HOW WE MANAGED TO REVOLUTIONIZE THE WORLD OF PERSONAL BANKING AND BE A BENCHMARK IN SERVICE IN PERU IN THE 90’S.
During my career as Marketing and Personal Banking Manager at Interbank in the 90s, I led the launch of Money Market. At that time, the level of personal banking in Peru was minimal and quite elitist, aimed mainly at high and medium-high socioeconomic levels. On the other hand, also directed in its great majority towards men. The goal at Interbank was clear: to expand our market. So we ask ourselves, how do we go about expanding the market? Market. We had to enter another socioeconomic segment, women. And how did we manage to attract women to the bank? Very difficult, since they saw going to the bank as a task for the courier or the driver. Not to mention for them.
Then we dedicate ourselves to investigate. It was there that, seeing ideas elsewhere and in other countries in the world where banking is higher, we studied the cases in which the bank had approached women. One of those cases was supermarket banking. It is there where it occurs to us to bring that same concept to Peru and adapt it to the country.
For this, we first recognized that we were in a time in which the bank went from being a state entity to a private company. We saw this as an opportunity to differentiate ourselves from the competition and we partnered with Wong because he had an excellent positioning in service, which was aligned with one of our challenges: positioning Interbank as the best bank in the attribute of customer service. An attribute that no other bank in Peru offered. From there, we study the market and our new target in detail and create a strategy. After developing the product and several ad hoc processes, we make sure that everything works properly and that it is a faster and less bureaucratic process for the client. After making sure everything is in order, we launched Money Market.
The launch was a success. We opened up to 14 stores with a totally different concept and with products designed especially for individuals, such as cash credit, vehicle loans and the famous millionaire account with the Interbank pig.
We managed to be pioneers in the pre-approved lines and in being able to approve a mortgage loan in 15 minutes. We managed to revolutionize the world of personal banking and establish ourselves as leaders in customer service. So much so that under my charge I created the Customer Service area and expanded the credit card and mortgage credit businesses.
Within the Money Market project, I also led the launch of Wong Visa. My motivation with this project was to do something different and give women a product that gives them a sense of independence. At that time, most of them did not work and only had an additional card from her husband. I wanted to change this. So, we created Wong Visa, a credit card that allowed them to accumulate Wong soles with each purchase, which served as money for their tastes. They received a check with the money and bought what they wanted. All of this made us enter personal banking very strongly and maintain that success by doing something innovative.
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