Service Report on NRB Commercial Bank

COURSE TITLE: SERVICE MARKETING

COURSE ID: MKT 431

PURPOSE: TERM PAPER

Submitted To:
Dr. Mohammed Tareque Aziz
Associate Professor
BRAC Business School

Submission date:
5th December, 2015

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 Submitted by:

Sl. Name ID

1 Sadia Kamal 12204102

2 Fairooz Nawar 12304013

3 Nishat Nabila 12104252

4 Walid Alam 12104041

5 Meem Morshed 12204045

6 Nahian Zaman 11204023

7 Md Omar Faruk 12104195

8 Asiful Islam 14104181

9 Md Amirul Islam 12304003

10 Md Istiyak Hossain 12304025

11 Fariya Yeasmin 13104060

12 Redwana Huq 12104069
13 Sk. Imamul Basher 12104084

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 Executive Summary

The reason of this report is to analyze the different services offered by NRB
Commercial Bank and their current position and expectation of the customers. The
analysis done on this report is based on a constructive research conducted by the
members of the group and the information collected was directly from the account
holder of the bank. In this report, we have tried to evaluate the services of NRB
Commercial Bank and relate it with our academic knowledge to examine service Gaps.
Through the research, we have tried to understand the behavior of our target customer
to determine their expectation & perception about services of NRB Commercial Bank.
As well as, how NRB Commercial Bank tends to build customer relationships through
service recovery when compromised and other efforts has also been studied in this
report. Moreover, evaluating the development and design of a new service and
examining the efficiency of integrated service marketing communication has got
preference in our study. Last but not the least; we have tried to include some
recommendations from our understanding level about how NRB Commercial Bank can
improve their performance level to enhance their customer’s satisfaction in the future.

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 Letter of Transmittal

5th December, 2015

Dr. Mohammed Tareque Aziz

Associate Professor
BRAC Business School
BRAC University
Mohakhali, Dhaka.

Subject: Submission of service report on NRB Commercial Bank

Dear Sir,

With due respect, we are submitting our report on the above mentioned title for the
fulfillment of the requirements of our Service Marketing course.

We have accepted this report as an opportunity to reflect our learning about different
aspects of service marketing from what we have learned from this semester long course.
We believe that by collecting information for this report we have learned something
very valuable that would help us in the practical field. We look forward to make the
optimal use of this knowledge that we have gained from this course.

We would like to show our gratitude to you for giving us such a great opportunity to
prove our abilities in making a quality report.

Thanking you

On behalf of our group

Md Omar Faruk
Id: 12104195

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 Acknowledgement

With the endless blessing and the helping hand of Almighty Allah, the supreme service
provider and the ultimate savior of the universe, we are able to complete the given
report properly on the due time. For preparing the report, there are so many people
who endorsed their valuable time and labor to make it possible. We are grateful to all
of them for their contribution. We want to express sense of obligation to our course
instructor, Dr. Mohammed Tareque Aziz, Associate Professor of BRAC Business
School in BRAC University. His lectures, guidance and instructions gave us the
opportunity to learn about the ongoing and real life scenario of the field of service
marketing.

We want to express our sincere gratefulness to Mr. Arif Md. Shahedul Haque, the Senior
Executive Vice President and Head of HR; who helped us with all the necessary
information for the project paper.

As we had to conduct a survey, we made a questionnaire of 30 questions and performed

a survey on 30 account holders of NRBC Bank. So, we are also thankful to those people
who gave their valuable time in our survey to make it authentic. It was a great
opportunity for us to enhance our knowledge and skills by analyzing the bank and their
overall services. Lastly, we express the respect to our parents for their support and
liberty bestowed upon us.

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Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 9
GAPS Model of Service Quality (ServQual Analysis) ..................................................... 10
GAP 1................................................................................................................................. 12
GAP 2................................................................................................................................. 13
GAP 3................................................................................................................................. 13
GAP 4................................................................................................................................. 13
GAP 5................................................................................................................................. 13
Consumer Behavior Analysis of NRBC Bank .................................................................. 14
Perception .......................................................................................................................... 14
Cognition............................................................................................................................ 14
Affect .................................................................................................................................. 15
Beliefs ................................................................................................................................. 15
Social and other influence ................................................................................................ 15
Market Research ................................................................................................................ 16
Strategy ............................................................................................................................... 17
Consumers Decision Making Process ............................................................................ 18
Information Search ........................................................................................................... 18
Choices ............................................................................................................................... 18
Preferences ......................................................................................................................... 18
Communication ................................................................................................................. 18
Customer Expectations of Service ..................................................................................... 19
Sources of Desired Service Expectations ...................................................................... 20
Sources of Adequate Service Expectations.................................................................... 20
Service Encounter Expectations vs. Overall Service Expectations ............................ 21
Sources of both Desired and Predicted Service Expectations .................................... 21
Consumer Perception .......................................................................................................... 23
Listening to Customers through Research ........................................................................ 24

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Building Customer Relationships ....................................................................................... 28
Acquiring customers for NRBC bank ............................................................................ 28
Satisfying customers ......................................................................................................... 29
Retaining Customers......................................................................................................... 29
Enhancing customers ....................................................................................................... 30
Benefits for Customers .................................................................................................... 31
Confidence Benefits.......................................................................................................... 32
Social Benefits ................................................................................................................... 33
Special Treatment Service ................................................................................................ 33
Service Development and Design ...................................................................................... 35
Service Recovery ................................................................................................................... 41
Integrated Marketing Communication............................................................................... 44
Internal Marketing ............................................................................................................ 45
Vertical Communication .................................................................................................. 46
Horizontal Communication ............................................................................................. 46
External Marketing ........................................................................................................... 46
Approaches for integrating services marketing communications ............................... 51
Way forward for the bank in delivering best quality services ................................ 53
 Advertisement - .......................................................................................................... 53
 ATM booths ............................................................................................................... 53
 Branches ...................................................................................................................... 54
 Credibility .................................................................................................................... 54
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 55
Reference ............................................................................................................................... 57

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Introduction

NRB Commercial Bank started its journey on 2nd April 2013. It was the long &
cherished desire of Bangladeshi expatriates in different countries of the world to
establish a new bank for economic development of the motherland through their hard
earned foreign currency. The bank has adapted Green Banking as its core positioning
and promotes sustainable environment friendly initiatives, contribute to the
national/global interests, invent green marketing of innovative products, to encourage
the employees, the customers and other stakeholders to develop, practice & nurture for
using Green Technology and Eco-friendly products and processes and to patronage
awareness programs for environment friendly products/technology through practice of
Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR).

NRB Commercial Bank currently holds BDT 1,000 crore of authorized capital and
capital of BDT 462.13 Crore. In the span of almost three years NRBC has extended 26
branches throughout Bangladesh and 15 ATM booths.

The bank has built its existence on the root foundation of demand for new Bank by the
NRBs anticipating more flow of inward foreign remittance and scope of investment by
other investors of different countries is an acceptable ground for consideration. Many
NRBs of developed countries have well education and professional expertise in
different fields who are potential resources for our country. NRB sponsors shall not
only bring huge investable fund but also “state of the art technology” for building up a
world standard Bank tailored towards meeting local developmental needs of the
country. Besides, in the prevailing situation of banking operation in Bangladesh it is

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highly expected that the new bank shall be able to compete the other banks adopting
new concepts of Risk Management and building up good Assets and Health of the
organization.

