{"id":42845,"date":"2018-01-23T17:58:25","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T22:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging21.finca.org\/uncategorized-en-ca\/seven-lessons-for-agency-banking"},"modified":"2024-11-04T02:07:30","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T07:07:30","slug":"seven-lessons-for-agency-banking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finca.org\/en-ca\/seven-lessons-for-agency-banking","title":{"rendered":"Seven Lessons for Earning Customers\u2019 Trust in Agency Banking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of FINCA\u2019s biggest challenges in using alternative delivery channels for customers is building trust. Customers accustomed to brick-and-mortar branches can be intimidated by digital technologies. Similarly, they may not be ready to accept and use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fincacanada.org\/our-work\/microfinance\/innovations\">banking agents<\/a>. These are third-party businesses \u2013 such as pharmacies, gas stations, or grocery stores \u2013 that handle financial transactions on behalf of FINCA. In some markets, they are branded as \u201cFINCA Express\u201d locations.<\/p>\n<p>To overcome mistrust and lack of confidence in banking agents, FINCA Tanzania employed a combination of high-touch and low-touch strategies. This taught us some important lessons:<\/p>\n<h2>Choose the technology carefully<\/h2>\n<p>Bank cards have drawbacks: they\u2019re prone to damage and loss, and customers often forget their PINs. Instead of cards, FINCA Tanzania adopted biometric fingerprint-enabled point-of-service (POS) devices, using the slogan, \u201cyour bank on your thumb.\u201d With this system, only a customer\u2019s fingerprint enables access to their account. No one can withdraw money unless the owner is present to authorize the transaction. Choosing this technology helped build customers\u2019 trust and confidence in the service.<\/p>\n<h2>Locate the first agents closest to branches<\/h2>\n<p>FINCA Tanzania placed its first agents just a few meters from a branch, which made it easy to refer customers. In some cases, FINCA staff walked with customers to the agent\u2019s place of business. Even so, some customers remained hesitant, and FINCA had to make deliberate efforts to introduce customers to agents. We encouraged customers to visit the FINCA branch after transacting with an agent next door. This gave them an ease of mind knowing their funds were safely transferred. Once customers developed trust in the first agent, they began utilizing agents closer to their homes, businesses and communities.<\/p>\n<h2>Educate the customer continually<\/h2>\n<p>Customer education is a process. From account sign-up to first transaction to regular banking, customers were trained in multiple ways. FINCA Tanzania\u2019s customer relationship officers met face-to-face with customers at routine village banking group meetings. They supplemented trainings with brochures written in the local language on the benefits of using a banking agent.<\/p>\n<h2>Employ SMS alerts<\/h2>\n<p>Short message service, or SMS alert services, inform customers of transaction activity on their accounts. Every time a customer makes a transaction, he or she receives a message indicating the transaction type and account balance. This practice helps reassure customers that no one can take advantage of their account without their knowing about it.<\/p>\n<h2>Ensure continuity of service<\/h2>\n<p>Network outages can erode trust, especially when customers are just getting used to a new channel. So FINCA adopted a \u201cdual SIM\u201d point-of-service (POS) machine that allowed automatic network switching. Whenever one network would fail, the \u201cdual SIM\u201d feature ensured that service was still available on the alternative SIM card. FINCA also selected agents carefully, choosing those committed to having sufficient liquidity on hand to serve customers at all times.<\/p>\n<h2>Automate agent monitoring<\/h2>\n<p>Channel business officers \u2013 whose job is to engage and support agents \u2013 began using a smartphone application to monitor agent activity. This application tracked liquidity, logbook use, terminal storage, float management and captured GPS to confirm when officers visited agents\u2019 premises. FINCA analyzed this information to resolve any agent-level gaps that might negatively affect customer experience.<\/p>\n<h2>Hold regular agent forums<\/h2>\n<p>Every quarter, FINCA brought agents together to address customer service, performance, and to share feedback. These forums allowed FINCA to understand what was happening in the field, and act on agents\u2019 suggestions.<\/p>\n<p>In just three years of using these strategies, FINCA Tanzania expanded its agent network from zero to over 120 agents.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This growth allowed the subsidiary to move 57% of transactions to agents and growing, easing the load on our branches and reducing the cost of doing business.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Most important, we\u2019ve earned customers\u2019 trust and confidence and we shall continue to leverage this to deploy more innovative products and services that address our customer needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Program Manager for Financial Inclusion in Africa, Nathan Were, reflects on key insights from deploying a network of banking agents in Tanzania.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":364,"featured_media":42846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[28,96],"class_list":["post-42845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-en-ca","tag-fintech","tag-microfinance-en-ca"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Seven Lessons for Earning Customers&#039; Trust in Agency Banking<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Program Manager for Financial Inclusion in Africa, Nathan Were, reflects on key insights from deploying a network of banking agents in Tanzania.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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