Absa Bank has signed a long-term contract with Salesforce, a global leader in customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, to “bring about a step-change in servicing individual and business-banking customers as the bank accelerates its digitization programme,” according to the South African lender.
In line with its efforts to get closer to customers, Absa says it is rolling out Salesforce software across its South African operations, providing customer-facing employees with CRM features that provide a ‘360-degree view’ of the customer, enabling employees to service customers more efficiently.
Thato Matolong, Absa Bank Managing Executive: Channel, Infrastructure, and Change, commented: “The agreement is a significant milestone in Absa’s digitization transformation. In the past, customer-facing employees had to use multiple applications relating to customers. Now, we will have a single tool that provides a 360-degree view of a customer. This new agreement with Salesforce builds on work that Absa commenced with the global cloud-based software solutions provider previously.“
Absa Bank in a statement said: “The difficulty for many banks in servicing customers is that various teams across different product areas (such as transactions, home loans, insurance, vehicle financing and banking) many geographies and different channels (such as contact centres and branches) often use different systems and processes to serve customers. “This can result in customers experiencing services as uncoordinated or inefficient.”
By using a single customer interface provided by Salesforce, employees are better equipped with a seamless view of customer data and history across multiple areas and they are enabled to provide solutions more rapidly. At the same time, the new CRM solution better enables Absa to cross-sell products, thereby supporting revenue generation.
Matolong says that while implementation is a gradual process across the Group’s operations in Africa, the cloud-based solution will allow for quicker client onboarding, faster solutioning for customers and ‘solving right’ the first time. The ultimate objective of the journey is to align behind a single distribution strategy and to build world-class channels that deliver optimal experiences.
Denis Terrien, EVP and CEO of Salesforce for Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, commented: “Absa Bank exemplifies how to successfully conduct a true digital transformation journey, and we are honoured to be a part of it. Customers are the lifeblood of any business, and dealing with them in the new digital world, requires developing an omni-channel strategy that is supported by a single view. This is the goal of the Salesforce Customer 360 platform.”
“The new agreement not only talks to our digitisation journey, but it also speaks to our strategy to partner with global leading organisations that continue to innovate in a space where we want to excel in terms of customer experience,” said Matolong.
