Chapter 02- Literature Review- Customer satisfaction in call center

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II. Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Introduction 2. Definitions 2.1 Call Center: Since the 1970s, call centers have traditionally been defined as physical places where calls were received in high volume. This was initially for the purpose of answering customer queries of service industry. There is not much change in recent decade except that many industries are conducting standard services through Call Centers such as banking, insurance, traveling, telecommunication services, airliner, and etc. Also it is broadly used in plenty of business activities such as telesales, telemarketing, and technical support. In these contexts, the call centers entitle organizations to interact with their customers through a telephone from any location in the world with no reference to physical boundaries. Call centers allow organizations to keep their customers in track for business purpose. Apart from traditional functions, call center can make outgoing calls to customers (Shanti N.Tiwari, 2009) 1 . The call center can be a focal point for most specific business activities of an organization such as answer incoming calls; log calls as well as solicits customers for new sales, donations, conduct customers’ survey etc. 1

description

Literature review on the topic of customer satisfaction in call center

Transcript of Chapter 02- Literature Review- Customer satisfaction in call center

Page 1: Chapter 02- Literature Review- Customer satisfaction in call center

II. Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Introduction

2. Definitions

2.1 Call Center:

Since the 1970s, call centers have traditionally been defined as physical places

where calls were received in high volume. This was initially for the purpose of answering

customer queries of service industry. There is not much change in recent decade except

that many industries are conducting standard services through Call Centers such as

banking, insurance, traveling, telecommunication services, airliner, and etc. Also it is

broadly used in plenty of business activities such as telesales, telemarketing, and technical

support. In these contexts, the call centers entitle organizations to interact with their

customers through a telephone from any location in the world with no reference to physical

boundaries. Call centers allow organizations to keep their customers in track for business

purpose.

Apart from traditional functions, call center can make outgoing calls to customers

(Shanti N.Tiwari, 2009)1. The call center can be a focal point for most specific business

activities of an organization such as answer incoming calls; log calls as well as solicits

customers for new sales, donations, conduct customers’ survey etc.

According to Shanti (2009), call center can be any of the following:

Huge telemarketing centers

Fund-raising and collection organization

Help desks, both internal and external

Outsourcers (better known as service bureaus) that use their large capacity to serve

lots of companies

Reservation centers for airlines and hotels

Recent globalization has made call center a rapid rate growth industry the in

developing world when worldwide organizations outsourced their call centers to lower-cost

regions. This growth reflects aspiration of companies to improve access to their business in

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more efficient time period manner to attain satisfied customers (Bird, 1998)2. The

development of technologies has forced the companies to restructure the ways they

managed relationships with customers. Many industries, such as banking, have been

innovatively applying state-of-the-art technology in their customer relationship

management through telephone and internet banking. Call centers provide organizations

valuable information about the performance of their services (Staples et. al, 2001)3. They

allow organizations to understand how customers feet about service performance.

(Gilmore, 2001)4

2.2 Service

The 21st century is considered as the service industry century. Service industry is

growing at a rapid pace across developed and developing countries. There are many

definitions of what constitutes service.

Services are deeds, processes and performances (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003)5.

Broadly speaking, services include all economic activities whose output is not a physical

product or construction is generally consumed at the time it is produced and provides

added value in forms (convenience, amusement, timeliness, comfort or health) that are

essentially intangible concerns of its first purchaser (Quinn,Baruch and Paquette, 1987).6

Service has been entering every part of life from the most essential demands (such as

eating, sleeping) to other entertainment needs (such as sport, traveling, cooking, and

telecommunication). In other words, we readily define bank, hotel, restaurants, and beauty

salon as being service-based business. Similarly said by Hung N. Bui (2004)7 service is an

activity that impacts all parts of our life. Since we were born, our lives have relied on

services (such as hospital service, education service, retail service etc.). In addition to that,

nowadays a wide range of products heavily rely on its services to acquire competitive

advantages. For instance, a TV buyer is now buying not only tangible components of a TV

set but also other service benefits like free delivery and installation, 24 hour technical

support etc.

Another definition of service is that a service is any activity or benefit that one

party offers to another which is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership

of anything. Its product may or may not be tied to a physical product (Kotler, Armstrong,

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Saunders and Wong 19998). These modern marketers view services as a business that

produces no tangible product.

