Evaluation of Service Marketing of United Commercial Bank

Evaluation of Service Marketing of United Commercial Bank

United Commercial Bank (UCB) is one of the first generation private sector banks in Bangladesh, commenced its commercial operations from mid 1983 and has since been able to establish one of the largest networks of 110 branches in six different districts. United Commercial Bank offers all kinds of Commercial Corporate and Personal Banking services include Corporate Banking, Retail Banking and Consumer Banking right from industry to agriculture, and real state to software. UCB Uttara branch is one of the branches which facilitate all kind of facilities that a bank offers. It has General Banking, General Advance as well as Foreign Exchange Department.

Overview of United Commercial Bank

United Commercial Bank (UCB) is a Bangladesh based financial institution that provides banking services. The services include personal and business banking, loans, credit cards, online banking and money transfer services. The bank operates in Bangladesh, where it is headquartered in Dhaka. With its firm commitment to the economic development of the country, the Bank has already made a distinct mark in the area of Private Sector Banking through personalized service, innovative practices, dynamic approach and efficient Management. The Bank, aiming to play a leading role in the economic activities of the country, is firmly engaged in the development of trade, commerce and industry thorough a creative credit policy.

History

United Commercial Bank Limited incorporated on 26 June, 1983 as a public company with limited liability under the Companies Act 1993. The bank obtained permission to commence business with effect from 27 June, 1983 and started banking operations on 29 June 1983 with an authorized capital of Tk. 100 million divided into 1 million ordinary shares of Tk. 100 each.

Product/Service offerings:

The bank provides a broad range of financial services to its customers and corporate clients.

The Products and Services of UCB are as follows:

• UCB Multi Millionaire
• UCB Money Maximizer
• UCB Earning Plus
• UCB DPS Plus
• Western Union Money Transfer
• Western Union Money Transfer Online Service
• Credit Card
• One Stop Service
• Time Deposit Scheme
• Monthly Savings Scheme
• Deposit Insurance Scheme
• Inward & Outward Remittances
• Travelers Cheques
• Import Finance
• Export Finance
• Working Capital Finance
• Loan Syndication
• Underwriting and Bridge Financing
• Trade Finance
• Industrial Finance
• Foreign Currency Deposit A/C
• NFCD (Non Resident Foreign Currency Deposit Account)
• RFCD (Resident Foreign Currency Deposit Account)
• Consumer Credit Scheme
• Locker Service

Vision for the future:

To be the bank of first choice through maximizing value for our clients, shareholders and employees and contributing to the national economy with social commitments.

United Commercial Bank divided its branch into several departments. The three main departments are:

General Banking Department:

General Banking is the starting point of all the banking operating. General Banking department aids in taking deposits and simultaneously provides some ancillaries services. It provides those customers who come frequently and those customers who come one time in banking for enjoying ancillary services. It is the department, which provides day-to-day services to the customers. Every day it receives deposits from the customers and meets their demand for cash by honoring cheques. It opens new accounts, transfer, issue bank drafts, cheque book, pay orders, FDR, encashment of FDR, etc.

Cash Management Department:

Cash section demonstrates liquidity strength of a bank. It is also sensitive as it deals with liquid money. It is the most important department that is contributing to the earning of the bank in terms of goodwill and customer satisfaction with their quality and prompt services. Cash department of UCB Uttara Branch is well equipped and decorated. There is also electronic counted machine and computers with online system in this department. Balance of account can be seen with few seconds. So cash payment can be made very promptly.

Transaction involving cash is called cash transactions. The cheques/ instrument / vouchers which are paid in cash over the counter are cash transactions. It has two types of services:

• Cash Receipt
• Cash Payment

General Advance Department:

The General Division deals with asset selling of the Bank. Generally financial institutions like Commercial Banks pool fund from society in terms of deposit & channel this fund in terms of credit to different firms in business community as well as to individuals with deficit of fund in the society. And this facility is generally known as loan. So in a broader sense we infer that bank is providing solutions to the business as well as to the individuals for their financial needs. UCB credit mission is to actively participate in the growth and expansion of our national economy by providing credit to viable borrowers, efficiently delivered and competitively priced. UCB’s client base consists of corporate, institutional and private clients to help them realize their short term goal as well as long term aspiration.

Foreign Exchange Department:

Foreign Exchange Department is an important one in UCB Uttara Branch that deals with import, export, and foreign remittance and post import financing. Through this is an ancillary service provided by the Bank. The Bank is purchasing primary security by giving loan in form of loan against imported merchandise (LIM), and loan against trust receipt (LTR). Bank branch should be „Authorized Dealer‟ with the approval of Bangladesh Bank to run foreign exchange business. This department is playing an important role in enhancing export earnings, which aids economic growth and, in turn, will be helpful for economic development. On the other hand, it also helps to meet those goods and services, which are more demandable and not adequate in our country.

Critical observations and recommendations:

UCB is one of the potential banks in the banking sector. It is quite difficult to give suggestion to improve the banking condition of United Commercial Bank.

• General working conditions ought to be improved.
• Should increase the manpower for quick client service.
• Should upgrade online banking operation.
• PcBANK2000 database software needs to be upgraded.
• The branch still works very manually; to speed up the whole branch it should be automated.
• They have many attractive product/ services but they do not promote their products.
• They can do advertise of their product/ services so that more people get attrackted to it.
• Management should arrange appropriate training facilities to their staff to be always helpful, courteous and knowledgeable.
• Should have complaint management where the customers can give their feedback about the services.
• There can be customer representative who will monitor the customer’s need and wants.
• Take the customer’s problem as their own responsibility to solve quickly and personally follow up to make sure the customer is satisfied.
• They should either renovate the office space or let it have a larger space to their need.