GAPS Model of Service Quality (ServQual Analysis)

A service GAP is created is when the level of customer’s expectation and customer’s
perception differs before and after availing a service. When customer’s perception is
higher than customer’s expectations it means there is positive level of satisfaction. He
or she felt they obtained better service than expected. However when a customer’s
expectations turns out higher than customer’s perception, it means there is indeed a
negative level of dissatisfaction felt by the customer. He or she has felt they should have
gotten a better service.

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GAP 1
The GAP between Service Quality Specifications and Service Delivery

The GAP between service quality specifications and service delivery is moderate to high
as nearly 70% of the 10 service quality specifications are being delivered successfully.
Customer’s perception is found to be higher than customer expectations of the bank’s
service delivery with an account of -40%. However it is to be noted that the services
quality specifications such as Corporate Money Maker (17% only) and SME Loan (23%
only) are less obtained and aware by the customers.

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GAP 2
The GAP between External Communications to customers and Service Delivery

The GAP between communication to customers and service delivery is also negative
with an account of -50% satisfaction level. Considering the customers initial level of
expectation to be 1 or 2 out of 5, their perception turned out to be mostly 4 out of 5
and 5 out of 5. The level of clear communication at 80 – 95% was selected by 11 out
of 30 candidates and 60-80% by 9 out of 30 candidates.

GAP 3
The GAP between Service Quality specifications and Management Perceptions of
Customer Expectations

The GAP between the two is almost insignificant as the customers are mostly satisfied
with the bank’s services and the Management understands the level of expectations and
caters to the customer’s specific needs. The statement can be clearly supported by the
count of more than half of the candidates (16 out of 30) chose customer service to be
the first thing to come in their minds when they hear NRBC.

GAP 4
The GAP between Customer’s expected service and Customer’s perceived service

The overall GAP of expectation VS. Perception turned out in the favor of customers.
17 out of 30 candidates selected a 4 out of 5 in the perception scale as opposed to the
expectation which was mostly 1 or 2 out of 5. Creating a satisfaction level of -80%.

GAP 5
The GAP between expected service and Management Perceptions of Customer
Expectations

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This GAP was found to be mostly positive with the Management perception thinking
customer expectation to be high however it was low since customers perceived the bank
as a new one with less resources and human power.

Consumer Behavior Analysis of NRBC Bank

Perception
For analyzing consumers’ behavior, consumers GAP & their recommendations for the
NRBC Bank, our group had conducted a survey over the consumers of NRBC Bank.
From the survey result, we got to know that most of the consumers are satisfied by
NRBC Bank’s service. The ratios of satisfied consumers are 66.7%, 24.2% consumers
were very satisfied & 3.03% consumers neither were satisfied, nor dissatisfied. Where,
6.06% consumers were dissatisfied. Overall perception of NRBC Bank is- consumers
were saying that they are really happy by the bank’s service. Before visiting the bank,
expectations of consumers were 3 out of 5 points. But, after they took their service
most of them rated 5 out of 5 points. 45.4% rated 5 out of 5 points. Even a big chunk
of consumers rated 4 out of 5 points. 36.3% consumers rated 4 out of 5 points. Which
represents that the consumers GAP is (3-5) = -2. That means the consumers are getting
much better service than they expected.

Cognition
Consumers got to know about this bank from newspaper, billboards and from different
references. The ratios are- from newspaper 27.2% consumers got to know that a new
bank is going to open. From billboards 9% & mostly 63.8% consumers said that their
friends and colleagues referred them NRBC bank.

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Affect
While we were surveying NRBC bank’s consumers, we asked them- why they were
interested in taking this bank’s service? Not surprisingly 57.6% consumers answered
that their colleagues, family and friends suggested about this bank. 30.3% consumers
were influenced by the agents of the bank. Their advertisements are not that much on
air thus 9.1% consumers were influenced by watching advertisements. And rests 3%
were influenced after doing online research. This represents that people mostly believe
direct reference groups and existed consumers positive word of mouth is very helpful
in order to grab consumers.

Beliefs
In our survey we asked them how they believed that NRBC bank’s service is better than
others. How their beliefs been created? The result is- After hearing good reviews from
existed consumers 27.2% consumers believed that. And from direct references 51.5%
consumers, 21.2% consumers after comparing with other banks, rest 15.1% consumers
checked the achievements of NRBC Bank.

Social and other influence

Green Banking influenced a lot of NRBC Bank’s consumers. Not only this CSR activity
but also references of others influenced a lot. If we take good reviews 27.2% and
reference group’s 51.5% that influenced consumers to take this Bank’s service, then
cumulatively 78.7% consumers were influenced by the reference group. NRBC Bank's
core objective is to contribute to the national/global interest through establishing an
environment friendly banking business system which may be achieved through proper
utilization of human & physical resources and encouraging channeling of fund to
projects/businesses those expose no or very little risk to the environment/climate.

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NRBC Bank’s this “Green Banking” concept is really very impressive for the existing
and future consumers of NRBC Bank.

Market Research
When we asked the consumers, do they know all the schemes offered by NRBC Bank?
30% of them know about the FDR scheme, 33% knows about DPS Rate, 57.5% knows
about savings account, 63.6% knows about current account, 21.2% knows about SME
Loan, 30.3% knows about credit card, 15.5% knows about corporate money maker,
33.3% knows about internet banking, 42.4% knows about online banking and 42.4%
knows about SMS Banking. While asked them to rate NRBC Bank’s service out of 5,
most of them rated 5 out of 5 points. 45.4% rated 5 out of 5 points. Even a big chunk
of consumers rated 4 out of 5 points 36.3% consumers rated 4 out of 5 points. Through
research we also got to know that most of the consumers got to know and influenced
by references from their family, friends and colleagues. 57.6% were influenced by
references and 30.3% consumers were influenced by the agents of the bank. 51.5% of
the consumers were satisfied by the service of NRBC Bank. From the survey we also
got to know that, they make choice between NRBC Bank and other banks by comparing
Interest rates, FDR Rates, VISA Cards and bank charges. The ratios are accordingly-
39.3%, 9.2%, 6.1% and 45.4%. Consumers also want to be acknowledged as loyal
consumers and 66.7% consumers expect special service from the respective bank. After
hearing the name of NRBC Bank, it’s a core banking service (30.3%) and a consumer
oriented service (48.4%) comes first at consumers mind. 69.6% of consumers expect
social networking based customer care service. Even 69.6% of consumers want e-
banking service from the Bank. Where, 66.7% consumers want mobile application to
be launched by NRBC Bank. 72.7% of consumers think that the power that bank teller
has is fair enough to serve according to their expectation. 81.8% of consumers think

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that bank charges competitive interest rate and 60.1% of them agree that NRBC Bank
is committed towards their clients. 45.45% among them agreed that they will refer this
Bank to others. 57.5% of them agreed that the service is user friendly and easy to access.
75.7% of consumers never saw any advertisements at TV Channels. 81.9% of
consumers answered that they have never seen any of NRBC Banks sales service person
to promote their schemes. When it comes to the overall satisfaction level, 66.7%
consumers are satisfied and 24.2% consumers are very satisfied with the service of
NRBC Bank.

