It was the 8th of November, when the Form Three’s of YAC
organized a visit to a Hong Leong Bank Branch in Subang. The visit started at
11am in the morning and the friendly branch manager, Ms. Foo, greeted us warmly.
As we entered the bank, I took a quick scan around the surrounding and noticed
that security was very tight around the bank as there were quite an amount of
security cameras as well as a security guard. There were also a number of people
queuing up in the respective counters.
Ms. Foo then brought us to the upper level of the bank where we had a
briefing on what was in store for us that day. The upper level was mainly where
meetings were held and bank documents were handled. The first on our itinerary
was to observe the transactions made in the bank as well as to see what happens
in the bank. I was very pleased to actually see the tellers being really
friendly and patient to all the customers. One poster that caught all our eyes
was a new product being introduced by Hong Leong Bank. It was the MTV credit
card that offers discounts at the many places we all like to hang out. We were
actually looking at the poster for a very long time and wishing we were all 18
and above! While observing, we took down a few questions to ask Ms. Foo. After
15 minutes or so, we went up to get our questions answered.
Let the questioning begin! First we talked about the remittance counter
that we saw downstairs. According to Ms. Foo, the counter is set up to handle
foreign currency. We talked a bit more on the ATM machines as well and one new
thing that I never knew was that with a new system which is called MEPS, we can
go to any ATM machines in the country, for example a Maybank ATM and withdraw
money from our account in Hong Leong! The only catch is that, we will be charged
RM1 for the service. When we were all downstairs, we took note of a few
brochures as well stating about online and SMS banking, which sounded very
interesting to me. Ms. Foo mentioned that online banking is now being encouraged
by most of the banks here and with online banking everything can be down except
for withdrawing hard cold cash. SMS banking on the other hand can only be used
to transfer money from your own account and to check your balance. I found that
part very interesting, as it will actually save a lot of time and is very
efficient.
Apart from that, we even talked about what will actually happen if there
was a robbery. If ever there was a robbery, all staff will follow the guidelines
and everything should go according to plan instead of just panicking! The money
with the tellers is also limited for safety reasons. These tellers will have to
take money from the cash officer in charge and after receiving a certain amount
from the public they will need to pass it back to the cash officer again. When
we were observing the different counters, we all took note of one counter, which
said Priority Banking. This counter according to Ms. Foo is for chosen customers
only as well as the senior citizens. These chosen customers will have to fulfill
certain criterias such as having a deposit in the bank, a unit trust and a loan
less than a million. This counter is set up actually for the convenience of the
public so that they wouldn’t have to queue up too long. I find this counter
very useful and this will definitely attract more customers! During the whole
briefing, we were all wondering on how does a bank earn its income? Ms. Foo then
mentioned that the bank actually earns some of its income from all the interest
rates the bank charges to all loans.
After a quick break, we went downstairs to have a look at the ATM machine
as well as the insides of a bank. It was all very interesting and I was
completely taken aback by the money-counting machine! It is usually 99% correct
and the speed of the machine was just so amazing! When we went back up, we had
another talk by Ms. Foo on what makes a bank different from the other banks. All
banks have the same products but the only difference between each bank is the
good customer service. Hong Leong Bank on the other hand has a programme for
customers called the I-CARE programme.
Ms. Foo passed a few booklets around concerning the programme. I-CARE means- I
Create A Rewarding Experience for all customers! They also have this customer
service training twice a month as well as a service quality index. Hong Leong
Bank has also done a survey on what do customers want and I must agree to most
of the customers who wants fast and efficient services.
This
branch has also SBJ values, which they came up with all by themselves! S stands
for superior customer intimacy, which means they believe in providing their
customers tiptop services. B stands for Best Work Attitudes And Practises that
actually means having positive attitudes to towards their work lastly J means
Joyous Team Working Environment, the last value actually speaks for itself! To
me I really think this SBJ values really differentiate HLBB from the other
banks!
At
the end of it all, we had a talk on wealth management by a wealth management
consultant. Wealth management is an organized financial planning process to
achieve our financial goals and objectives, which is to be financially
independent or in other words having financial freedom. It all comes down to
saving! Financial independence begins with the habits of saving and investing on
a regular basis. Time is our friend in wealth management, the longer we save the
more we get to enjoy in the future! I guess I better start saving really soon!
At the end of our whole visit, we passed a gift to Ms. Foo as a token of appreciation. It was a very cool experience being inside a bank and about me being a banker, well, I started considering the job again! Thank you again Ms. Foo and all her friendly staff!!
Article
written
by Jennifer Guan, Nov 14, 2003.