2.3 Service quality

Service quality was defined differently through the view of many researchers. For

example:

Bitner, Booms and Mohr (1994)9 defined service quality as ‘the consumer’s overall

impression of the relative inferiority / superiority of the organization and its services’.

Therefore, service quality is key of survival to all servicing companies.

Cronin and Taylor (1994)10 viewed service quality as a form of attitude

representing a long-run overall evaluation. Maintaining service quality at certain level and

improving service quality must be life-time efforts to those companies who desire life-time

prosperity in customers’ heart.

Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985)11 defined service quality as ‘a function of

the differences between expectation and performance along the quality dimensions’.

Likewise, Roest and Pieters’ (1997)12 held the same definition that service quality is a

relativistic and cognitive discrepancy between experience-based norms and performances

concerning service benefits.

2.4 Customer satisfaction

Definitions of customer satisfaction have been widely discussed from the view of

many researchers and organizations who increasingly desire to measure it. A group of

researchers of the Center for the Study of Social Policy (2007)13 conceptualize that

satisfaction is based on the customer’s experience of both contact with the organization

(the moment of truth) and personal outcomes. According to these researchers, satisfaction

can be experienced in a variety of situations and connected to both goods and services. To

another extent, these researchers defined satisfactions as a “highly personal assessment”

that is greatly influenced by “individual expectations”. This definition views “individual”

element as powerful force to create satisfaction. Likewise, many researchers (Oliver, 1981;

Brady and Robertson, 200114) conceptualize customer satisfaction as an individual’s

feeling of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a product’s perceived

performance (or outcome) in relation to his or her expectations.15

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Whereas, Boulding et al., (1993)16 and Yi and La (2004)17 conclude satisfaction into

two general conceptualizations: transaction-specific satisfaction and cumulative

satisfaction. Transaction-specific satisfaction is a customer’s evaluation of his or her

experience and reactions to a particular service encounter (Cronin and Taylor, 1992;

Boshoff and Gray, 2004). Cumulative satisfaction refers to the customer’s overall

evaluation of the consumption experience to date (Jones and Suh 2000) 18.

Because customer satisfaction is highly variable assessment individuals do based

on their experiences with specific features of products and services they receive, it makes

sense for servicing organizations to involve customer satisfaction measurement as their

meaningful benchmark for development.

2.5 Link between service quality and customer satisfaction

Many researches have realized the interrelated values of service quality and

customer satisfaction. Corrin and Taylor (1992)19 consider that service quality and

customer satisfaction “share a close relationship”. Service quality is the key to measure

user satisfaction (Pitt et al., 1995)20. Taylor and Baker (1994) and Rust and Olivier (1994)

identified several factors that precede customer satisfaction. They argued that there are 5

antecedents that contribute to satisfaction: clear understanding of customer needs and

expectations, perceived value, service quality, internal satisfaction and complaint

management. This research showed that Service quality is one major attribute of

satisfaction. It is said by Olivier (1993) that service quality is a casual antecedent of

customer satisfaction, due to the fact that service quality is viewed at transactional level

and satisfaction is viewed as an attitude. Dabholkar et al. (1996)21 reported that the service

quality divisions are related to overall service quality and or customer satisfaction. Fornell

et al., (1996)22 expressed that satisfaction is a consequence of service quality.

To another extent, other researches suggested that in service field service quality

and customer satisfaction (also called the “construct”) are separate but distinct constructs.

(Boulding et. al., 1993)23. They argued that service quality has specific dimensions

judgments while customer satisfaction can be resulted from any dimension, whether or not

it is quality related. They report that expectations for quality are based on ideals or

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perceptions of excellence, whereas customer satisfaction assessment comprise by non-

quality issue such as needs, equity, perceptions of fairness etc.,

From the review of literature it can be inferred that performance of service delivery

can result in level of customer satisfaction.

3. Theoretical Framework

3.1 Instruments to measure Service Quality

3.1.1 SERVQUAL model

The service sector is expanding at an increasing rate and is becoming intensely

competitive (Chen, Gupta and Rom, 199424). As such, service quality becomes pivotal

across all business units of an organization. Corporate now pay appropriate attention to

continuously revisit their service quality system in order to improve approaches their

organizations using to serve customers. However, defining and measuring quality in

services might be difficult due to intangible nature of service offering. SERVQUAL model

developed by extensive research by Parasuraman et. al. (1985, 1988 and 1991) has been

carried out widely to measure service quality in many sectors.