Strategy
Our group also interviewed employees of NRBC Bank. We asked several questions to
them. First question was which information from consumer research the Bank use for
making strategies. The employee replied that, from time to time they conduct their own
survey to know about the demands of existed consumers’ and future consumers’. She
also added if any improvements needed or not. He also replied that if it’s the question
of strategy making then it’s the Bank’s own survey and the Consumers’ Demand it is
to make the strategies. When asked him, does consumer research play a crucial role for
making strategies of your company? She replied that Yes, It helps them to make new
products for them and to modify the old ones. While asked- does consumer research
more important for making strategies or it’s all about the upper level management
decision? She said that, consumer research and upper level management’s decision both
are important for making strategies. It varies from case to case.

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Consumers Decision Making Process

Information Search
For searching information about Banks consumers usually depend on family members,
friends and colleagues. 78.7% consumers are influenced by the reference group.

Choices
They make choice between NRBC Bank and other banks by comparing Interest rates,
FDR Rates, VISA Cards and bank charges. The ratios are accordingly- 39.3%, 9.2%,
6.1% and 45.4%.

Preferences
Most of the consumers’ preferences were either DBBL or IFIC Bank. But they choose
NRBC Bank over DBBL and IFIC Bank. As, its interest rates were really high, no bank
charges, better customer service and for the ATMs.

Communication
69.6% consumers expect social networking based customer care service. 69.6% of
consumers want e-banking service from the Bank. Where, 66.7% consumers want

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mobile application to be launched by NRBC Bank. But 22.1% of Consumers said that
they are feasible with face to face communication.

Customer Expectations of Service

Customer expectations are beliefs about service delivery that serves as standards or
reference points against which performance is judged. (Valarie A Zeithmal, 2013-2014).

When measuring customers’ satisfaction, companies generally ask customers whether

their product or service has met or exceeded expectations. Because customer’s
expectations set the bar for customer satisfaction which also affects repurchase
decisions and customer loyalty. If a customer feels like you did not deliver a service that
was expected, they won’t come back and buy from you again. On the flip-side, if you
deliver a service that exceeds customer expectations, you can bet they will come back
again to buy or take service, and tell all their friends about the experience. Expectations
set in the proposition, marketing material and so on need to be followed through to
ensure that the delivery in the customer-facing areas matches the messages.

There is a great quote about customer expectation, “The first step in exceeding your
customer’s expectations is to know those expectations” by Roy Hollister Williams,
a well-known author and marketing consultant.

There are four factors that influence customer expectations of service (Valarie A
Zeithmal,2013-2014):

1. Sources of Desired Service Expectations

2. Sources of Adequate Service Expectations
3. Service Encounter Expectations vs. Overall Service Expectations
4. Sources of Both Desired and Predicted Service Expectations

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Sources of Desired Service Expectations
NRBC Bank is given much priority to fulfill customers desired service expectations
what we have come to know from our research. We surveyed 30 customers of NRBC
Bank’s main branch in Motijheel. The desired services NRBC Bank is providing are:

 VISA Card service

 ATM booth service
 Internet banking
 SMS banking
 Receiving foreign remittance
 Bill payment

Sources of Adequate Service Expectations

The desired services are not fulfilling the customers’ expectations. Different customer
has different expectation to be satisfied and NRBC Bank needs to understand those
expectations of customers. From our research we have come up with some more
adequate service that customers expect are:

 More personalized banking service

 Mobile Banking apps
 Customer service through internet ( live chat, online response)
 Mixture of self service and virtual functions to make the service more time
efficient and effective

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Service Encounter Expectations vs. Overall Service Expectations
Every time customers interact with the Bank related service encounter happens. Started
from fill up the forms from account and after every time customers come to bank or
using ATM booth or Internet/SMS banking encounter happens. The overall customer
satisfaction, core banking facilities, quick response from employees, no long queues,
personal information protection are maintained in good way but still there are some
problems customers are facing. While our survey some customers specially mentioned
that sometimes NRBC Bank takes at least two days to withdraw money, lack of amount
in ATM booths, card gets locked in ATM machine and sometimes cashiers take much
time than any other renowned banks.

Sources of both Desired and Predicted Service Expectations

Generally, customers who want to purchase a new product or services, they are likely
to seek information from different several sources. For example, they may call their
friends, deliberately track newspaper advertisements to know about the desire products
or service.

As NRBC Bank is already well known for the desired customer services but they also
have some lacking. Some customers may consider those lacking as a data to predict the
overall services of NRBC Bank. From our survey we have found that some customers
are not that much satisfied because of the insufficient ATM booths, card block issue
and insufficient amount in ATMs. They consider this as a serious matter of concern as
in an emergency if this type of problems occur then it can create more bad impression
about NRBC Bank service. Even customers haven’t seen that much promotional
activities about this bank and some of the customers don’t feel proud to recommend
this bank to their friends, relatives and colleagues.

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As a new bank NRBC Bank is trying to solve the problem of insufficient ATM booth
and they have a plan to establish more ATM booths like any other renowned banks.
They will try to make the internet and SMS banking service more effective so that
customers can access more easily. Even NRBC Bank also has a plan to start Priority
Banking e. Standard Chartered Bank, Eastern Bank Ltd. and many other banks are
already providing this service for the first class customers on the basis of customers’
wealth and privileges.

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Consumer Perception
According to our survey, the consumers are influenced to take NRBC Bank’s services
through word-of-mouth. 57.6% consumers have answered that they started using the
bank’s services through references from their friends and family members. Also, 51.5%
consumers think that the services provided by NRBC Bank are better than other banks
due to the references they get.

75.7% consumers have answered that they have never seen any advertisement of NRBC
Bank, that make word-of-mouth and customer references their main sources of
attracting consumer. By using that, achieving an overall consumer satisfaction of 66.7%,
with 48.4% consumers being satisfied by their customer service alone, is very
commendable.

Therefore we can say that the consumer perception or consumer experience of NRBC
Bank is negative, meaning that their service experience was better than the expectations.
The survey showed, before experiencing the bank’s service, consumers rated the bank
3 out of 5, whereas, after experiencing the services, 45.4% consumers rated the services
5 out of 5 and 36.3% 4 out of 5. Therefore, with a GAP of (3-5) -2 we can say that
consumer experience is better than they expect from the bank.

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Listening to Customers through Research
Generally, NRB Commercial Bank do not conduct any formal survey to find out
customer expectations, requirements and feedback about any service improvement,
about the dissatisfied customers and forecast their future expectations on regular
basis. Officers who delivers the service they give guideline to customers about the
service and get to know customers requirement through verbally or over the phone.
At that time officers also compare with other bank about the service and sometime
customer also compare services in accordance. So officers face an intellectual
argument during service providing time. Then the dedicated officers who work for
customer service, passes all feedbacks and requirements of customer to the branch
head. After having specific requirements and feedbacks of customer the branch head
deliver those proposals to the upper management in a formal written manner and
through a meeting the proposal get approved to implement in all branches
countrywide. However, the bank also has internal service performance evaluation
system by which it ensures customer getting the information perfectly. Such as a test
call for customer service department who regularly deal with different service issues of
customer. Management evaluate whether officers able to inform customer about
service specifications and features. In addition, the bank makes some changes in their
service design and delivery process to match up with the overall changing system in
the bank industry.

