News

1. Customer Centricity Summit & Awards Explores Brand-Customer Relationships in KSA

2. GITEX Global 2024 to Showcase Global Innovation, Investment, and Cybersecurity Trends

3. The Perfectly Imperfect Start of Disruptive Innovations

4. GovTech Conclave to Explore Cutting-Edge Solutions for Modern Governance

5. New Report Shows Cautious Optimism Among Enterprises Adopting AI

6. Majority of CISOs Feel Their Organizations are Unprepared for Cybersecurity Regulations

Saudi Investment Bank

For building flexible products that solve customer pain-points

Large corporations often face problems in managing and reconciling their payments like business travel expenses, equipment purchase, online payments or managing petty cash disbursements.

The Saudi Investment Bank designed the Corporate Currency Card as a unique multicurrency travel card for the business organization. This product helps business customers to improve their cash flow by allowing them to better track and manage their expenses and to get data and insights on the spending patterns and vendor payments. Over the last three years, the number of cards has doubled, the number of transactions on the cards has increased 5x, and the value of transactions by 9x.

Companies can issue cards for their employees giving them the flexibility to pay in up to 100 foreign currencies with competitive FX rates. The card is available in two designs for Basic and Executive staff and supports both Apple Pay and Mada Pay. The corporate currency card is the first of its kind offering in the Saudi market.

For further security, Corporate Administrators can manage their entire card portfolio online including issuing / renewing / blocking or cancelling cards, loading / unloading funds, implementing spending control and adding and removing currencies from cards. Moreover, detailed spending reports are available online enabling the Corporates to reconcile their accounts easily.

A mobile app is available to the cardholders to activate, block and stop their cards, view transaction details, balances, activated currencies and detailed transaction statements.

This unique product helps the business customers to improve their cash flow by allowing them to better track and manage their expenses and to get data and insights on the spending patterns and vendor payments. They also benefit from savings on foreign currency payments by paying in the relevant currency, faster payments to suppliers and reduction in the processing cost involved in manual handling and tracking of expenses.

The card has the bank retain customers and grow business, especially in the Government segment.

Over the last three years, the number of customers using this card has doubled, the number of transactions on the cards has increased 5x, and the value of transactions by 9x. 

SAB  

For creating a feedback loop to drive business decisions

SAB boasts of a Voice of Customer programme that has been active for the last decade. The bank uses data from this measurement programme to track customer dissatisfaction, negative feedback, delays and challenges with operational inefficiencies and then builds business plans to offer corrective strategies. In the last year, SAB has witnessed a 60% reduction in complaints in its credit card department and an NPS of +52 from +14 for their corporate digital app.

The data set clear objectives on areas that needed improvement, and proactive action.

Credit Cards

Challenge: The measurement program identified a continual dissatisfaction with long turnaround times (TAT) and delays in card delivery, poor customer communication, and dissatisfaction with credit limits.

Action:  The team worked to review and improve Service Level Agreements (SLA) with couriers, introduce SMS notifications and in-app tracking, and enhance the credit card issuance process.

Impact: These efforts resulted in a 60% reduction in negative feedback and complaints, a 10 point increase in satisfaction with card delivery time, an 8 point improvement in application ease, a 5 point increase in satisfaction with monthly credit limits, and a 5 point rise in overall satisfaction with credit card issuance.

Personal Finance

Challenge: When it came to Personal Loan applications, the measurement program identified customer dissatisfaction with delays in loan disbursement and high-profit rates. This is a highly competitive product.

Action:  The team identified opportunities to increase operational staff (especially during promotional periods), ensuring that the application process is smooth and completed on time.

For Buyout customers, different queues were created to prioritize the processing of applications on the same day, before the cut-off time. As well as transferring buyout funds within 24 hours of loan booking.

The solutions team recommended close monitoring of the operations team to ensure that no pending applications are carried forward to the next day. Top 10 discrepancies were identified and awareness sessions were organised for frontline staff.

For competitive pricing, the team conducted a market scan with an aim to be among the top three banks.

Impact: These measures led to an 8 point increase in overall satisfaction with the application process, a 10 point rise in satisfaction with loan disbursement time, a 5 point improvement in profit rate satisfaction, and a 16 reduction in customer complaints.

Relationship Managers

Challenge: The business identified that only 60% of customers claimed they had been contacted by their Relationship Manager (RM) in the past three months, falling short of the internal SLA target of 100%.

Action: To improve customer experience via RMs, the team conducted one-on-one training sessions with RMs through Area Sales Managers and Area Wealth Managers.

Impact: The RM contact ratio increased to 70%, and overall satisfaction with RMs improved by 5 points.

Corporate Digital Channel – SABiCorp (for SMEs)

Challenge: The measurement program highlighted customer complaints about the user-friendliness and limited services of the digital banking app for SMEs, SABiCorp.

Action: The team undertook a comprehensive UX/UI revamp and journey mapping project.

Impact: The newly launched upgraded version of the app significantly improved the user experience, resulting in an increase in the Net Promoter Score (NPS) from +14 to +52.

 

Al Wathba Insurance

For rapid transformation in customer care during a crisis 

During the flood crisis in 2024, claims surged both in frequency and severity. Al Wathba Insurance experienced a 24% increase in calls made to its Call Centre as compared to the previous year. The business shifted from a reactive to a proactive approach – agents reached out to customers to offer updates on the status of their claims. The insurer also enhanced its First Notice of Loss portal to include multiple channels, and followed a 2-hour response time on social media channels.

Ultimately, the business achieved a CSAT score of 90% during this challenging time.

Customer loyalty surged as evidenced by 177 Google Reviews received between the period of January to September 2024.

New to brand policies increased by 14% compared to the previous year, and renewals were up by 4%.

MetLife

For delivering diverse wellness journeys through a single, seamless app  

The 360Health suite combines insurance products, health services, personalised experiences, and rewards for a holistic approach to wellness.

The initiative is built on five care pathways; prevention, early diagnosis, access to treatment, ongoing care and financial protection.

Using personalised recommendations, the app suggests tasks based on the user’s history and future health goals.

Engagement rates showed that 70% of active users regularly interact with the app, particularly with the health tracking and telemedicine features. This sustained usage proved a 14% increase in renewal of policies in active users versus non-users.    

Mastercard

For AI-powered fraud prevention that protects merchants and customers

Network International, the leading enabler of digital commerce across the Middle East and Africa, has extended the benefits of Mastercard’s Brighterion fraud prevention solution, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), to over 60,000 merchants. The two partners are leveraging cutting-edge technology to protect and grow the payments industry by providing transaction fraud screening and merchant monitoring services to merchant acquirers and businesses.

A recent Nilson Report has predicted that loss to card fraud worldwide will reach $408 billion between 2020 and 2030.

A PwC study found that 72% of business executives consider AI a competitive advantage and think it will be fundamental in the future. Furthermore, Mastercard’s Global Security Index has revealed that 92% of consumers would trust a biometric authentication method, such as fingerprint or facial recognition, powered by AI for secure payments.