Early research done by Parasuraman et al. realized that determinants of Perceived

service quality comprise of 02 elements of expected service and perceived service. This

discrepancy is illustrated by Service Quality Gap. This gap is displayed in A “Gaps”

Model in Service Quality as follows:

Gap 1: This gap appears when there is discrepancy between Customer

Expectations and Management Perceptions of Customer Expectations.

Reasons creating this gap are because the servicing organizations don’t have

sufficient marketing research, or there is inadequate use of marketing

research, lack of interaction between management and customers, or there is

insufficient communication between contact employees and managers.

Gap 2: appears when there is discrepancy between Management

Perceptions of Customer Expectations and Service Quality Specifications.

This gap exists when the company management is not committed to service

quality. Or even when they are committed, but they lack of formal process

to set up the service quality goals, and there is inadequate standardization of

tasks to implement the promises. It also happens the managers don’t have

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the perception of infeasibility to the areas that customer expectations can’t

be met.

Gap 3: occurs when there is differentiation between Service Quality

Specifications and Service Delivery. This gap might be originally caused by

lack of team work, poor employees, poor technology, lack of appropriate

compensation system, role conflict among contact employees or role

ambiguity among contact employees.

Gap 4: happens when there is discrepancy between Service Delivery and

External Communications to Customers. If a Sales person fails to

communicate with customers the service quality properly, it may cause to

create the gap. Poor advertising of the organization service quality also fail

ways of customers approach. Big organizations are likely to commit this

mistake if there are differences between polices and procedures across the

branches and departments.

Gap 5: exists when there is distinction between Customers’ Service

Expectations and Customers’ Service Expectations. Parasuraman used this

gap to measure service quality in his approach.

Initially in their research, Parasuraman et.al. (1985) established a model based on

dimensions of service quality that customers use to assess the service. There are 10

potentially overlapping dimensions: tangibles, reliabilities, responsiveness,

communication, creditability, Security, competence, courtesy, understanding/knowing the

customer and access.25

Tangibles: include the physical evidence of the service: physical facilities,

appearance of personnel, tools or equipment used to provide the service,

physical presentations of the service such as plastic ATM cards or bank

statements.

Reliabilities: involve consistency of performance dependability. It means

that the firm performs the service right the first time. It also means that the

firm honors its promises. Especially it involves first call resolution, and

following up ATM card delivery on designated time to customers.

Responsiveness: concerns the willingness or readiness of employees to

provide service. It involves timeliness of service: emailing forms of

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registration to customers immediately, calling the customer back quickly, or

giving prompt service (cooperating with other personnel quickly to solve

customers problems)

Communication: means keeping customers informed in language they can

understand and listen to them. It may mean that the company has to adjust

its language for different consumers – increasing the level of sophistication

with a well-educated customer and speaking and plainly with a novice. It

involves speaking English with foreign customers, explaining the service

correctly and assuring the consumers that problem will be handled right

away by authorized persons.

Creditability: involves trustworthiness, believability, and honesty. It

involves having the customer’s best interests at heart. Contributing to

credibility includes company name, reputation, and personal characteristic

of contact agents.

Security: is the freedom from danger, risk or doubt. It involves physical

safety while doing transaction at ATM, or financial security (Can I trace

where my credit card was used) and confidentiality ( Are my dealings with

the bank private?)

Competence: means possession of the required skills and knowledge to

perform the service. It involves knowledge and skill of the agents, and

research capabilities of the organization.

Courtesy: involves politeness, respect, consideration, and friendliness of

agents, their sweet voices and helpful attitudes.

Understanding/knowing the customer: involves making the efforts to

understand the customer’s needs. It involves: learning the customer’s

specific requirements, providing individualized attention ( say customer

name while communicating) or recognizing the regular customers

Access: involves approachability and ease of contact. It means: the service

is easily accessible by telephone (lines are not busy and they do not put you

on hold), waiting time to receive service, convenient hours of operation,

convenient location of service facility (location of bank branches, or ATM)

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This model was applicable to any servicing organization in any industry. There

were intensive debate regarding this model, as noted by Babakus and Boller (1992)26, there

is a need to develop industry-specific measures of service quality. This is particularly

important from a managerial perspective (Shemwell and Yavas, 1999)27. Because many of

the questions in existing instruments (notably SERVQUAL batteries) intended to be

applied across situations/services just do not apply in a specific context and force

researchers to drastically alter the items (Babakus and Boller, 1992; Babakus and Mangold,

1992; Carman, 1990; McAlexander et al., 1994). Thus, instead of taking an existing

instrument and trying to fit it to the context, a better approach is to develop an instrument

specifically for the focal service. (Parasuraman et. al., 1988, 1990). Afterwards, the 10

dimensions were reduced to five by:

Tangibles: Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and

communication materials.

