Middle Eastern Bank

C: I understand that the decline is in the number of customers, so I would like to divide this number into two parts – one: the current customers and two: the new customers. Is there any segment where we are seeing a drop?

I: The drop is in the new customer segment.

C: Further, as you mentioned that the bank is active in UAE and from what I understand UAE population has a large share of immigrants. I would like to divide the population into two major segments i.e., the natives and the immigrants? Does that sound fine? And if yes, is there any segment within which the client is seeing a decline?

I: The segmentation looks fine. The client is seeing a decline in both the segments, but the immigrant part is seeing a higher dip. Let’s look one by one at both.

C: Ok. So analysing the Immigrant segment let me divide these into two parts internal and external. Internal would entail the whole customer journey and external would cover the issues related to Governmental regulations, legal issues associated with banking for immigrants, or other factors. Is there any particular segment you would like me to explore first?

I: There are no issues from the external factors. Let us explore the internal factors that could affect the bank.

C: Great. So, in terms of the internal reason, I would like to break this down into 4 parts and would like to benchmark those with the other foreign banks that are gaining customers. Does that sound fine?

I: Yes, please go ahead.

C: In internal factors I would like to see how the client performs against the competitors on these four metrics: Awareness, Accessibility, Affordability, Likeability. Is there any specific bucket in which the client is not performing at par with the competitors?

I: So, in terms of Awareness, Affordability the client is exactly doing the same activities as the competitors. In terms of likeability, the products/services are same for all the banks for no issues with that as well. Can you elaborate a bit on accessibility?

C: Got it. So, in terms of accessibility, I would like to see how accessible are services for the immigrant population. Now from what I understand these immigrants might already have accounts in their home country and if those banks are also active in UAE, they would not be willing to change them and do the whole lot of paperwork that would give them access to our client if we do not offer anything different from those MNC banks.  

I: Yes, that is exactly the reason for the drop. Can you also take a look at what is happening with the natives? Assume no external factors are affecting that segment as well.

C: Okay, in terms of internal I would again divide that into the Awareness, Accessibility, Affordability, Likeability – from the previous analysis we know that there is no issue with the Awareness and affordability part. For the natives, there will not be any issue with the accessibility part as well. In terms of likeability do we see any difference?

I: Can you please take a guess as to what could be the reasons affecting likeability?

C: Ok So, in terms of likeability, I assume that the new generation of the nation is more inclined to open accounts with the MNC banks because of the brand image that they have.

I: Yes, that sounds good, we can close the case.