NISP values customers with 'Tanda Seru' drawing

Relaxing in a trendy up-market cafe, Shinta, a mother of two in her 30s, sips her cup of tea and sits back to enjoy a music performance by a reality TV star.

"God bless Bank NISP, if it were not for them, I'd probably be at home watching TV, thinking about what to cook for dinner," said Shinta, who has been a customer of the bank for over five years, while munching on her plate of food.

As a sign of appreciation for their trust in Bank NISP, the fourth oldest bank in Indonesia, the bank invited Shinta and 150 other customers to its routine monthly "TANDA Seru" drawing ceremony at Hard Rock Cafe, Jakarta, last Thursday.

"Some other banks also award prizes just hold a drawing in their office building, without inviting any customers," said Nuniek Winarni, a marketing staff at Bank NISP.

"We're different in that we purposely hold a bash in a posh place and invite our customers to show our appreciation to them," said Winarni, adding that a different set of customers were invited to each drawing.

The "TANDA Seru" program, now in its third year, has also received a makeover this year, increasing the total prize pool from Rp 6 billion (US$635,000) to Rp 8 billion, and the frequency of drawings from twice a year to eight times a year.

"This way we can invite more customers to celebrate with us and generate more excitement and buzz with them," said Winarni, adding that the bank valued all customers as priority customers.

Shinta said that she has stuck with Bank NISP because of the consistently high level of service she receives from the bank.

"At other banks I'd need to have hundreds of millions of rupiah to become a preferred customer," said Shinta. "And to be honest, I don't have that kind of money."

Bank NISP, which was founded in 1941, gives customers one entry into the draw and one point for each multiple of Rp 100,000 in their average daily "TANDA Seru" account during a month.

The entries are drawn eight times a year, with 51 winners selected at each drawing.

One lucky customer receives Rp 500 million and the other 50 get Rp 10 million each. The points accumulated can be traded for automatic prizes such as a cellphone or a DVD player.

Winarni also added that "TANDA Seru" card, which also doubles as a debit card, could be used at almost 9,000 locations, among them 360 ATMs in Singapore owned by OCBC Bank, which is the majority shareholder of Bank NISP.

"Plus, because we understand that each customer is unique, we let them personalize their ATM cards by using their favorite pictures as the background," said Winarni.