Danamon committed to customers with new vision, mission
By Christianto
JAKARTA (JP): Commitment in consumer service industries will not suffice a company to prove itself as being a preferred choice. Customer loyalty will have its say.
PT Bank Danamon Indonesia is one of several parties, particularly in the banking industry, which have faced their toughest experience since the economic crisis but which have not been forsaken by their customers.
In like manner, Bank Danamon aims to focus its services on customer satisfaction with its new mission and vision.
Bank Danamon's Vice President Director Armand B. Arief said, "Despite the name, Bank Danamon is a reborn corporation with the new shareholders and a new management."
He said that with the new management, the bank had set its new mission and vision.
"Our vision is to be the best nationwide bank which focuses on customers' needs. This is supported with our network which spreads to all provinces across Indonesia," he said.
"As a retail banking concern, Bank Danamon's vision is to be the best retail banking player acknowledged by both customers and competitors with a strong commitment to continually fulfill middle, low, to affluent customers' needs and expectations in the most efficient and profitable manner."
He said that the new mission and vision were being accomplished through the highest standards of integrity, professionalism and transparency.
It was necessary to achieve the vision by increasing shareholders' value, customer satisfaction and staff performance, he added.
Implementation
Bank Danamon's plan is to focus on its customers for products and services strategy. To give the best service, Bank Danamon develops products and services which satisfy market needs and continuously adds new features.
A pipeline management plays its role here to support the new or upgraded product launches based on the priority of customers' needs. Research was also conducted in this scheme.
Another concept being developed is product simplification by concentrating on products and services which give added value to customers. Therefore, Bank Danamon hopes the offered products and services will be perceived as superior products and services which fulfill the needs of most customers.
"We are very customer focused. Anything that we do or plan will be based on our consumers' needs. In general, our customers are very loyal. This was proven during the crisis, when most of our customers decided to only reduce their account balances, not to quit," said Armand.
Bank Danamon currently holds more than two million customers.
"Most of all, we maintain customer loyalty through a selling based on relationship and service excellence concept. We really value our relationship with our customers. We also show our appreciation to our customers through an appreciation program or 'Thank You Program' such as the Lucky Draw Program, namely Kejutan Prima-Primadana 1999 with a total prize value of Rp 1.5 billion. This is a commitment to the customers, and we will continue to run this program with bigger prizes," he said.
Bank Danamon has a huge distribution channel spread over Indonesia.
"With 500 branches and more than 700 ATMs in all regions, we believe that we are very close to the customer. We continuously communicate with our customers and prospects through advertising, promotions and customer-gathering type of activities," Armand said.
Support
Armand said that people are the key asset to making Bank Danamon's vision come true. Therefore, the bank has established the new value as follows: integrity, professionalism and transparency, which must be implemented in all thoughts, decisions and actions by all employees. These are the elements every employee must have.
"We are all aware of what has happened in the banking sector. It will take all of our energy and efforts to fix what has happened in the past. However, if we are committed to really focusing on having a prudent banking practice in Indonesia this is not something impossible to achieve," said Armand, adding that human resources play a vital role.
He said that Bank Danamon had done its homework and improved most areas of its banking operation. "We have streamlined our organization successfully in terms of the number of people and number of branches.
"To form the working culture and attitude, Bank Danamon conducts a People Development Program and integrated training. Bank Danamon also reorganized the management with its 'Right Sizing Program' and identifies employees' competence through an 'Employee Potential Assessment' program," he said.
The result of all this effort is that Bank Danamon is now supported by the best and the most professional employees with top characteristics: adaptable, flexible, highly driven, team- oriented, multiskilled and top performers.
Products
Bank Danamon offers various loan products, with a target of Rp 1 trillion rupiah for the first semester, including corporate, commercial and consumer loans. Bank Danamon concentrates on retail products as a development basis to reach the bank's new vision: the best nationwide bank.
Consumer loans are available for home and car loans, which are developed to meet individual loan requirements and designed with high flexibility in terms of time and payment method.
Since the public has several different needs, Bank Danamon offers various facilities, including financial schemes, ATM cards, transactional services, credit cards as well as strategic alliances.