After conducting the customer survey in a limited scale and information gathered
through the interviews, the following topics are described below.

Research Objectives for Service Sector

I. Discover customer requirements or expectations for service: in our research,

we tried our level best to determine what customer really requires and expect from the
bank. We found that 42.4% customers are neutral with ATM booth service. Through

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an observation which showed that these customers are not aware of whether they
need more ATM or not. However, 33.3% customers are dissatisfied because of
shortened ATM booth. The bank have only 15 ATM booth so customers explained
that they have to go to a long distance or have to come in bank for money
transaction. In addition, they mentioned for more branches. Side by side 69.6%
customers expect to have social networking based customer service and 66.7% expect
to have mobile banking apps for NRB Commercial Bank. As 57.6% customers
interested to come for NRB Commercial Bank’s service through the references so
these customers have good feedback and expectations from the bank service.

II. To monitor and track service performance: In order to service monitor, NRB
Commercial bank takes two steps. One is mystery shopper and live test call. In terms
of mystery shopper, the bank just sends them to the branches and mystery shoppers
conduct with the officers for different services as a normal prospective customer. In
addition, management also conducts test call as a customer to verify whether all
officers are able to serve customers and have knowledge of service features to explain
customers. Through these two steps management get the findings of branch officers
service performance. In addition, the CCTV footage of all branches are monitored by
managing director. In addition, there is a complain box for customers to track service
performance through management.

III. To assess overall company performance compared with that of competition: As

there is no authentic report regarding customer service comparison in banking
industry of Bangladesh. From Bangladesh Bank interest rate of scheduled banks
(deposit rate), as a new bank NRBCBL is performing well. Compare with others new
bank their savings and fixed deposit interest rate is high. Their savings deposit interest
rate is 5-7%. But compare with others bank their ATM booth does not meet
customer demand. But the ATM booth of NRB Commercial Bank has a unique

25
service for customers. That is customers can recharge from ATM Booth. So, NRB
Commercial Bank has uniqueness in their service.

IV. To assess gaps between customer expectations and perceptions: From our
survey, 51.5% customers were rated 4 out of scale 5. They rated the level of expected
service and level of Perceived Service on two different scales. On the other hand,
45.4% customer rated 5 out of 5 for service experienced. So the service gap is (4-5)= -
1, which is good from the bank service perspective.

V. To identify dissatisfied customers, so that service recovery can be attempted

NRB Commercial Bank usually do not conduct any formal survey for dissatisfied
customers. Because their customer enquiry response, handling accounts efficiency
without mistakes and reasonable service charge, in these categories customers are
satisfied. But ATM booth is not enough because it is a new bank. But 33.3% are
dissatisfied for ATM booth. On the other hand, 42.4% customers are neutral for
ATM booth service. But the mobile recharge service from ATM booth that can be a
motivation to dissatisfied customers to find out NRBC Bank ATM. So, here it is
found that they are trying to bring back customers in long distance ATM through
availing a unique service.

VI. To gauge effectiveness of changes in service delivery: As it is already discussed,

the inefficiency of ATM booth is being dissatisfied. Because from the survey it is
found that customers do not want to come in branch for transaction because of time.
Therefore, NRB Commercial Bank is working on increasing ATM booth. But the
bank avail recharge service from ATM which is user friendly for customers.

VII. To appraise the service performance of individuals and teams for evaluation,
recognition, and rewards: As NRB Commercial Bank is a new bank, it has yearly
target sales of deposit, loan and other services. Still they have no reward system or
promotion regarding the achievement of target compare to others bank.

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VIII. To determine customer expectations for a new service: Based on different
customers we were trying to find out what customers expect regarding any new
service. For example, E-banking service by which a customer can do money
transforming without any hassle of coming to the bank physically. But 21.2%
customers disagree with that because they think that there should be physical touch
for some service. On the other hand, 69.6% customers are agreed with the service.
From our research we were able to get the idea how NRBCB should have to design
their e-banking service and how much the service will increase customer satisfaction
level.

IX. To monitor changing customer expectations in an industry: Based on different

banking service offer of different banks in Bangladesh, the expectation level of a
customer change overtime. Customer also compare with others bank regarding any
service such as interest rate, bank charge and security system. Though their ATM
booth is not available yet, customer’s feedback regarding ATM service is good enough
because of the mobile recharge system. This uniqueness in ATM service makes
NRBCB customers to think and compare with others bank uniqueness. In addition, as
the social network customer service is also increasing day by day, 69.6% of customer
respond to have social network customer service. Customers also expect that as a new
bank NRBCB should start this service effectively so that it could be an example in the
banking industry of Bangladesh.

X. To forecast future expectations of customers: During our survey, we were

trying to come up with an idea that customers expect to receive from the bank and
that can make them prestigious about the bank. So we were added an idea about
mobile apps in our survey and tried to find out the customers response. 66.7% of
customers agreed to have this service so that they can transact money through the
apps and can know about different policies, events and offer of banking service. Rest
of 27.2% customers disagreed but they do not have problem with the mobile app as

27
the use of smart phone is as usual for this era. But that should be user friendly for
customers. On the contrary based on customer expectations NRB Commercial Bank
is working on ATM booth expansion.

Building Customer Relationships

NRCB bank is a newly established bank with a vision to provide the most excellent
service to their customers and stakeholders. On that purpose they continuously trying
to develop a system to earn the satisfaction from the customers and build a trust in
customer’s mind so that all the customers make a commitment to stay with the bank
for longer period of time and build long term relationship.

Before moving to their customer relationship marketing strategy they always try to fill
some specific goals to achieve customers’ commitment:

Acquiring Customers for NRBC bank

 Offering different schemes and SME loan programs
 Try to improve the market share ration in order to get the attention of
new customers who may be interested to take the service from NRBC
bank
 Newspaper and references are used widely to promote services of NRBC
Bank in Bangladesh
 Agents from Banks and reference groups has a lot of contribution to let
the customers know about the bank, especially those customers who are
taking services from another banks and not satisfied with their current
service

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  Personal approaches and special care to NRBC’s valuable customers is the
most effective way that this bank chosen in order to build a long term
relationship with their customers and clients.

Satisfying Customers
 Most important and tricky job for NRBC bank in order to make some
committed customer.
 From the customer survey of NRBC bank most of the customers seems
to be satisfied with the service provided by NRBC bank but still there are
GAPS because of everyone cannot be satisfied every time by the service
 By improving service efficiency for example SME improved loan
programs, FDR and current account facilities and most importantly
improved core banking facility delivery NRBC bank is very dedicated to
satisfy and fill up all the needs of their customers.
 By conducting survey of HR department of NRBC bank regularly they
measure the customer feedback and improve their service quality and
CRM activity. usually twice a year those surveys are conducted
 Service is the core fact in order to build a long term relationship with
customer, the better and efficient service the more committed customers
towards the bank

Retaining Customers
 This is a psychological and more personal approach attempted by NRBC
bank

29
  By introducing new services, taking good care of their clients, loan
facilities for Businessman customers they always try to retain their
customers
 The most competitive part of NRBC bank is there are no service charge
for any kind of transaction
 After going through the survey it has seen that their interest rate is very
much competitive and a good reputation in the banking sector which
creates a positive impression in the perception of customers
 Most of their customers are involved with NRBC bank more than a year.
As this bank is established recently, they have quite a high rate of old
customers. That indicates that customers are willing to stay their financial
relationship with NRBC bank for a longer period of time.

