Alfalah Information

Alfalah Information from website: Bank Alfalah was incorporated on June 21st, 1997 as a public limited company under the Companies Ordinance 1984. Its banking operations commenced from November 1sy, 1997 and is engaged in commercial banking and related services as defined in the Banking companies ordinance 1962. The Bank is currently operating through 195 branches in 74 cities with the registered office in Karachi. Since its inception, the management of the bank has implemented strategies and policies to carve out a distinct position for the bank in the market place. Strengthened by the backing of the Abu Dhabi Group and driven by the strategic goals set out by its board of management, the Bank has invested in revolutionary technology to have an extensive range of products and services. This facilitates their commitment to a culture of innovation and seeks out synergies with clients and service providers to ensure uninterrupted services to its customers. One of the best qualities of the Bank Alfalah has been that they perceive the requirements of their customers and match them with their quality products and service solutions. And in the past five years they have emerged as one of the foremost financial institutions in the region. From the bank: Q. how many ways in which the customers can interact with the bank? Via the telephone. People can inquire about how much balance is present in their account and the bank takes great care in making sure that information of such sensitive nature doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Customers can also contact the bank through email but most of the customers inquiry happens via telephone. Q. What kind of services do they offer? The services offered by the bank can be categorized into two groups. Customer services and Banking Products. In the former service, should the customer have any kind of inquiry about their account balance or the bank and its services, they would contact the customer services officer, who would facilitate the customer. Under Banking Products, the following services are being offered to customers: car financing, credit cards, home financing and loans, deposits and transactions (money in, money out) and Warid sales. One of the most popular services being availed by the customers is the car financing but due to the recent government action of raising the mark-up rate from 9.5% to 14.5%, there has been a decrease in the number of people availing this facility. Q. Employee hiring and training process.

When the bank wishes to hire some new employees, they adverse through print media and they post the job vacancies on their website (www.bankalfalah.com/careers.com). The interested candidates send their resumes to the respective area office, where they are carefully scrutinized and the approved resumes are sent to the Human Resource Department in Lahore for approval. The selected candidates are called in for a written exam and at times they may even be asked to sit for 2-3 papers before they are called in for an interview. When the candidate passes the interview, they are hired for a three month interm period in which they are scrutinized and then their position is finalized in the Alfalah family. Q. Steps involved in (a) getting a credit card (b) getting car financing (a) 1. The customer has to fill out an Application Form and submit a copy of their NIC, a bank statement of the previous 6 months transactions and income proof (salary slips etc). 2. The bank carefully scrutinizes the application, funds and references that have been proved and try to determine whether the individual is capable of making the payments that will be required of them. 3. The personal information i.e. house address, is verified. On verification the individual is cleared. 4. The individual is issued the credit card (b) 1. The customer comes in and fills out an Application Form and submits a copy of their NIC along with some Income proof 2. The application is sent to the car finance department and after scrutiny of the application, the application is approved. 3. The customer has to make a fairly substantial down payment, either cash or cheque. 4. The customer and the bank work together to draft out a payment schedule which is an official document that differs from person to person. 5. Follow up to make sure that the payments are being made. Q. how would you say alfalah strives to differentiate itself from the rest of the banks? Alfalah prides itself on providing the best and paying special attention of their customer relations. The prime advantage of Alfalah bank is that because of the backing they have, they are not only better equipped but they also spend a lot of finances on their ‘face’ and are focused on expanding. They are also have an to up to date banking style and the employees are taught that the customer is always first. What I think we should do:

From what I understood from the assignment desc (after reading it like the 15th time) we gotta pick one moment of truth that is imp for the customer and the bank itself. I think we can focus on the differences in service processes (compare the services of both banks when they are giving credit cards and car financing) and the level/quality of customer services especially when the customer comes to them with some problem. When I went to Alfalah yesterday, there was this one women who had a problem and like the minute she spoke a bit loudly, the general banking manager was over there ‘fore you could snap your fingers. And then he talked the whole thing over with her (basic problem being that a lot of money hadn’t been transferred into her account and she needed it then. Long story short, the manager made arrangements for her funds to be transferred into her account on Saturday (or by Saturday not sure which it was. I was sorta trying not to overhear :P) and im pretty sure that there is no transfer of funds over Saturday. Another thing bout Alfalah services, they have very friendly staff and they tend to recognize your face if you come in often enough in any one office. Eg my dads got an account as well in the F-10 branch and he vists…well…a fair number of times. And the regular employees now recognize him, including the general banking manager and local business development manager. So it’s a very ‘hands on’ kinda thing they got going on in Alfalah. Outline of the assignment: One page intro to the assignment and the banks (max one page) and then explain about the banks (should be max 3 pages) and then bout one page conclusion on which is better.