Relevance of social networks in the banking industry
How effective is social media in relation to customer services in the banking sector?
Research Proposal
Social media is one of the most powerful networking platforms in the business world today. The use of this has been constantly increasing throughout the years as more people believe in its potential and it has proven to serve many purposes. According to Prodanova et al. (2015) the attributes that attract clients towards m-banking channels such as simplicity, practicality, rapidity of services, and modernity. Furthermore, comfort, accessibility, security, privacy, independence, continuity of service, full operation ability, charges are among the essential functional aspects that clients value. Both modern and traditional companies have indulged in the use of this platform due to its effective process of enhancing customer service as it enables a more personal relationship with individuals. The banking sector, being one of the most important entities in the current world, rely heavily on customer service due to its necessity in offering faster support, attention, information about the novelties and their selling product. The aim of this research study is to determine whether banks are achieving an optimal outcome with the use of social media.
Study Purpose
The study aims are to determine if banks are making optimal use of networks, differences between the primary entities in the use of their systems, details such as security, treatment, their use of business opportunities on the part of the banking entity. The purpose of this study is to pick up the definite idea of the use of this social networks within the most important banking entities in Spain and to create the ideal prototype of care using social media networks.
It will be in the best interest to pursue the topic through comparison between the significant banking entities and the use they give social media, how they direct themselves towards their customers, the treatment customers receive if there are existing ways of getting products without having to go to the banking branch. On the other hand, how the client feels when he’s getting the customer service through these social media platforms and, if he or she would prefer a conversation through the mobile phone if this generates distrust or trust, dependency or reliance, confidence or fear, security, or insecurity, and convenience or inconvenience.
Significance of the Study
Communication studies cover issues of human interaction with other individuals as well as institutions around them on various topics. This topic fits within the communications field as social media allows banks to connect with their customers in a completely different manner. Social media marketing throughout Facebook, game app, Twitter, and Instagram are becoming a convenient channel for retail customer interaction. According to Miranda (2013) in recent times, the online user-generated content through online social media networks has grown intensively. Collaborative projects, content communities, virtual game worlds, social networking sites, virtual social worlds, as well as blogs and microblogs are part of the social media technologies that are flourishing even in the global financial sector.
Prodanova et al. (2015) opine that currently balance checks, money transfer, ticket purchase, bill/tax payment, and hire mobile alert systems are performed through m-banking, hence the future is likely to have internet banking taking over the banking activities. This means that studying relevance, trends, and role of social media platforms becomes an important move the organizations could consider if they’ve to remain competent and relevant in business. Furthermore, it helps in the building of literature in business as an academic field so that the future scholars can explore It deeper and accrue relevant information.
Torres-Toukoumidis & Marín-Mateos (2017) mention that the 2015 National Institute of Statistics found out that 96.5 percent of the Spanish community own mobile phones, from which 22.7 percent use the internet in activities linked to bank accounts management. Similarly, Ditrenia’s study of 2015 indicated that fifteen million people in Spain have embraced mobile banking usage in control of their finances. With such findings, there is a forecast that by 2020 eighty percent of smartphone activities shall be on the banking market. Case studies
At the moment banks like Caixabank initiated digital platforms like Blackberry’s Apple World, Android Market, and AppleStore for financial service distribution in transfers, management of accounts, checking of balance sheets, customer service, and agency location in 2009. Afterwards, BBVA pioneered mobile payment application came out and enhanced bank management, consultation. The trend here shows that almost all banking institutions are utilizing digital and social media current trends in uplifting their business, innovatively running their affairs, acquiring clients, and expanding.
Objectives
The study objectives are to:
· Determine the client’s profile that utilizes social media to contact with bank entities.
· Evaluate the effectiveness of social media in the selling of banking services and products.
· Determine the level of satisfaction of clients who use social media to contact their bank.
· Establish the limitations found in the use of social media.
· Compare the most known bank entities, choosing the best of each to create the customer service for the social media use.
The attainment of the above objectives in the study project call upon an analysis and comparison of prominent bank entities in Spain. Such banks include BBVA, Caixa, Santander bank through which data on social media usage, personalized use processes, customer service and commercial talks/information will guide the study.
