The FINANCIAL — “Building team spirit together” is the communications campaign of Société Générale, based on a strong and engaging signature vis-à-vis all of its customers and employees.
The FINANCIAL — “Building team spirit together” is the communications campaign of Société Générale, based on a strong and engaging signature vis-à-vis all of its customers and employees. This campaign is part of the SG transformation programme, whose goal is to make Société Générale the reference for relationship banking.
“Having begun in 2010, this programme plays out in multiple projects around customer satisfaction, a new culture of management and the fine-tuning of the Bank’s operational model,” said Christian Carmagnolle, CEO of Bank Republic. “Today, these projects, which mobilize all of the Group’s employees, are producing their concrete results. Société Générale is now ready to share this transformation and progress with the public, and express its commitment to mobilizing its performance towards customer service.”
“For Société Générale, the bank is first and foremost a service company, and the customer relationship will always be at the heart of this service. This conviction is the basis of the new Group signature. The promise of ‘building team spirit together’ gives a complete sense of the modern relationship that the Bank hopes to build with its customers – a balanced, long-term relationship where the Bank works alongside its customers to help them succeed in their projects and to progress with them.”
“We believe that it is by working together with our customers and within the company that we will build the reference for relationship banking. We are mobilizing all of our energies and resources to meet this ambition. We know that customer satisfaction cannot be decreed; it is earned through sustained deeds and action: this is the meaning of our transformation programme and our new campaign. It unites us and drives us to succeed. This is how we perceive our profession as bankers; this is how we will be useful to our clients and to the economy, in a world in upheaval,” said Frédéric Oudéa, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Société Générale.
“Building team spirit together described above is also the internal motto for the transformation undertaken by the Group members, including Bank Republic,” Christian Carmagnolle said.
Q. You aim to strengthen the position as a brand focused on the relationship with your clients and stakeholders. Why is it important? How will this influence your business?
A. Combining skills, initiating synergies, pooling resources and best practices, to ultimately improve the company’s customer service – the message is as rich in meaning for employees as it is for customers. Beyond the transformation underway, team spirit is a strong value at Société Générale, anchored in its managerial culture and practices; as a universal value, it has the potential to unite all of the Group’s employees throughout the world.
Bank Republic has developed its motto “each of us matters”, meaning that each employee and customer can create a unified team with common goals, where the success of each member is not only his/her own but everyone else’s. More precisely, team spirit is a campaign about identity with a long-term view. The idea behind the slogan “Each of Us Matters” represents an inclusive approach and includes our clients as well as our bank employees. When the team principle is applied, it is especially important for each participant member to understand and embrace a common direction, to share similar values and to strive towards a common goal. It is particularly emphasized that each Bank Republic Société Générale Group employee is as important and valuable as each client is; the roles and functions of all employees are critical for the existence of an efficient, well-run operation. In other words, our bank’s success depends on the aspirations of each individual unit and depends on a collective team spirit.
The new brand strategy of Bank Republic aims to strengthen its position on the market as a socially responsible financial institution, whose goal is to offer its bank customers (both individual and corporate customers) banking products that are tailored to their financial capacity, needs and life’s pace. As such, Bank Republic carries out and will continue to undertake educational activities that help our customers manage their finances more efficiently. The concepts of social responsibility and team spirit are embedded in our mission and vision as well. We will continue caring about our customers, but we will take a more systemized approach, which will reflect on further success of our business.
Q. In your opinion, how can the new strategy support the Bank’s financial growth? How much growth do you expect in the upcoming months?
A. At this stage, reaching certain financial goals as a result of the campaign is not our primary goal. As the Team Spirit approach is based on a long-term view, we do not expect returns immediately or in the short run. It is important that our stakeholders truly understand and comprehend our new approach. When this is done, this will reflect on our figures as well.
Q. How can customers and their increased role support the Bank’s development?
A. The progress and success of each of our customers positively influences other counterparts. Bank Republic, who aims to become a reference bank, according to the Group’s global strategy, will continue and further strengthen its mutually beneficial relations with its customer.