Enhancing Customers
 From the survey it has shown that most of their customers do not have
any other plan to switch NRBC bank as the service effort is really
satisfying
 Bank always tries to keep track and personal information database which
helps to keep track of their customers financial and transactional activity
with bank
 NRBC bank regularly send all the financial information to their customers
by SMS at every end of the month
 Special wishes for their customers in special occasions
 To enhance the loyalty of the customers towards NRBC bank, they always
stays aware about the competitiveness of other banks and research by HR

30
 team about what customers think about the bank. In a brief it specifies
about the perception map of customers towards the bank
 Most importantly by following blueprint and improving service quality
NRBC bank is still trying to get the maximum number of loyal customers.

About NRBC banks Relationship Marketing strategies: in order to get

satisfaction, trust and commitment;

 Improving service and service features quality

 Flexible loan policy and no extra charge for banking transaction
 Still the sections of bank is not available everywhere in Bangladesh, but
they are opening new ATM booths and bank sections. From the survey
still their availability of bank offices is dissatisfactory.
 For promotional activity there are no formal campaign and other
promotional workshop but their major force for marketing promotion is
their agents, goodwill in the banking sector, word of mouth and proper
branding to change the perception of customers.

Benefits for Customers

Customers always show their loyalty to any service providing organization when they
get greater value than they expect from other firms or from that particular organization
from which she is taking the service. In case of NRB Commercial Bank Ltd., after doing
the survey it is quite clear that the customers of NRB Commercial Bank are satisfied
with the benefits they are getting for being a loyal customer. Not only that, the bank is
also trying it’s best to provide the services that a customer might desire to build a strong
customer relationship. At the time of doing survey we found out that the firm is
providing all the benefits to the customers not just to increase the number of customers

31
but to build the strong relationship of trust so that the value can be created. This
statement of bank has been proven true because when we did the customer survey
51.5% said they are satisfied the way NRB Commercial Bank is the value customers,
21.2% said they are very satisfied and only 6.3% said they are dissatisfied with the fact.
As the majority of the customers are satisfied with this fact so it can be said that NRB
Commercial Bank is on its way to build a strong customer relationship.

Keeping eye on the concept of NRBC Bank’s building customer relationship, we can
put in three customer benefits. They are- Confidence Benefits, Social Benefits, and
Special Treatment Benefits.

Let’s discuss about the Confidence Benefits first,

Confidence Benefits
Basically confidence benefits can be measured over the sentiment of faith or trust or
the assurance in the service providing firm. By confirming the decrease of anxiety and
the belief of the customers in their head about knowing the service they will get from
that particular firm. In case of the service in a bank the confidence benefits can be
recognizing the valued customers, supervisors available to customers when needed and
also by being treated right. In case of the confidence benefits of NRBC Bank; the survey
analysis says that, 60.6% customers agreed that they have complete trust on this bank
and also for being part of it. 15.1% customers said that they strongly agree on this
matter of trust from the service of NRBC Bank. Again the confidence benefits that is
being provided by NRBC Bank have been judged in high rating scale on the basis of
supervisors’ availability and quick response of the bank. 51.5% customers are satisfied
with the supervisors’ availability and 21.2% are very much satisfied with this fact. In
case of quick response 45.4% customers are very much satisfied and 45.4% are satisfied.
So yes, it is now clear that they have been able to gain customer trust and confidence
for building a long term relationship.

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Social Benefits
Clients gain benefits for being acquainted and also have a social connection with the
service provider. This social benefits helps the firm to gain lower switching rate even
when clients know the other service providing company may have superior quality
services and low service charges. For NRBC Bank they have been successful on treating
their customers individually and flexibly. While doing the survey we found a
businessman who is in merchandising business and taking service from NRBC Bank.
He said that, he is always busy with clients of his own business and he needs to visit
bank at least thrice a day for his business account purpose. He stated that, he likes the
front desk manager in here who is very much friendly with him and sometimes he shares
his business problems for hours with the front desk officer, and the officer don’t even
get angry for taking his time. This client’s statement was found to be true when we saw
the overall result of the survey, NRBC Bank got 63.6% satisfied customers in terms of
treating customers individually and flexibly and 15.1% customers were very much
satisfied. Not only this, the NRBC Bank provide some card service which is rear in
some banks like Platinum Dual Currency Credit Card, Gold Dual Currency Credit Card,
Classic Dual Currency Credit Card, Prepaid Dual Currency Credit Card, Debit Card
(International), Debit Card (Domestic). These card services helps to provide the
customers with social status and social recognition among the others.

Special Treatment Service

Special treatments are getting some special offers or deals or price or can be even some
unusual help in the need of the customers at the time of acquiring the service. NRBC
Bank also provides special treatment for valued and loyal customers. At the time of
survey we found out a women who was sitting at the front desk looking so sad and
suddenly the desk officer came, they had a conversation and after a while she seemed

33
very cheerful. When we tried to know the reason we came to know that when her
daughter opened a bank a/c here she was a minor and now she passed the minor phase
and wanted to have her own account of having the authority to withdraw the a/c
money. To do that she needed to bring the main national ID card but she just brought
the photocopied once but the bank can’t proceed only with the photocopied once, they
need the main one to verify the age. She again stated that she also has an account in
here and she is a regular customer. Then with a smile of contentment she said that, I
told the officer I have a meeting to catch at office so I can’t go to home and bring the
ID here. After hearing that the officer took a moment to decide and agreed to skip this
procedure. Which helped the customer to save her time and money. So here in case of
NRBC Bank’s special treatment, the bank has gained 57.5% agreement on the service
being easy to access and user-friendly and 9.09% strongly believe on this fact. Also in
case of personal information protection the NRBC Bank gained 57.5% satisfied
customers and 27.2% customers are very much satisfied in this remark. So it is quit
visible that NRBC Bank is successful in terms of providing special treatment benefits
to loyal customers for building long term customer relationship

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Service Development and Design

The proposed service development project for NRBC Bank, Bangladesh, is an

extension to the investment service opportunities it currently provides, which will
enable non-resident nationals to use their earnings abroad to invest in ‘housing
development projects’ in Bangladesh, to acquire a tangible asset in their home country.
The initiative will be financed by allocating the funds invested by individual clients who
are interested in the project, along with contributions made by the government.

The development process is separated into two parts - Front End Planning and
Implementation.

The Front-End Planning

The Front-End Planning consists of Five preliminary steps:

1. Business Strategy Development or Review

2. New Service Strategy Development

3. Idea Generation

4. Service Concept Development and Evaluation

5. Business Analysis

35
1. Business Strategy Development or Review:

The very first step is for the Product and Service Development team to present the
proposal to the board of directors, where its functions are reviewed in regards to the
bank’s strategic mission and its overall vision. Contents and functionalities of the
development proposal must not alter the NRBC’s existing culture and ethics in
delivering services to its customers.

