that the future of mobile is also the future of banking and finance. “It is our strategy to encourage the banking community to embrace mobile, it will help bring banking to the millions of unbanked people in developing countries.. …

Nokia + Yes Bank= Nokia Mobile Money first in India: While Google is talking about mobile and developing countries Nokia has also embarked on the journey and piloting First ever launch of Nokia Mobile Money. Another reason I find this news interesting because its Yes Bank ahead of ICICI …

There won’t be a mobile Channel in Banking anymore: Okay, going forward Mobile is important for Banks and Financial institutions (that’s news!!) … This Forrester Blog gives an interesting viewpoint  on convergence of channel Technology. Blog refers to Ubank’s case on Channel Innovation.. Must say U Bank has really come a long way in a very short period …

Spotlight on Mobile: Online Talent report from Elance throws some interesting figures like – demand for mobile development grew by 180% in 2009 and 8,800 iphone related jobs were completed in 2009 … Read more nos here

Enough of Mobile… one Facebook paypal development is worth to keep tab on … Paypal seems to be moving faster into online micropayment game …. Google move fast or else Paypal might save the newspaper industry

Check out this Banner ad, showcasing some random similing people praising about the changes in ICICI website. They all are loving the changes!! If intentions were  to showcase that these are real time users praising about changes, then I am sorry to say that its a fail …

There is a time stamp with every message, at first it gave me feeling that these are real time users and these messages are being fetched from some feedback system or may be twitter..(wishful!!) and the click would take me to some sort of page to give feedback …However …

Its a simple static banner ad announcing about the latest changes. Its only five users who are rotating in endless loop and the ad takes you to a static page with highlights of new features… and in fact there is no system to collect feedback for new look and features

If you are an ICICI user take this poll

1. Link 1 – yes they are using it – creditors using social media to find you..
2. Link 2 – Real time web is huge … Tech crunch article talking about real time web and Twitter eco system
3. Link3 – Plans to build Low cost, High Volume micropayment platform for Rural India … An initiative as a part of ambitious and optimistic  Unique ID project by government of India

2. Blippy – Fun and easy way to share your credit card purchases with friends. Shout out what you are purchasing .. (Link)

3. PayPal Developer Network – Interesting to watch out what apps come of of this initiative… with online virtual world expanding its footprint and people becoming comfortable with Paypal this is something worth to watch out for. Possibilites are endless (Link)

I recently blogged on my experience with ANZ and Westpac Bank in post Bye ANZ, Hi Westpac

In this quick post, I would like to highlight the role technology played in the whole process

- Its only because internet explorer at ANZ crashed I decided to walk in to the bank across the road.

- And its becuase of the online verification and quick decision in 15 mins that they can award me credit Card

- Then today, when I opened personal account, Westpac impressed with a new featuer where in I can myself change daily transfer limit of account, just need to verfiy using code which is sent to mobile phone. Similar process at ANZ took calling up at call center and 5 working days to receive the code by postal mail

How smooth is the technology of your bank?

ANZ – Basic Neat Mobile site, no app

Westpac – Basic neat site and app

NAB – Very Very Basic Mobile site, no app

Suncorp – WOW Mobile site – extras like Insurance, Weather, Events and Currency (shows exchange rate of INR as 0.000!!)

CBA – Same as PC website ( Not Good!!) but neat app available from app store

UBank – Same as PC, Could not even see my account details when I logged in .. Flash could not load on my touch (Not Good at all)

ING direct – Basic Neat website

ICICI Bank – Same as PC site

Anybody got better than Suncorp Mobile landing page?

How’s your experience mate?

Yesterday I randomly asked one of my friend in India about his experience with ICICI bank, and he repeated what i broadly feel about them – it’s been best so far compared to all the banks he banked with’ for customer care he said that its good however their promotional and sales calls are very irritating. Now this was an interesting comment he made about sales calls, which also made me write this post …

New Account and a New Problem…

I recently opened Non Resident External (NRE) account with ICICI bank. Its just been a month and I faced one major problem. For the past 7-10 days I have been interacting with various people from ICICI bank over phone (making international calls) or having tough time explaining issue to different customer care reps over e mails. I will not go deep into the issue, as I still feel that team is making sincere effort to help out, however am waiting to see how long will they take…

Interesting….

Yesterday my mom called me up and told me that somebody from ICICI called up, took your Australia number and they might give you a call. I was wondering if they are trying to reach me out for the issue I am facing with NRE account, I also wondered why will they call up my home in India when I have already given them my Australia contact details. This lady calls me up at around late evening Australia time, being busy with another call that time I asked her to give me a call in 10-15 mins. She did called up again after couple of hours and that was late during night at around 11 pm, am sure she was not aware of my time zone. I was like no issues… at least she might be calling to help me out…

Sir, Why are you not using your Trading account?