Comparative analysis of Spanish Banks
Santander Bank utilizes social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google plus banco to seek customer satisfaction, incidents, complaints, brand experience (Santander Bank, n.d.). The social media applications have enabled them to serve diverse clients such as institutions, universities, corporations, and private banking clients, as well as individual clients. Furthermore, through the platform, they offer financial education, show their channels and accessibility. BBVA, on the other hand, responds to comments in their twitter, Facebook, online forums, and blogs through a communication system that has improved its feedback to more positive comments and less negative feedback by 1.5 percent (Wamba et al., 2016). The IBM analytical systems analyze brand perception, create delighted clients, establish prospects of making new clients and monitor their activities to retain them.
According to BBVA, Creating opportunities (2017) since the transformation towards a digital ecosystem in 2016, BBVA has managed to have a unique customer experience, a new quality model that offers real-time customer feedback, rapid identification and implementation of improvement opportunities and increased functionalities. The company’s improvement and enhancement of mobile banking applications in Chile and Colombia have doubled sales, which were1.4 million products sales and a 60% increase customers’ interaction volume in 2016. In 2017, the increased distribution models, and physical network efficiency emerged in its other branches too. BBVA (2015) notes that there is a comprehensive account of how BBVA Bank in Spain has reinvented itself into a digital age institution and the benefits accrued. The document reviews the new multinationals, future business models, talent and cultural innovation and leadership. Though the BBVA (2015), it is possible to learn how electronic technologies work and its role in the future business.
Finally, Caixabank, which is the first bank in Spain is known for installing the digital focus through electronic transactions, and about 55 percent internet and mobile channels. It is the leading Spanish bank with the international acquisition, and a 15 % market accessibility, value creation as well stock market accessibility and at least 13.6 million clients within its business model. The bank offers crowdsourcing platforms through which they receive client ideas, online banking since 2009 with an active mobile and online base (CaixaBank, 2014). The platforms have maintained clients and given a high rating reputation to the bank. All the three banks have had a successful creation of digital databases, a lot of people now stock through their platforms, the implementation took off making them digital transformation leaders (Quesada, 2016). The use of digital has attracted a lot of talent and great entrepreneurs culture.
Theoretical framework
Given that the study is focusing on the social media platform, its usage among the clients, and related issues, the suitable prism to apply is social media theory. According to Kaplan & Heinlein (2010), the social media theory, social factor evaluates the level of presence of a media through the aspects of physical, acoustic, or visual contact. Intimacy and immediacy influence it making it highly or lowly present. Similarly, there are the tenets of media richness that assumes that communication can resolve ambiguity and reduce uncertainty due to the differing degree of richness they contain at a given time. It will be possible to answer how social media impact the brand value a company in this day and age.
Methodology
Research Design
The study methodology will be both qualitative and quantitative; that is a mixed approach to determine the relevance of social media platforms in the banking sector. The usage of social media platforms will be considered as a focal component that will enhance the examination of forms, the relevance of social media, and its usage in the current banking and overall business world.
Research Instrument
The study instrument will be a questionnaire that contains about ten validated questions, which focus on diverse ages of clients and from three Spanish different banks namely; Caixabank, BBVA, and Santander. The questions on the variables and research questions will have a Likert Scale measuring 1-5 with Always 5 Often 4 Not aware 3 Sometimes 2 Never 1. Its evaluation will enhance efficient and quick coding and analysis on the computer excel and other functional programs. The questionnaire will have items that will inquire about whether the customers utilize social media, the time they contact social media in the banking services and products, and satisfaction level. It also assesses if they would use social media again for this use, their attitude towards wait time and the process to be followed in the usage of the platform, and reasons behind clients entry into the social media. Then there is the most used social media platform applied in the banking services and products, the thought about social media and its continuity. These are the type of questions that the study will be asking the questionnaire. Consider the attached survey in Appendix 1.
Validity and Reliability of Data
To test validity and reliability, there will be interviews with the Public relations personnel or managers of the three selected Spanish banks that will serve it ascertaining the truth, reliability, and dependability of the information gathered from customers. Similarly, it will be significant to evaluate the ads and brochures of the selected three Spanish banks for it will expose the marketing and client response on their websites and company at large. A comparative analysis of the three Spanish banks will show the reliability of data as well as present diverse views of the nature of social media, its role and operation in the banking sector in relation to the clients.
Research Analysis
After collecting the data, the analysis will be enhanced through classification of data based on the study objectives, coding under specific titles based on the variables and the research questions, and offering both narration and organization of the items.