Given that the bank mostly offers financial instruments as means of investment, the
proposed service development project will help diversify investment opportunities for
its clients. Therefore, the team will explain to the top-level management and the board
of directors how through higher synergy, increased customer base and risk reduction
via diversification, the proposed project will greatly benefit the bank.

2. New Service Strategy Development:

After approval from the directors, work on the service strategy begins. According to
World Bank data from 2013, Bangladesh is the sixth largest labor exporting country
with a migrant population estimated to be 6-7 million. In 2013, the Bangladesh Bank
estimated total remittance to be $14.60 billion, while 2003 estimates showed that only
about 46 percent of the total amount, on average, is officially received through banking
channels. Data from 2003 also revealed that a typical migrant remits only 55.65 percent
of his income. Given the aforementioned data, it can be concluded that the potential
number of clients that could be attracted to the investment scheme, even if only a
modest percentage of the total number of non-resident Bangladeshis, is quite
substantial. Given the amount of remittance inflow that is coming through official

36
channels, the potential to attract a percentage of remittance entering the country
informally and earnings not currently being remitted, it can also be estimated that the
potential capital raised from migrant workers alone, even if only from a modest
percentage of the total number of such workers, will be quite substantial. The NRB will
propose to lend the investment fund to the government for the purpose of national
development in the form of constructing houses owned by the investors. Given the
numerous benefits that the government can reap from the scheme, it is also expected
that the government will be willing to invest an amount in consideration to that
collected from the investors.

3. Idea Generation:

Given the expected increase in remittance from the new investment service, the
government will benefit both through an increase in its hard currency reserve and
domestic investment, along with many others. Migrant workers on the other hand, will
be able to own long-term tangible assets in their home country, relatively hassle free.
As revealed by an ILO-funded program, the majority of migrant workers from
Bangladesh in foreign countries are low or semi-skilled workers with low pay. Thus, the
opportunity for them to own one or more houses which they can fall back on, once
they come back seems to be a sound investment, particularly through outsourcing the
responsibility of construction and red tape.

Through a joint-venture program with the government, NRBC can, therefore,

successfully provide housing to non-resident nationals using their incomes earned
abroad. By reducing risk through pooling funds from a large number of individual
investors and acting as an intermediary between them and the government, the bank
can make a handsome profit by lowering overall costs of the respective transactions
and by collecting service charges.

37
4. Service Concept Development and Evaluation:

The service concept focuses on a detailed description of the service, its features, key
players and characteristics to determine a rational explanation of why the new service
is chosen, the opportunities, the benefits and the problems it can solve.

The initiative of NRBC bank in designing such service is to extend the existing service
line that will diversify the investment opportunities for the clients enabling the bank to
exploit such a vast amount of potential investors (the non-residents of Bangladesh).
The bank, along with the government’s contribution, plans to attract a vast amount of
investors through this investment scheme, reducing the amount of informal entry of
the remittance and also encouraging transaction of their foreign earnings that are not
remitted into the country. This scheme will result benefiting both the bank and the
government at a large scale, creating employment, housing facilities but more
importantly the inflow of foreign currency that is increases the hard currency reserve
for the nation.

5. Business Analysis:

This is where the bank will analyze and estimate the financial and organizational
feasibility for the service concept consisting of projected demand, cost, and revenue,
calculating the potential profit of the service and also focusing on the non-financial
resources of the bank.

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Implementation

After completing all the formal procedure for Front End Planning, NRBC need to
begin their implementation process for the new service concept. The bank needs to
look out for any flaws in developing the new concept and immediately revise from the
beginning before it starts the implementation process. Overlooking any mistake may
cause severe damage to the new service as well as the bank.

1. Service Development and Testing:

This is the stage where, for the first time, the bank will be disclosing information
regarding the new service concept outside. It creates a blueprint for the entire operation
process also addressing its affiliation with the government and others. This information
then needs to be submitted to Bangladesh Bank to gain the approval for the new service
development. Once the procedure is finished, the bank informs all of its employees and
educates them about the new service concept thus enabling the bank to gather more
information or acquire feedback from its employees including their experiences serving
the customers in order to make the entire service process more attractable and exquisite
to the customers.

2. Market Testing:

This is one of the crucial stages in the development process that an organization needs
to perform before launching a product or a service in the market for the first time. It is
important for the bank to execute this pre-launch testing because it gives out a

39
hypothetical understanding of the consumer’s responses towards the service under
variable circumstances. NRBC Bank may conduct a pilot run of the service, which may
base on the Gulf region or Malaysia, the highest concentration of the bank’s potential
customers, for a short period of time to obtain more information about the operational
details as well as the customer’s interest, demand pattern and other relevant data. The
report should demonstrate the measurements and variances of the new service concept
implied in the pilot run and more importantly it would give an overview of the entire
service process assisting the top-level managers to make critical decisions before
introducing it to the actual market.

3. Commercialization:

At this stage the service will finally be introduced and make the grand entrance to the
marketplace for the very first time.

4. Post Introduction Evaluation:

After the commercialization of the new service, the organization performs an evaluation
on its performance after a specified time, in order to check if the organization is on
track to reaching its goal. The evaluation can be conducted regularly according to an
appropriate schedule.

After all the time and effort spent by the Product and Service Development team to
make the project come to life, this is where they can earn the credit for all their hard
work. At this stage the bank is fully operating its program and, thus, should set a date
for the operation to be evaluated for detailed inspection of its workings

40
Service Recovery
Service recovery refers to the actions a provider takes in response to a service failure
(Grönroos, 1988). A failure occurs when customers’ perceptions of the service they
receive do not match their expectations. According to this definition, service recovery
is not restricted to service industries, and similarly, empirical research shows that dealing
with problems effectively constitutes the most critical component of a reputation for
excellent (or poor) service for a broad range of industries (Johnston, 2001). Thus, any
company that serves external or internal customers must accept that failures happen
and institute systems and processes to deal with them.

As we are working on NRBC bank, so we tried to shed some light on what they do
when a service fails and they face a disappointed customer. After talking to several
service provider and executive from complain management department, we got the full
picture of service recovery system at NRBC bank.

As we know that NRBC bank is operating for 3 years now, so their approach is more
towards make their service fail safe from the very beginning so that the term service
recovery does not become a big issue for them. NRBC bank arranged two ways for
customer using which a customer can complain if they are dissatisfied. They are,

1. Complain Box
2. Verbal or on Telephone

Every brunch of this bank has a 5 member’s team of customer complain management
and they work on those written and verbal complain and try to solve those. Complains
which they can’t solve or satisfy, they transfer those to head office where there is a
central customer complain management team and they handle those case from there.
Also these brunch teams create a report every month on how many complain were filed,

41
how many were solved and how many are pending. NRBC bank also sends a monthly
report to Bangladesh bank on their complain management which ensure us that they
are always being monitored.

After talking to several service providers from the bank we realize that the employees
believe more in providing fail safe service than going to service recovery process as their
bank is new in this sector, so they don’t want to lose their trust . Even after that if any
customer stays unsatisfied by the service from the employee then the employee informs
his or her in charge and higher authority tries to solve the issues following convincing
way but, the idea of satisfying the customer with any special offer or scheme or gifts
seems unavailable. This was confirmed by one of the employees who shared the view
of NRBC bank on this. She said bank believes in treating every customer fair and
equally, although keeping the fact in mind that valuable customer needed to attend well
but overall bank follows this policy of equality. Hence no special scheme, offer or gift
is there for any customer rather the effort to give the proper service from the very
beginning is noticeable.

