees and agents were clearly instructed to register validate customer by collecting their National ID card and photo.Market Review: They do market review to know competitors position in market, agents demand and possible ways to advertise the service. Regular market review helps to make strategy. At the early stage of OK Banking they intend to learn from their competitors.Retail Channel Promotion: Agents are the source of business in mobile banking. Interspeed marketing solution Ltd a using banners, festoon, and brochures are the elements of retail promotion to connect the customer with their agent.Provide Supplements to Mobile Operators: As Mobile operator Grameen Phone and City Cell are channel partners of OK banking, customers can get information about OK Banking from GP and City Cell customer care center. Also there is another contract between OK Banking and Mobi Cash, it was important to provide promotional tools (banners, brochures, festoon etc.) and customer KYC form to them.December 2013System Upgrade: OK Banking uses the banklet software. But there are some problems with the software such as agent P2P option, P2P instead of B2B, lack of service options etc. So, Interspeed Marketing Solutions Limited has Upgrade the software to solve these problems.Agent Review: In December 2013 Interspeed Marketing Solutions Limited started to review the agents in territory basis. It is to follow up with their performance, taking care of their problems and marking the higher performing agents to increase sales in future.Field Visit: Interspeed Marketing Solutions Limited do regular visit in the 73 territories around the country. Also Territory officers and Area managers regular duty is to visit market. Interspeed Marketing Solutions Limited another reason for visit is to evaluate their performance.Distributor Hunt: Distributors ensure the sales and satisfaction of agents by giving and receiving their virtual money. So, Interspeed Marketing Solutions Limited started distributor hunt by the territory officers.9.1 Service DesignThere are currently 3 services activated for Ok banking service. The services are: Cash-in, Cash-out and P2P. For activating and implementing the services one has to go through the following stages: (One Bank Ltd., 2014).Cash In: To use the Ok banking service, Customer can cash-in (deposit) at any Ok nominated agent point. Consumer should have sufficient amount of money on his/her Ok account. The Cash in process is: Customer hands over cash to the Agent Agent initiates the transaction from his/her mobile Agent issues a receipt to the customer System sends an SMS to the customer's mobile For security reason, customer needs to check the sending number of SMS and the amount. IVR call will be sent. If the amount of money is not correct or the SMS send from different number, then it wouldn't be considered as correct. Consumers are requested to leave the agent point after they are confirmed about the account balance. Cash Out: To Cash out from the OK account Customer need to see a Licensed Ok agent and with his help get the cash out according to the instruction provided in your OK account. The withdrawal Process is involves the following: Agent initiates the transaction from his/her mobile OK system sends an automated IVR call to the customer's mobile Customer enters his/her PIN System sends an SMS to the customer's mobileP2P: The money transfer from one mobile account to another mobile account is called P2P transfer. How will customer send money to another OK Account? Customer initiates the transaction from his mobile. Customer dials *269# Customer will get a USSD Flash Menu on his/her mobile Customer selects the P2P option from the main menu and inserts the receivers Mobile account number and amount. Customer enters his/her PIN Money will be transferred and both sender & receiver will get SMS notificationService charges and rate:Types of ServiceCharge

Open accountFree

Cash In1% of the total amount or BDT 5 (whichever is higher)

Cash Out1% of the total amount or BDT (whichever is higher)

P2PBDT 5 per Transaction

StatementBDT 3

Balance inquiryBDT 2

Chapter-10

Integrated Service Marketing Communication

10. Integrated Marketing CommunicationIntegrated marketing communication always plays a vital and significant role in constructing an arena of treating a running or emerging or opportunistically viable business mechanism where the success heavily relies on developing and maintaining the integrated marketing approaches. In the domain of service marketing, the overall service scape is perceived by the consumers how well it is conveying the promotional messages. As OK Banking is at its tender age, the overall marketing approaches are not made completely to serve the mature market of mobile banking in Bangladesh. From our findings and rational concern about the marketing approaches here we will propose a hypothetical integrated marketing communication model which will portray a specific target marketing communication. We planned to run a promotional strategy which can boost up their brand image easily and create an impact on the consumers by this. For this, special offer will be launched for the top 7 private universities where the students can pay their tuition and admission fees through OK Banking. Initially we made one year road plan to run the program. Information to be covered: Students can pay their admission and tuition fees through OK Banking, Universities are: BRAC, North South, East West, AIUB, IUB, UIU and Ahsanullah. Tag Line can be: Say OK to your university life with OK Banking. Promotional Medias and Coverage Period: Brochures: Selected universitys brochures for wholeyear. Booths: During the tuition payment periods only. Flyers: Admission and Semester Tuition Payment time. Banners: In front of the universities for whole year. Websites: Selected universitys websites for whole year. Newspapers, Billboards and TVCs: Only before starting the semesters (Thrice in a year). Fresher orientation program: During the fresher orientation program by reminding the payment procedures.In all these Medias the information provided to aware the customers should be always same to reduce confusion in their mind. Lack of proper information or if any content is missing during the promotional phase can create confusion which is the example of disintegrated marketing.