Project Part –

A commercial bank performs an essential function in the economy. It helps to mobilize money by a continuous procedure of borrowing and lending money. It accumulates its capital through both own sourcing and out sourcing. This amount is then lent to the other party. Being a service industry a bank provides various services to its customers. So, every commercial bank has to think about their customer first, because the customers are the sovereign. Marketing is one of the most essential parts of any organization. Starting with the product promotion to giving the best service to the customers marketing is everywhere. Financial success often depends on marketing ability. My report basically prepared on whether the bank delivering superior service, better and faster answering the inquiries, delivery the services on-time and quicker resolution of complaints etc. and the topic is “Analysis of United Commercial Bank’s Service Marketing”.

Objectives of the project:

 The objectives of this report as follows:

• Understanding the environment, functions and management of the organization in UCB.
• Narrating experience in working in UCB.
• To apply theoretical knowledge and relate it with the practical content.
• To learn about banking more and analyzing the service marketing of UCB.
• To identify the employees attitude towards the customers.
• To find out how fast the bank is serving on queries of the customers.

What is Service?

Services are economic activities offered by one party to another. Service is an intangible offering with little or no transfer of physical products to the customer.

What is Service Marketing?

It is a sub field of marketing, which can be split into the two main areas of goods marketing and services marketing. It refers to both business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) services, and includes marketing of services like telecommunications services, financial services, all types of hospitality services and professional services.

Characteristics of Service:

Intangibility:

Customer is unable to experience the ‘product’ prior to ‘purchase’.

Inseparability:

The production of the services can’t be separated from its consumption.

Perishability:

It cannot be stored for future use.

Variability:

Services quality and consistency are subject to great variability because they are delivered by people, and human behavior is difficult to control.

Most Popular Product/Services of UCB:

There are some schemes which are very popular among the customers. These are:

Money Maximizer:

UCB money miximizer is a time deposit product. After a specific time period the person receives double amount of money of deposited.

Lowest installment- tk 2500

Highest installment-tk. 50000

Maturity and Interest rate: 8 years and 9.10%

Deposit Pension Scheme Plus:

It is one of the most popular schemes of UCB. The lowest monthly installment is tk. 500 and highest is tk. 25000. The bank gives 9% interest on this scheme. The scheme is for 5 years and 10 years. At the end of a specified term a person receives an attractive fixed amount.

Monthly Savings Scheme: This is a Savings Scheme in which a person gets the opportunity to build up savings by contributing monthly installments and receives an attractive fixed amount at the end of a specified term. The Scheme is designed to help the fixed income group to save money.

Deposit Scheme: UCB has several types of deposit scheme of its customers. These are Savings Bank Account, Current Deposit Account, Short Term Deposit Account and Fixed Deposit Receipt Account.

On-Line Banking Operation: The UCB has 110 branches and all transaction among the branches is done through Online. UCB uses PcBank2000 customized software for its dat to day transaction. The activities are

• Deposit cash in any branch in any account
• Withdraw cash from any branch
• Transfer from any account to any branch

Analysis

The analysis is based on the feedback of the customers who are receiving services from the bank. The results are presented according to the various services quality and customer’s satisfaction. Each dimension consists of two specific questions. The results of the survey are presented according to these questions that were asked to the respondents with the help of a structured questionnaire.

Results and Discussions:

In order to come up with a result and to carry on with the research various statistical tools were employed. Series of data were acquired through fieldwork and then computed in frequency distribution. But the number of respondents being chosen for sampling is relatively low to represent the entire large population of United Commercial Bank. Based on above analysis it can be said that

• UCB has a well reputation in the market. The management and employees are well qualified and experienced.
• Customers are happy with the fees and charges of the services but compare with other banks interest rates on different services should be increased.
• Due to lack of manpower and work load sometimes employees cannot provide services on time but most of the customers are satisfied with the service.
• Majority people are quite happy that whenever they have queries or problems employees always give proper solution to them. Due to work pressure sometimes employees to do not give proper solution to the customer’s problem. If they have customer representative who will monitor the customers and give the basic information in response to inquiries the customers will be more satisfied.
• The errors and mistakes are corrected promptly.
• Customers are satisfied with the attitude of the employees but sometimes employees cannot give individual attention to the customer due to pressure of work.
• A large amount of customers think that UCB has visually appealing facilities but they need to advertise. So that customers get more attracted to it.
• Respondents are not much satisfied with employees work speed. They think employees are little bit sluggish. There should be more swiftness on giving services to the customer so those customers do not have to wait for a long time.
• Most of the customers agreed that they have modern equipments but a large amount of people do not think so. They said the bank should upgrade their technologies.
• Customers are very much impressed with banking hours.
• Online services should be better. Customers are quite dissatisfied with online services. Frequently online servers of different branches do not work properly and sometimes there is a shortage of cash in online transaction.
• From time to time senior management can discuss with the employees that what kind of problems they are facing while dealing with customers, what are the needs and requirements of the customers, what kind of services customers expect from the bank etc. It will give an idea how to do better in future.

Conclusion:

United Commercial Bank is providing and maintaining pleasant working environment for delivery of better quality services to maintain edge over the competitors. It is not possible to make a profitable business without concerning the customers‟ benefits. UCB bank has a great potential in the country to achieve the desired position in the market, timely improvement in services is essential. This research has provided some interesting insight into what kind of service the customers give importance to and what quality service they get from UCB. It is quite obvious that the customer requirements are not fully met and they are sometimes dissatisfied with some of the aspects of the bank. UCB should attract these customers so that the bank can link up strong relationship with the customers. The efficiency and effectiveness in services only in customer service is not mandatory. It is a collective responsibility of all the departments. So, all the concern departments should be more prompt and efficient to compete with the challenging opportunities of the future. The executive management also should be enthusiastic in to the development of administration and operational system as per demand of the age.