We also got an idea of complains usually customers make and all of these are basic
complain and according to the employees basic complains are the ones they get, not
more than that. That’s why the introduction of making customer happy by doing the
unusual is never needed believed by the employees. We also found large number of
satisfied customer from our survey which quite justifies their saying. The usual
complains are about

1. Waiting line
2. Unfulfilled Requirement
3. Problem with official procedure
4. Internet banking access problem
5. Alert system failure.

42
6. ATM machine problem
7. CDM machine problem etc.

As we mentioned earlier that NRBC bank employees tries to solve these complains on
their own by following the convincing way and if that fails then passing it to higher
authority or head customer complain management committee to solve.

Lastly we can say that as NRBC bank is new in this sector so they are trying their best
to keep their service fail safe and being successful without taking that much service
recovery steps but, in future their customer family will be much bigger and with more
expectation, at that time they may find it hard to keep the standard and that will be a
challenge for them.

43
Integrated Marketing Communication
Integrated Marketing Communication or IMC a method of communicating with the
customers and delivering the best possible service based on the customers feedback and
information. Back in 1989, American Association of Advertising Agencies defined IMC
as the approach of achieving the objective of any kind of marketing campaign through
use of different promotional methods; this definition is considered as the first definition
of Integrated Marketing Communication. Basically this approach is an application to
consistently letting customers know about the brand message through both traditional
and non-traditional marketing channels. Another way to define IMC is, it a process to
contact the customers and consumers so that all the message delivered to them about
the product, service and the organization are relevant and consistent to them. This
strategic process, IMC, makes sure that all the elements of it like advertising, public
relations, sales promotion and direct marketing are working as a unified process. To get
the best result, the right combination of both promotional tools and techniques are
important and the other important aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications
are media, message and time.

The best way to explain Integrated Service Marketing Communication is using the
Communication and the Service Marketing Triangle. This triangle consists the
employees (internal market), customers (external market) and the company itself.

44
Internal Marketing

The reason why Internal Marketing is important is, it is not only the services offered by
the company that satisfy the customers. Customers judge or rate a company based on
the overall experience from creating account to getting the final service.

In this marketing strategy, the employees within the organization are treated as
customers and they are needed to be communicated about all the promotions, new
offers and staffs so that they can provide quality service to the customers all the time.
This strategy is important to educate the customers about the mission and vision of the
company and make them prepare for all kind of new services the company is preparing
to provide. If this is successfully done, then the company can ensure quality and
satisfying service for its customers.

There are two ways of communication in Internal Marketing. These are:

 Vertical Communication
 Horizontal Communication

45
Both the ways of communication are described along with the scenario of NRB
Commercial bank regarding this issue are described below:

Vertical Communication
NRBC Bank follows vertical communication system which is a way of communication
between bottom to lower or junior to senior employees about their IMC campaign
within the organization. Through this communication system top level employee send
message and direction to the mid-level employees about their IMC campaign. This way
of communication helps the employees to know more about their IMC campaign.
NRBC Bank follows this way of communication to train their employees so that they
realize their company’s message to deliver service more efficiently.

Horizontal Communication
Horizontal Communication is a way of communication among same level of employees
of a company like marketing manager to financial manager within the organization. As
NRBC Bank is a new entrant in this business so they do not maintain this way of
communication properly. But in future they have a plan to go for this way of
communication to know the employees about the IMC campaign.

External Marketing

External marketing communication allows companies to stay in touch with customers

and provides a channel for customer input while also identifying and exploiting sales
opportunities. Again, external marketing is the marketing activities which are carried
out to persuade the customer to avail whatever the company is offering into the market.
These activities move from the company externally towards the customer.

External marketing may be carried out using different ways. These are:

46
  Advertising
 Sales Promotion
 Public Relations
 Direct Marketing
How NRBC Bank uses different marketing activities in order to engage with their
customers are described below-

Advertising
Advertising is a form of marketing communication used to promote or sell usually a
business's product or service. Again, advertising is a form of marketing communication
used to persuade an audience to take or continue some action, usually with respect to a
commercial offering. To catch the attention of their target Customer NRBC Bank, uses
print, e-media and social media to fulfill their basic advertisement need.

Print Advertisement
As NRBC Bank is new in banking industry so they do not have much print
advertisement on newspaper. NRBC Bank publish few print advertisement on
newspaper. They usually publish their print advertisement on famous newspaper of the
country like Prothom Alo and Daily Star. But to reach their customer they need to
provide more print advertisement on newspaper.

TVC Advertisement
NRBC Bank have only one TVC as their electronic media communication. In this TVC
they try to provide a message to their customer that they are contributing in different
sector of our economy from. They also give a message that they are working for new

47
innovation from generation to generation. But the problem of their TVC is the
repetition and frequency is very low. They also telecast it for a short period of time in
a very few TV channels. So, most of their customers fail to reach their advertisement.

Social Media
Nowadays most of the bank in our country use social media like Facebook to create a
good relationship with their customers. They deliver message of their products and
services on their Facebook page consistently to the customers. In the Facebook page
NRBC Bank share different print ads, message, TVC ads and other videos to grab more
attention from the customers.

Public Relations (PR)

NRBC Bank involved in different activities like Sponsorship, CSR and different
campaign to build relationship with the customers. As a part of their CSR activities they
donated a Cheque to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund to help the suffering people of
the country. Recently, NRBC Bank donate school bag, pen, paper etc. to the children
who are living in enclave. Again they sponsor different events like Cricket match as a
part of their public relations. They also run campaign in different universities and offices
like account opening to create relationship with the customers. They can improve their
Public Relations activities more by launching more campaign towards their customers.

Direct Marketing
Direct marketing is a form of marketing communication which allows businesses
organizations to communicate straight to the customer, with techniques that can
include text messaging, e-mail, etc. It is used today mostly to establish an ongoing

48
relationship with a current customer and potential customer in order to stimulate
purchase and build brand loyalty.

NRBC Banks usual direct marketing strategies are to send text messages and e-mails to
the existing customers and potential customers. The sales team conducts this contact
with each customer via email.

Interactive Marketing
Interactive marketing relies on customers expressing their preferences so that marketers
can produce more relevant marketing messages. Unlike the outbound marketing of the
past, interactive marketing creates a two way dialogue between a business and its
customers. As we are working on NRBC Bank it has designed strategic interacting
marketing policies in their business very effectively. From our primary and secondary
data analysis we came to know the factors implemented to establish efficient
communication channels as time demand to compete with other potential competitors
in the current market. There are some factors that followed by the bank and these are
described below.

Customer Service Centre

Most of the banks have their own customer service center to receive feedback from
their customer. So, NRBC Bank also has customer service and call center through which
customers can make a phone call to the customer service to provide feedback and
receive service like ATM card blocking, procedure to open bank account etc.