Chapter-11

Way Forward For the Company to Delivering the Best Quality Service

Bangladesh is the 8th largest populated state in the world with around 161 million people. Among them almost 31.5% populations are living under poverty. From this huge population only 13% people have bank account. On the other hand, there are almost 90 million mobile phone subscribers in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bank wants to connect customer with their e-banking system but poor infrastructure is the main obstacle, also commercial bank did not improve their ICT system. For this reason bank cannot reach their remote customers. That is why mobile banking system is very much important and its getting popular day by day. It is very tough competition for banks to grab the customer and without delivering proper service customer would not get satisfied. OK Banking system enters the market with a slogan One Cash but they couldnt change the scenario overnight. Consumer satisfaction come when they get service which was they expected, but when there is gap between expectation and reality consumer get dissatisfied. There are some important issue they should looking forward to Promotion is important factor to communicate with the consumer. OK Banking did a little amount of promotional campaign. To increase the market share OK system should start more promotional activities like TVC. UCASH mobile banking of UCBL, bKASH of BRAC Bank, DBBL mobile banking has TVC of their service. Only banner cannot help OK system to communicate. They should start promote their service through - Billboard, Sponsorship, TVC, Radio-paper advertisement. Mobile banking services mostly depend on the technology so OK Banking need to develop their server as early as possible because some time the server down for one or two hour. OK Banking system should develop the network development. Only Grameenphone and CityCell users can operate this service. OK system should engage the entire mobile network service provider to increase their network power. OK system sales representative (SR) are not so much responsive. They should be more responsive when there is any service related issue. Also they should create a friendly relationship with the agent. Right now only cash in and cash out service and P2P service available in OK system but they cannot do business with only using this service because competitor provide a lot more better service and there are many upcoming competitor. Now existing Market leader is Bkash and Upcoming potential competition -UCash of UCBL. Besides that There are 17 new banks are launching their mobile banking services. Another important promotional channel is internet marketing. Right now internet is a very direct way to communicate with the customer. OK system did not use any internet marketing to promote their service where Bkash, Ucash, DBBL mobile Banking, M-Cash have Facebook page where they continuously communicate, promote, provide service recovery.

OK Banking need to launch mobile recharge service as early as possible because most of the youth use Bkash, M-Cash, DBBL mobile banking only because of this service. The service point of OK system is not satisfactory. Account opening system, retailer cash out system is lengthy process. OK system need good distributor for their service point if that want to capture the urban people. OK system should launch and use their own software rather than using DBBL ones because it often creates confusion among the customer. Own software is also will be their own identity. Bkash is holding the largest share of mobile banking market. UCash also started their business, OK system should formulate new idea and introduce new concept in mobile banking. UCash recently introduce interest on mobile deposit which is a very good idea to garb the customer attention. Like that OK banking system must think about some innovative strategic planning. Most importantly OK banking system should maintain a good relationship with their agents and their customer. Keeping promise is the most important factor to create trust between customer and service provider. So far we saw that OK system failing to keep their promises. Agents and customer both are very much disappointed there is gap between expectation and reality. OK system should reduce the gap. In service industry keeping promises and sustain customer satisfaction should be their ultimate goal. To compete against rivals like bKash, DBBL mobile banking and newcomer UCASH and Mcash they need to stay with their promises, otherwise they will face huge difficulties to stay on this business.

Chapter-12

Conclusion

You cannot just ask customers what they want and try to give that to them. By the time you built it, they will want something new. Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple.It is true that, not every time you can fulfill the desires of your customers, but you need to keep trying and always up-to-date with your service to make your place among your competitors. After doing the research and analyzing the present situation of OK Banking, we came up with the realization that, in this growing and huge demand of mobile banking service; they are well behind of satisfying the potential customer groups. To become the number one of this fast growing service industry, they need to take necessary steps before it is too late. For this, we have recommended some phases which might help them to reduce the service gap.As we know, no matter how well your service is, dissatisfaction of your customers is always a big threat for you. So, they should react as soon as possible to minimize the gap and start trying to give the best quality of service considering that, customers are the king of your organization.

References:

Ahmed, S. M. Sohel, and Asaduzzaman, Md. (2011), Consumer Choice Behavior towards Mobile Phone Operators in Bangladesh -Journal of Arts, Science & Commerce, Vol. II, pp. 30-39.

Nupur, J.M. (2010), E-Banking and Customers Satisfaction in Bangladesh: An Analysis- International Review of Business Research Papers Volume 6. Number 4. September 2010. Pp. 145 156.

Pavel, Mahfuz Hassan (2014) OK banking activation & territory level execution [online]: 31st March. Available from: http://dspace.bracu.ac.bd/handle/10361/3170#preview

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