Reliability: Ability to perform the promised service dependably and

accurately.

Responsiveness: Willingness to help customers and provide prompt

service.

Assurance: Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to

inspire trust and confidence.

Empathy: Caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers.

In a speech given at University of Miami (2004), Parasuraman revised the

SERVQUAL model items into 21- item scale that are covered in 5 dimensions that

customers can receive from specific servicing company.

Reliability:

1. Providing service as promised

2. Dependability in handling customers’ service problems

3. Performing services right the first time

4. Providing service at promised time

5. Keeping customers informed about when services will be performed

Responsiveness

6. Prompt service to customers

7. Willingness to help customers

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8. Readiness to respond to customers’ request

Assurance

9. Employees who instill confidence in customers

10. Making customers feel safe in their transactions

11. Employees who are consistently courteous

12. Employees who have the knowledge to answer customer questions

Empathy

1 Shanti N.Tiwari, (2009) ‘India Call Center Report’, pp.92 Bird, J. (1998) ‘Dial O for Opportunity’ Marketing, October 29, pp 31-35 ISSN 002536503 Staples, W.J.S, Dalrymple, J.F and Phipps K (2001) ‘Excellence in Call Centers: access is a corporate responsibility’, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on ISO 9000 and TQM, School of Business – HKBU, Paisley Business School, ISBN 962-86107-2-44 Gilmore, A. (2001) ‘Call Center Management: is service quality a priority’, Managing Service Quality, vol. 11, no. 3 pp. 153-1595 Zeithaml, A.Valarie, Bitner, J. Mary (2003) Services Marketing, (3rd edition), New York: McGraw-Hill.6 Quinn J.B., Baruch J. J. and Paquette P.C (1987) ‘Technology in Services’ Scientific American: Vol. 257, No.6 (December), pp.50-58.7 Hung N. Bui and Loan T. Q. Nguyen (2004), Quality management , Ho Chi Minh City- National University Public House.8 Kotler, P., G. Armstrong, J. Saunders and V. Wong (1999): Principle of Marketing, 2nd European Edition, Prentice-Hall, London.9 Bitner, M. J., Booms, B. H., and Mohr, L. A. (1994). Critical Service Encounters: The Employee Viewpoint. Journal of Marketing, p97.10 Cronin, J. J., and Taylor, S. A. (1994). SERVPERF versus SERVQUAL: reconciling performance based and perceptions-minus-expectations measurement of service quality. Journal of Marketing, 58(1), 125–131.11 Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., and Berry, L. L. (1985). A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research. Journal of Marketing, p4812 Roest, H., and Pieters, R. (1997). The Nomological Net of Perceived Service Quality. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 8(4), 336–351.13 The Center for the Study of Social Policy (2007)- “Customer Satisfaction: Improving Quality and Access to Services and Supports in Vulnerable Neighborhoods”- Yearly Research14 Brady, M. K., and Robertson, C. J. (2001). Searching for a consensus on the antecedent role of service quality and satisfaction: An exploratory cross-national study. Journal of Business Research, 51(1), 53–60.15 Oliver, R. L. (1981). Measurement and Evaluation of Satisfaction Processes in Retail Settings. Journal of Retailing, 57(3), 25–48.16 Boulding, W., Kalra, A., Staeling, R., and Zeithaml, V. A. (1993). A Dynamic Process Model of Service Quality: From Expectation to Behavioral Intentions. Journal of Marketing Research, 30(1),

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13. Giving customer individual attention

14. Employees who deal with customers in a caring fashion

15. Having the customers’ best interest at heart

16. Employees who understand the needs of their customers

Tangibles

17. Modern equipment

18. Visually appealing facilities

19. Employees who have a neat, professional appearance

20. Visually appealing materials associated with the service

21. convenient business hours

This 21 item-scale then will be adjusted according to the nature of call center of the

banking industry to build research measurement scales in later chapter.