49
Service Encounter
The definition of a service encounter is broad and includes a customer's interaction
with customer-contact employees, machines, automated systems, physical facilities, and
any other service provider visible elements. There are some rules and regulations for
opening FDR in NRBC Bank. First, customers should have relation with any person
inside the bank and everyone must fulfill all the requirements given in the procedure.
Secondly, NRBC Bank maintains different desk for providing different types of services
to the customers within time. Thirdly, they differentiate their services by assigning
employees to maintain quality service and supports.

Servicescapes
Servicescape is a concept that was developed by Booms and Bitner to emphasize the
impact of the physical environment in which a service process takes place. The services
cape includes the facility's exterior (landscape, exterior design, signage, parking,
surrounding environment) and interior (interior design and decor, equipment, signage,
layout, air quality, temperature and ambiance). NRBC Bank establishes unique
servicescape in their every branch in a well-organized manner. They have wonderful
exterior design along with the parking facilities and well attracted suitable office
environment as well. Customers have refreshment opportunity while visiting bank and
desirable services depending on their own preferences. In addition, interior design and
decor of NRBC Bank is highly appreciable that customer feel good whenever they visit
the bank.

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Approaches for Integrating Services Marketing
Communications
There are four approaches for integrating service marketing communications in order
to achieve the desired goal of delivering greater or at least equal to what was promised
to the customers. These are:

 Managing internal marketing communications

 Manage service promise
 Improve customer education
 Manage customer experience

The approaches taken by NRB commercial Bank in order to fulfill their goal of
delivering their promises to the customers are described henceforth.

To successfully deliver the promises to their customers, NRBC Bank follows mainly
two approaches- i) Managing internal marketing communications, and ii) Managing
service promises. The employees of NRBC Bank manage to maintain internal marketing
communications very smoothly and efficiently, this is established by focusing on both
horizontal and vertical communications between the colleagues along the personnel
from different hierarchy levels. This enables them to deliver the promised services that
are expected from them. They also maintain proper promise management towards their
customers. Because every message in IMC campaign is a promise to the customers. So,
NRBC Bank never overpromise anything in their message. They do not even say any
commitment towards their customers which they cannot deliver.

The challenges that are often faced in service communication includes,

 Inadequate management of service promises

51
  Inadequate management of customer expectations
 Inadequate customer education
 Inadequate internal marketing communications

NRBC Bank mostly faces the two challenges mentioned below,

Inadequate Management of Customer Expectations

It is sometimes difficult for the banks to meet and satisfy customer expectations.
Because, there are some unrealistic customers who demand irrelevant service from the
banks. Because, there are some customers want automated IT service from NRBC Bank
which is really difficult to satisfy because of lack of resources. Again, if the expectation
of customers exceeds than it is difficult to satisfy the customer next time.

Inadequate Customer Education

This is the knowledge that the customers should have regarding the services they are
going to receive. If they do not have a proper idea about the reality of the situation,
they will be expecting services to the standard that is impossible to meet, which is a
problem at times faced by NRBC Bank.

52
Way forward for the bank in delivering best quality services

 Advertisement - from the conducted survey we were able to find that the
NRBC Bank has quite a unique approach for their marketing strategy. The survey
shows that maximum number of respondents, that is their clients, have never
seen any advertising campaign by the NRBC Bank. We found out that one of the
most important ways the bank uses to promote itself is by providing quality
services to its clients, believing that the word of mouth will carry out its
promotion. This shows the bank’s continuous devotion to serve its customers
with exceptional services but also portraits its inability to reach out to its target
customers. This method might be effective in retaining customer loyalty (for
short term) towards the bank but in the long term it enables a weakness towards
attracting new ones. Being a newly born bank, it requires mass effort to survive
in the market and reach its basic and broad objectives. The bank should
immediately take measures such as guerilla marketing or other low cost and
highly effective initiatives to improve its promotional campaign to attract more
customers in long term.

 ATM Booths - The concept of ATM booths aid the clients with the ability to
withdraw a limited amount of cash from their bank accounts from a convenient
location in a short period of time without having going to the bank. The bank
has established a small number of ATM booths, to make it worse, they are all
located with its fewer branches across the city. The bank should use its research
database to prioritize location based on the number of customer’s concentration
(living in an area) and then should consider establishing ATM booths at the

53
 selected locations. Inability to provide such convenience or assistance to its
customers, the bank may lose its value that may affect the customer’s perception
in the long term.

 Branches - Similar to the ATM booths, the number of branches operating

inside Dhaka is four and one other is located on the Dhaka-Mymensingh high
way. Our survey respondents were quite unhappy about the limited number of
branches operating in such a vast radius. Again, the bank should consider
opening more branches at suitable locations, which may also depend on the
potential customers.

 Credibility - Credibility is an enormous issue for infant or developing banks.

NRBC Bank faces a massive credibility concern regarding overseas transaction
over the letter of credit. It is challenging for the bank to earn the credibility at
this young stage especially from foreign suppliers. It can improve its credibility
by following its core objectives that is to perform well to gain market share,
keeping a stable reserve, promoting overseas, and finally building and
maintaining relationships with foreign affiliations.

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Conclusion
There is a proverb is service industry that you cannot satisfy all the customers all the
time but some of them sometimes”. This statement is also applicable for NRBC bank.
After conducting the research on customer satisfaction on NRBC’s clients various
output has been noted. Some of them are extremely happy with the services that
provided by the bank and willing to build a long term relationship with the bank but
also in the other side some customers are dissatisfied with the service and planning to
switch their bank as the service is not satisfactory for them.

Service GAP is always a very crucial factor in order to measure the lacking of delivering
service of the customer whether the perception exceeds the expectation or not.

At NRBC bank the availability of all the services is an effort by this organization to
ensure better service experience for the customers. Majority of NRBC’s customer’s
perception about the Banks market share achievement is very much efficient as a result
they are willing to build a relationship with the bank along with full trust and loyalty.

The customers are initially satisfied with the service quality but still the rating is not on
the box of excellent service quality. There are still some dissatisfied customer with the
issue for better efficient services, SME loans and cheque transaction efficiency.

At the promotion sector Word of mouth and Banks agents are the main strength for
NRBC bank. As there is not any kind of TVC and promotional activity by this bank.

The expectation of the customers is not to go full online while there should some online
features. And another fact is not using fully automated service provider machine. About
their CRM, they have a notable amount of old customers and most of them wants to
stay with the bank for a longer period of time with no consideration for switching the
bank

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And finally the customers are the most valuable assets for NRBC bank, so from the
survey it is clear that the satisfaction and customer retention level is high which indicates
that the bank is at least trying to deliver the best service they can provide against of
other competitors in Banking Sector.

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Reference
1. Grönroos, C. (1988). Service quality: The six criteria of good perceived service
quality. Review of Business, 9(Winter), 10-13.
2. Johnston, R. (2001). Service excellence=reputation=profit: Developing and
sustaining a reputation for service excellence. Colchester, UK: Institute of Customer
Service.

3. Survey from 30 samples (account holders of NRBC Bank Ltd.)

4. Md. Akhtar Hossain, VP and Manager Operation, NRBC Bank Ltd.

5. Nazmus Saqib, Probationary Officer, NRBC Bank Ltd.

6. Kazi Md Talha, SEVP and Head of Branch, NRBC Bank Ltd.

7. Nusrat Jahan, Assistant Officer, NRBC Bank Ltd.

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