We offer our clients more than just the best interest rates for their loans and deposits or simply a single specific product. The defining principle of our strategy is to satisfy our consumer in the long term by promoting a close relationship with our bank so that they look at us as their partner and feel comfortable applying to us whenever they need in the future.
Our customers will have a designated banker whom they can call any time to ask for advice, who will be their contact person at the Bank and who will help the clients make financial decisions that will be useful for them. This way we can avoid cases where clients are in a difficult situation as a result of excess indebtedness.
As a socially responsible bank, we have not only now begun caring about our customers, but according to the new approach, we will be more consistent in keeping them satisfied. They are not our debtors, they are our partners. This measured approach applies to both retail and corporate customers alike. Most importantly, consumers will feel an individual approach and at the same time feel themselves as part of one big team they form together with the Bank Republic Société Générale Group.
Our branches will soon be equipped with the so-called open cash desk where there will be practically no barriers between a client and a banker, which will consequently strengthen the customer’s feeling of being a member of the team.
Q. How important is CSR for the Bank?
A. Corporate Social Responsibility is embedded in the daily business of Bank Republic. CSR is about business behaviours and earning the trust and loyalty of stakeholders. BR has established a strong image as a socially responsible institution in Georgian society. BR is guided by Corporate Governance Code, making the Bank’s governance process more transparent and showing that the Bank is committed to the best principles of corporate governance. CSR is a guiding principle in the Bank’s lending activity, risk management, quality control, human resource management, environmental awareness of staff and social projects. Pursuing its long-term tradition to support Georgian cultural heritage, BR supported important cultural and educational events during the year, including the first-in-Georgia exhibition of the immigrant Georgian artist Vera Pagava, support of the development of Georgian art and culture (Long-term partnership with Marjanishvili Theatre), various social projects for people in need, successful project launched in 2012 “BR and Contemporary Art” in bank premises (promotion/support of young Georgian artists).
On its behalf, BR continues supporting initiatives within the framework of Citizen Commitment Week, which includes blood donation, collection of first necessities and cash in certain occasions and participating in the cancer awareness project Race for the Cure.
Long-term commitment to work in the field of CSR will still remain as one of the strategic points for BR in respect to contributing to the welfare of the society where it operates. BR remains loyal to socially responsible business activities and reports about it to the public, customers, shareholders and society at large, while adhering to the CSR policy of Société Générale.
In terms of customer relations, CSR for us means having and keeping customers well-informed. As financial experts, the Bank aims to meet the needs of each consumer and assist them in making decisions beneficial to them. It is important to provide comprehensive information to the customers and make them fully aware of the proposed products and services that the Bank offers. This in turn will help them make better decisions and in the long run, this will facilitate increased customer satisfaction.
Q. How would you evaluate 2012 overall?
A. The year 2012 was quite challenging for the financial world. The Société Générale Group once again demonstrated the ability to maintain its earnings capacity under these circumstances due to its business model ensuring resilience to external shocks and continued stable performance of its global network of commercial banks. Bank Republic was able to generate impressive profit in 2012. The Bank offered a number of new products and special promotions to its clients. Our products always reflect the existing needs of our clients and are just in time to help them realize their financial plans.
Q. What are your plans for 2013?
A. In 2013 Bank Republic will continue focusing on the specific needs of its clients, getting to know them better and further strengthening a trust-based long-term relationship with them by offering the most flexible and diverse products and services. Bank Republic will continue to serve the SME sector offering them new products and incentives at different times of year in consideration of the business cycles. The Bank will also offer deposits that allow clients to dispose of their savings flexibly, in relevance to their goals, while earning high yields.
While continuing efforts to build the team spirit approach in all directions of its work, the Bank will implement in its daily business the three principal pillars of commercial development: network improvement (open cash desk), innovative and tailor-made products and solutions and superior quality of service. Let me take this opportunity and wish your readers a very happy New Year!
Discussion about this post