7–27.17 Yi, Y. J., and La, S. N. (2004). What Influences the Relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Repurchase Intention? Investigating the Effect of Adjusted Expectations and Customer Loyalty. Psychology and Marketing, 21(5), 351–373.18 Jones, M. A., and Suh, J. (2000). Transaction-Specific Satisfaction and Overall Satisfaction: An Empirical Analysis. Journal of Services Marketing, 14(2), 147–15919 Cronin, J. J., and Taylor, S. A. (1992). Measuring Service Quality: A Reexamination and Extension. Journal of Marketing, 56(3), 55–68.20 Pitt, L.F., Watson, R.T, & Kavan, C.B, (1995) “Service Quality: a measure of information systems effectiveness”. MIS Quarterly, Jun.21 Dabholkar, P.A., Thorpe, D.I. and Rentz, J.O. (1996) – “A measure of service quality for retail stores: scale development and validation”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 24, Winter, pp. 3-16.22 Fornell, C., Johnson, M. D., Anderson, E. W., Cha, J., & Bryant, B. E. (1996). The American Customer Satisfaction Index: Nature, purpose, and findings. Journal of Marketing, 60(4), 7–1823 Boulding, W., Kalra, A., Staeling, R., and Zeithaml, V. A. (1993). A Dynamic Process Model of Service Quality: From Expectation to Behavioral Intentions. Journal of Marketing Research, 30(1), 7–27.24 Chen, I., A. Gupta and W. Rom. (1994) ‘AStudy of Price and Quality in Service Operations’ International Journal of Service Industry Management, 5(2), 23-33.25 Parasuraman and Berry (1991) Delivering Service Quality26 Babakus, E., Boller, G.W., 1992. An empirical assessment of the SERVQUAL scale. Journal of Business Research 24 (3), 253–26827 Shemwell, D., Yavas, U., 1999. Measuring service quality in hospitals: scale development and managerial applications. Journal of Marketing-Theory and Practice 7 (3), 65–75

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3.2 Empirical studies

Many empirical studies have been conducted to test SERVQUAL model in specific

industries. In the banking industry, there were many researches done by Yavas et. al.

(1997)28, Bahia and Nantel 2000; Lassar et. al., 2000; Duncan and Elliott, 2002; Jabnoun

and Al-Tamimi, 2002; and Arasli et. al., 2005.

In the call center industry the empirical research for SERVQUAL model appears to

be scarce. Warren et.al. (2002)29 conducted a research to assess a case call center using

SERVQUAL model. They found that as a customer never comes into contact with the

physical appearance of a call center, the area covered by the tangibles criteria does not

apply. Via the telephone, the only dimension of “tangible” contact is customer service

representative’s (CSR) voice, which is extremely important in any encounter with a

customer through telephone. It is not possible for the customer to evaluate the service level

but the customer has to interact with other criteria. Responsiveness, reliability, assurance

and empathy are all transmitted by CSR’s voice and are dependent on CSR’s

communication skills.

In another research, Upal M. (2008)30 applied SERVQUAL approach in evaluating

customer satisfaction in telecommunication industry in Bangladesh. The traditional

SERVQUAL five dimension model was adjusted into four dimension model. These

dimensions are responsiveness, assurance, communication and discipline. The research

showed that call center agents are vital to the success of any call center. Satisfied

employees reinforce customer satisfaction, which in turn reinforced employee satisfaction.

In addition to that, customers’ education in the service delivery process contributes to their

satisfaction. Managerial orientation also is one of the major forces that drive customer

satisfaction.

This research is hoped to be the platform for discussing the issues on the service

quality and customer satisfaction in the call center industry in Vietnam.

28 Yavas U., Bilgin Z. and Shemwell D. J. ,1997, “Service Quality in the Banking Sector in an Emerging Economy: A Consumer Survey”, International Journal of Bank Marketing, vol. 15. no. 6 pp. 217-22329 Warren J S Staples & Prof. John F Dalrymple, Rhonda M Bryar (2002). ‘Assessing Call Center Quality using the SERVQUAL Model’ 30 Upal Mohammed (2008) ‘Telecommunication Service Gap: Call Center Service Quality Perception and Satisfaction’, Communications of the IBIMA, Volume 3, 2008.

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4. Author’s research model and research hypothesis

4.2.1 Author’s research model

From the literature review of previous researches about interrelationship between

service quality and customer satisfaction using SERVQUAL model, it seems that

SERVQUAL approach is the most common method for measuring service quality. The

current research designed a conceptual framework for measuring the service quality of the

call center in ABBANK also using SERVQUAL model as follows:

The model comprises of 5 independent components:

Reliability describes the ability to answer questions to customers

dependably and accurately.