The credit cards are issued in collaboration with Visa and MasterCard and are available in gold and regular/classic.
Financial products include Primadana, Primagold and Primadolar. Primadana is a prime savings product and reaches a significant funding composition. It aims to fulfill customers', Bank Danamon plans to keep holding lucky draws which have attractive prizes.
Qualified
Bank Danamon launched its initial public offering in 1989, floating 12 million shares. The monetary crisis in 1997 and 1998 has deeply affected the banking industry in Indonesia. The impact has been decreasing public confidence toward the domestic banking sector, following the closure of several banks.
The situation also affected Bank Danamon's performance when it was then taken over by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) in April 1998, and the government assigned a "caretaker team" from BRI to manage the bank. The assurance that the company would continue to operate came from a government announcement on Aug. 21, 1998. And later on through an extraordinary shareholder meeting on March 30, 1999, a new management was appointed, consisting of professional bankers: Milan R. Shuster as President Director; Armand B. Arief as Vice President Director; and Gayatri R. Angreni, Hendrawan Tranggana, Mahendra Wardhana and Muliadi Rahardja as Directors.
The bank was required to set out an action plan to improve its soundness as well as repay its debts to Bank Indonesia, the central bank. As of Dec. 31, 1999, the bank is 99 percent owned by the government.
Financial conditions of the bank are getting better with each passing year. As of December 31, 1999, the bank's asset is Rp 27 trillion (unaudited).
"We are no longer experiencing a negative spread. Our expense is improving on a regular basis. We started to lend out in December 1999. Our funding composition is also improving steadily, resulting in the bank having a more acceptable level of funds, the outcome of which allows us to provide an attractive lending rate to customers," Armand said.
Bank Danamon's performance is increasing with each passing month in every single aspect, such as funding, lending, operational, distribution and control. In addition, the public trust that the bank is experiencing is also increasing, which indicates that the customers like to bank with Bank Danamon and trust their banking needs to be served by Bank Danamon.
Looking ahead
Now we are ready to issue credit to any eligible business or individual according to their needs, said Armand. "We have been appointed as the core bank by the government to help the payment system mechanism in Indonesia as well as contributing to a healthier banking industry in Indonesia. We are committed to do this and will continue expanding with prudent banking services."
While Bank Danamon actively serves its customers through its saving, checking and time deposit products, it is also active in conducting research and studies to learn more about what customers really need. There are some new products in the bank's pipeline and they will be ready to be introduced when the time is right.
In electronic banking, or e-banking, Bank Danamon is actively improving its ATM performance and will add new features to its ATM services, such as bill payments. Also, the bank has already established its Internet-Based information site for customers at http://www.danamon.co.id.
In the future, Bank Danamon will also provide transactional convenience for customers through real-time, online banking services on the Internet and with phone-banking.
Currently, phone-banking is available around the clock to facilitate customers' inquiries or complaints.
"We will further enhance our phone-banking facilities and will add more conveniences for customers to carry out transactions with us electronically," said Armand.
As part of the domestic banking recapitalization scheme, Bank Danamon and PDFCI merged last December.
Armand said that after merging with Bank PDFCI, Bank Danamon continued to work on the merger with eight other banks. Bank Danamon considers the merger as a major task.
"We must blend a variety of cultures and the way of doing things with our merger partners in addition to all other operational and business issues. But we are optimistic that the process will be completed within the set time frame with good results," said Armand.
"When completed, we'll most likely be the fourth biggest bank in Indonesia." He said that to attract more customers, Bank Danamon would focus on each individual branch and ask each branch to optimize its presence in the designated areas.
"So we are very customer-focused. We are also committed to providing excellent service to each customer. We believe that the customer is the most important person in the branch and we will consistently improve our services for the best of our customers."
Bank Danamon is very concerned with social issues. The bank plays its role of being a good corporate citizen. The bank has conducted several social activities involving the public, including a painting exhibition, in which some of the proceeds were donated to charity. In the future, the bank will continue to be involved more in social and community activities.