Overall, now the social media platform is a business strategy that indeed provokes the interest of people, allows self-assessment, persuasion, and the pursuit of potential client’s investment, engagement, organization, and experiment. The commonest social media platforms that companies use are; Google plus, Facebook, and LinkedIn. In the evaluation of the importance of social media and application in banks, it is clear that the clients use to search for products, comment on services offered by companies, order for goods, transact business, and follow up on organizational processes. Besides, social media is often used in improving customer retention, client acquisition, and marketing through images, analysis of client attitude, and promotions. The Spanish companies have proved the significance of social media through the innovative and expansion achievement they have attained while dispensing bank services and selling products. The idea has been adopted by a number of new multinationals for future business models, talent and cultural innovation and leadership. Therefore, an exploration of social media and usage in banks in critical in acquiring more relevant facts about its clients, usage and safety.
References
BBVA. (2015). Reinventing the company for a digital age. 1-468. Retrieved from https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/BBVA-OpenMind-book-Reinventing-the-Company-in-the-Digital-Age-business-innovation1.pdf
Cafral. (2014). Uses of Social Media by Banks. 1-9. Retrieved from http://www.cafral.org.in/sfControl/content/LearningTakeaWays/1216201531637PM-CAFRAL-LT-Uses-of-Social-Media-by-Banks.pdf
CaixaBank. (2014). CaixaBank – the leading force in Spanish retail banking. 1-85. Retrieved from https://www.caixabank.com/deployedfiles/caixabank/Estaticos/PDFs/Inversores_institucionales/20140423_Caixabank_corporate_presentation_en.pdf
Kaplan A.M., & Haenlein M (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53, 59–68.
Kirakosyan, K. (2014). The managerial view of social media usage in banking industry: case study for Romanian Banking System. Proceedings of the 8th International Management Conference, (pp. 225-232). Romania. Retrieved from http://conferinta.management.ase.ro/archives/2014/pdf/21.pdf
Miranda, F. (2013). Evaluation of Social Networks Sites in the Banking Sector: An Analysis of Top 200 International Banks. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 18(2), 1-17. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/73bf/cf007ce0ca90ea792e93f8bf002e4dcfd6f3.pdf
Prodanova J., San-Martín S. & Jiménez, N. (2015). The present and the future of m-banking according to Spanish bank customers. Business Review, 1-24.
Quesada, V. (2016). Digital banking transformation: BBVA vs. Banco Santander. Retrieved from https://www.finextra.com/blogposting/12805/digital-banking-transformation-bbva-vs-banco-santander
Santander Bank. (n.d.). Sustainability. Retrieved from https://www.santander.com/csgs/Satellite?appID=santander.wc.CFWCSancomQP01&c=GSAgrupAsset&canal=CSCORP&cid=1278689260115&empr=CFWCSancomQP01&leng=en_GB&pagename=CFWCSancomQP01/GSAgrupAsset/CFQP01_GSAgrupAssetInformacion_PT10
Torres-Toukoumidis, A. & Marín-Mateos, D.P. (2017). Gamification in mobile applications for banking services in Spain. Vii(13). doi:orcid.org/0000-0002-7727-3985
Wamba, S. F., Akter, S., Kang, H., Bhattacharya, M., & Upal, M. (2016). The Primer of Social Media Analytics. Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, 28(2), 1-12. doi:10.4018/JOEUC.2016040101
Appendix
1.Questionnaire
1. Do you offer social media elements or platforms to the clients while serving or selling them products? Always 5 Often 4 Not aware3 Sometimes 2 Never 1
2. Tick the platforms you use? Twitter, Facebook, Gamepads, Mobile services, ATM, if others name them.
3. Do you meet the customer service through social media platform(s)? Always 5 Often 4 Not aware3 Sometimes 2 Never 1
4. Do your customers like the wait they must follow through using this platform (s)? Always 5 Often 4 Not aware3 Sometimes 2 Never 1
5. Do clients follow your platform(s) for promotions? Always 5 Often 4 Not aware3 Sometimes 2 Never 1
6. Do the clients utilize the platforms for customer service? Always 5 Often 4 Not aware3 Sometimes 2 Never 1
7. Do the customers use the platforms for publicity purposes? Always 5 Often 4 Not aware3 Sometimes 2 Never 1
8. Which of your social media platform (s) is most used in banking products or services? Twitter, Facebook, Mobile Service, gamepads, other (Name it)
9. Which social media platform they would use to contact their bank? Twitter, Facebook, Gamepads, Mobile services, ATM, if others name them.
10. Do your clients think the social media platform is the right way to go? Always 5 Often 4 Not aware3 Sometimes 2 Never 1
