1 December 2021
Absa Bank has signed a long-term contract with Salesforce, a global leader in customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, to bring about a step change in servicing individual and business-banking customers as the bank accelerates its digitisation programme.
In line with its efforts to get closer to customers, Absa is rolling out the software across its South African operations, providing customer-facing employees with CRM features that provide a ‘360-degree view’ of the customer, allowing employees to service customers more efficiently.
“The agreement is a significant milestone in Absa’s digitisation transformation,” said Thato Matolong, Absa Bank Managing Executive: Channel, Infrastructure and Change. “In the past, customer-facing employees had to use multiple applications relating to customers. Now, we will have a single tool that provides a 360-degree view of a customer,” he said.
The new agreement with Salesforce builds on work that Absa commenced with the global cloud-based software solutions provider previously.
The difficulty for many banks in servicing customers is that various teams across different product areas (such as transactions, home loans, insurance, vehicle financing and banking) many geographies and different channels (such as contact centres and branches) often use different systems and processes to service customers. This can result in customers experiencing services as uncoordinated or inefficient.
By using a single customer interface, employees are better equipped with a seamless view of customer data and history across multiple areas and enabled to more rapidly provide solutions. At the same time, the new CRM solution better enables Absa to cross-sell products, thereby supporting revenue generation.
While implementation is a gradual process across the Group’s operations in Africa, the cloud-based solution will allow for quicker client onboarding, faster solutioning for customers and ‘solving right’ the first time, said Matolong. The ultimate objective of the journey is to align behind a single distribution strategy and to build world-class channels that deliver optimal experiences.
"Absa Bank exemplifies how to successfully conduct a true digital transformation journey, and we are honoured to be a part of it," says Denis Terrien, Executive Vice President and CEO of Salesforce for Southern Europe, Middle East, and Africa, "Customers are the lifeblood of any business, and dealing with them in the new digital world, requires developing an omnichannel strategy that is supported by a single view. This is the goal of the Salesforce Customer 360 platform."
“The new agreement not only signifies another milestone in our digitisation journey, but also realises our strategy to partner with leading global organisations that continue to innovate in a space where we want to excel in terms of customer experience,” said Matolong.
