PERSONAL BANKING: TAILOR-MADE FOR YOU

Check out this scenario! A hungry man walks into a restaurant to have lunch. He is in no mood for pleasantries and barks out his orders in a waspish tone. He is very loud and demanding but a smart junior waiter does a good job of handling the man’s demands. When the man leaves, the waiter’s supervisor is so pleased that he gives him a bonus for the day; a voucher for a free massage at the most exclusive spa in town. The waiter is undoubtedly excited so he goes to the spa to get the well deserved massage. Guess who runs the spa? Turns out the jolly good ‘hungry’ fellow who visited the restaurant earlier runs the spa. Payback is fun, right? And, of course, the waiter intended to get the very last dime’s worth out of whatever amount of money he paid.

All jokes aside, is there really anyone who doesn’t like getting value for money? When I pay for a service, I want to be treated like a king, even if I’m a king’s servant. I want to be constantly reminded how important I am because the service provider depends on the money I am paying to remain in business; even if my pocket is not as big as my ego. If you are a bank customer the story is pretty much the same. You know the bank has over a million customers to attend to with the same resources but how is that supposed to be your problem? If you demand a service from the bank, you expect to get it pronto. You want your demands to be given priority attention because you deserve it!

For a bank as big as UBA with over 8 million customers, giving each customer priority attention is non-negotiable. So we have adopted different strategies to ensure that each customer is treated like a king. One way we have achieved this is by implementing a ‘personal banking’ model to enable the organisation bank each individual like he/she is the only customer. The model is a simple but effective one. Each customer’s banking needs can be broadly categorised as students, professionals, expatriates/diaspora, or self employed professionals. Personal Banking segments customers along occupation, age, income lines, social activities and geographies, and apportions the appropriate resources and technologies to reach and serve each customer effectively.

For instance if you are a student, UBA has products and services with tailor-made features for you. The U-Care savings account which is an education-specific savings account opened in the name of the beneficiary is designed to support education through primary and secondary school years and even up to Master’s degree level. There is also NextGen account, meant for the educated and enlightened youth or young adult in secondary and tertiary institutions. This account comes packed with great features, events and activities geared towards preparing youths for financial independence and economic empowerment from the very early stages of life.

On the other hand, if you are self-employed, a young professional, executive professional, civil servant or even a public sector executive, the bank also has special products for you.  At UBA, we understand that “choice is the ultimate luxury” so we have provided you with a suite of products including the newly enhanced UBA LifeStarter and UBA Lion Prime accounts suites. These accounts come with several variants designed to match any professional’s age and lifestyle. With these accounts, we will reduce your cost of business and help you to maximise returns on all your financial transactions, with offers such as Zero COT and higher interest rates on your current account.

The UBA Professional Current account is equally designed for efficient salary and payroll administration for employees in both private and public sectors while the Ruby account is a gender-specific account tailored to satisfy the special business and personal needs of female customers. Because the personal banking officer understands your banking needs, it is easy to select the appropriate product or service for you from the bank’s vast bouquet based on the segment you fit into. For instance, if you are an Expatriate, there is a bouquet of targeted products and services to meet your needs. We have developed plans to bank Nigerians and Africans in Diaspora, who are always in need of an account back home with which they can conduct their transactions seamlessly and directly without deceitful intermediaries. To achieve this, our online Non-Resident account platform is being enhanced to provide end-to-end online account opening and operation capability across the group. Customers can open any of their choice accounts online and start transacting almost instantly as long as their KYC requirements are met.

Guess what; the good news about personal banking is that it is built on the philosophy of banking on ‘customer fulfilment’ which means that the bank considers each customer a VIP and is willing to go the extra mile for each one. You are assigned a relationship manager (RM) or account officer, who you can call or chat up on Whatsapp, BBM or Facebook, whenever you need assistance.

If you operate a Lion prime account, don’t be surprised if your RM sends you a couple of invites to high-powered networking events. You could receive an unexpected invite to see your favourite artiste perform if you operate a NextGen account, or you could even receive a surprise package on your wedding anniversary, if you are married. That’s how personal banking can get!