Responsiveness describes the willingness to help customers and provide

prompt answers and helps at first-call attempt.

Assurance describes the knowledge and courtesy of agents and their ability

to inspire trust and confidence to customers through telephone.

Empathy describes caring fashion, individualized attention call center

agents provide customers.

Tangible describes the appearance of telecommunication tools, operation

hours, and call center physical present in their advertisement.

And there is one dependent variable:

Customer satisfaction describes the level of satisfaction that customer is

experiencing with the services delivered by Call Center.

4.2.2 Research hypothesis

Hypothesis must be formulated in order to evaluate the level of satisfaction of the

service provided by call center using above quality dimensions. It is noteworthy that these

dimensions are interrelated and affect significantly on customer satisfaction.

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Reliability

Responsiveness

Assurance

Empathy

Tangibles

Customer satisfaction

Author’s research model

H1

H2

H3

H4

H5

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H1: There is a positive impact of reliability on customer satisfaction, which

means that the more reliable customers feel about call center services, the

more they are satisfied.

H2: There is a positive impact of responsiveness on customer satisfaction,

which means that the more responsive the call center is, the more satisfied

customers feel.

H3: There is a positive impact of assurance on customer satisfaction, which

means that customers are satisfied about call center when they are assured

about the services they receive.

H4: There is a positive impact of empathy on customer satisfaction, which

means that the more empathetic customers feel when interacting with the call

center, the more they are satisfied.

H5: There is a positive impact of tangible dimension on customer

satisfaction, which means that the more visual customers feel about the call

center, the more they are satisfied.

5. Introduction to An Binh Bank & Call Center

5.1 General view of An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank

Name: AN BINH COMMERCIAL JOINT STOCK BANK

Head Office: 170 Hai Ba Trung Street, Ward Da Kao, Dist 1, HCMC

An Binh Bank (ABBANK) is one of the leading commercial joint-stock banks and

among top ten largest commercial banks in terms of charter capital in Vietnam.

After 15 years of development since its establishment in 1993, ABBANK has made major

breakthrough over the last 3 years.

ABBANK’s current charter capital exceeds VND 2,700 billion and its national

network of nearly 70 branches and sub-branches covers 20 cities and provinces as of 2008.

Through its distribution channel, ABBANK provided products and services to thousand of

corporate and ten thousands of consumers. Over the past 2 years, ABBANK’s total assets,

incomes and profit kept growing more than 300%.

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ABBANK currently aims at 3 categories of customers: corporate, individuals and

investors:

Corporate banking: ABBANK provides corporate with all-in financial-banking

products and services such as loans, factoring, guarantee services, import/export financing,

account services, trade services…

Consumer banking: ABBANK provides individuals with fast and complete credit

products as well as flexible savings products:

- Installment loan for house/land purchase or house renovation;

- Installment loan for house/land purchase with tenor up to 30 years

- Life insurance for consumer;

- Installment loan for car purchase; unsecured loan for consumption;

- Installment loan for manufacturing; working capital financing; flexible secured loan for

consumption;

- YOUsaving products: interest rate based on actual deposit days, escalating savings,… and

payment services, internal and external remittance…

Investor banking: ABBANK provides individual and corporate investors with

authorized services as well as investment consultancy. ABBANK particularly provides

corporate investors with services such as financial consulting, consulting and guarantee on

bond issuance, acting as agent of bond issue.

ABBANK’s competitive features are recognized by the provision of flexible,

effective and safe financial solutions with friendly service; focus on customers’ needs and

satisfaction in the development of any business models and organizational structure;

ensuring of excellent and consistent service delivery based on standard technology and

process as well as skilled staffs.

5.2 Introduction to ABBANK call center

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In March 2008, the call center of ABBANK was established with the purpose to

maintain and develop customer care service.

According to the decision 225/QD-HDQT-07, call center was set up in March of

2008 with the following objectives:

- Consulting about banking products and banking services of BA BANK to clients through

telephone, email, fax…

- Responding and handling directly information requested by customers or transferring to

authorised departments.

- Responding and handling directly payment transaction and services or transferring to

authorized departments

- Implementing telemarketing about banking products and services to individual clients.

Call center performance statistics from Mar 2008-Jun 2009

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Endnotes

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