However to my surprise (or not so surprised now) she was asking me why am I not using my online share trading account for quiet some time now …what the hell!! Now I did informed her about the time and told her that I am not using my trading account for the reason that I am not in country … I thought of giving her my peace of my mind asking her about other issues I am facing with NRE account, but then realized no point telling her all this as she might not be aware of the fact that I hold NRE account with them too. (and that too interestingly when all accounts are opened at same branch!!!). She was simply doing her job and trying to meet her target of making calls …

Sir, read our research reports and gain more …

Then she went on telling and selling me about ICICI stock research reports and asking me to invest in market as Indian stock market is looking bullish and I should read daily morning reports and weekly calls and invest accordingly to get good returns. I did ask her if she is giving me guarantee of those returns or not (I know its not possible, was just checking how she responds and unnecessarily grilling her..) however it was very late at my end so I asked her to send me all that info on mail and I will see what to do with that. Thank God they had my valid mail id !!

ICICI, Any answers??

1. If sales rep can take so much of effort to call my India home, take my International number and give me a sales call, what’s stopping rep from After sales team to give me a call to understand the issue I am facing, rather they are just playing mail mail …
2. If sales rep can make an effort to get my number, they can also make an effort to do some more research to know that this is Australia number and what should be right time to call up … Put some effort to delight customers mate …
3. In terms of Technology, ICICI is really great in India, however Sid with trading account is still different from Sid with NRE account! I would have felt much better if customer rep should have first updated me on the status of issue I am facing with NRE account and then went on asking me about my trading account. How wonderful it would have been !!
4. And please somebody check why are you so promising on phone that reading ICICI research reports and then investing in market would give good returns … Indian market is looking bullish, this is the right time to invest… things like that ..are you going to take guarantee? I don’t think this is good example of selling ….

Finally…

I have been banking with ICICI bank for quiet some time now. Thanks to their sales force they follow you every where. Be it student account while I was in college, salary account with all my employers till date or Online stock trading account and latest entry being newly opened Non Resident External (NRE) savings account. In my relationship so far I have had my share of good and bad experiences. Overall its been a decent experience compared to all the banks I have dealt with so far in India. They are simply ahead of every other bank in terms of services and technology they provide.

However…

The kind of effort you put to sell the product and start the relationship, please also put similar effort to sustain the relationship and show similar level of enthusiasm for AFTER sales effort.

One rep went ahead to take my number from my mom to give me a sales call in Australia at 11 pm in night… am waiting to see how much time and effort will you make to resolve the problem with my NRE account…

How’s your experience with bank so far? Do share if you have some interesting story or experience.

My experience with Max Bernner

I came to Oz last year, saw Max @Parramatta – long queue daily, serving chocolate or coffee in unique way .. liked the idea of chocolate bar
(i was interested to know more)
My friend (who was here for long time) mentioned one day that theres a cafe out there serving awesome straw berries dipped in chocolate will go and try … i quickly collected he mentioned about Max (interest developed further)

as a sincere Netizen i Googled about it.  Max Bernner website equally engaging and amazing on story how they started — the concept of bald man … the passion behind it ..the whole story (i havent been to shop but I discussed about it with other friends of mine in India … )

I finally went there … tried soemthing (think it was Frappe or something) didnt like it much … though liked the concept, look and feel of the shop ..big chocolate mixers, pipes and then they were also selling extended products like mugs, chocolate cards etc etc

at this stage i gave benefit of doubt to their tage line “chocolate is not just about taste”

though i didn like the taste of what i tried … i was willing to give another try to something else and did gave another try, was not a good experience in terms of taste again … they do good stuff, they create good story … I tell every friend of mine who is new to Sydney to go to that place once … and i think whosoever is in Sdyney cant miss the place … will definitely love to try it once …

What about Max Bernner and Bank

Other day – a tweet from @thebankchannel triggered this thought that is it possible to create similar story with bank branch ..can we have bank branch experience like Max, what will Bank be like if Max Bernner decided to enter Banking?? what can be extended products that you can sell in Bank branch … greeting cards? Bank Branded chocolates? …… (just thinking loud)

With branch debate still on – how can we extend this model (story and experience to banking…  a quick search on coffee shop bank landed me on this blog which mentions about Umpqua bank experiment - surf sip read shop bank (pdf) and check this Umpqua Innovation Lab (interesting stuff!!)

Think its worth a discussion … how about taking it up at  bar camp Bank anybody??

Ah! Finally I blogged after long time … loving it … thanks @thebankchannel

Above Tweet from  Forrester grabbed my attention and it is worth reading the blog post on Groundswell Blog.  Post highlights that marketing budget for social media spending is recession proof. On blog - 

What’s driving this? As the executive summary of the report says:

These inexpensive tools can quickly get marketing messages out through interactive discussion and rapid word of mouth, and properly managed, can deliver measurable results.

My personal experience echos this – with the reduction in overall marketing and advertising budgets organizations are looking at social networking tools as “inexpensive” marketing tool. While some organizations might be able to innovate and be benefitted.  However, if your organization is here without any strategy and just dablling around then you better pay heed to the recommendations on Forrester Blog – which shouts – It’s time for serious business – SOCIAL MEDIA PLAYTIME IS OVER

You will also like to read

• 10 key lessons on social media as highlighted by Gavin
• Sean Lew’s Book Review of Groundswell 

Too much for social media and Banks… Next what is happening in Insurance sector