Bank of America 2001 Annual Report Download - page 17

NO CUSTOMER WANTS a complicated banking
experience. That is why many of our quality and
productivity activities focus on making it easier
to do business with Bank of America.
Our recent efforts to reduce the number
of toll-free phone numbers are a good example
of our focus on “ease of doing business.” When
Bank of America inventoried its toll-free tele-
phone numbers, it found 3,915 separate numbers
for customers to call. Eliminating extra numbers
is an obvious way to simplify the customer’s
experience with us. Through this effort, 2,155
toll-free numbers were being disconnected at
year’s end.
When Bank of America reaches its
24-month goal of having just one toll-free
number per customer language, the volume of
misdirected calls due to customers dialing the
wrong call center or business unit will be reduced
by 59%. Annual cost savings are estimated at
$5.8 million.
15
capture the significant growth of multicultural demographics
concentrated in these areas.
Our delivery network is perhaps our greatest strategic
advantage today. It provides superior convenience
for our customers and greater opportunities to
deepen customer relationships.
Through 13,113 ATMs, 4,251 banking centers
and 2.9 million active online users, our customers
touch Bank of America more than 3 billion times
a year, creating 116 opportunities a second to
deepen relationships.
In 2001, despite a very challenging economic
environment, these customer contacts enabled
us to increase total loans and leases for the con-
sumer segment 14% over the previous year, while
deposits rose 1.7%. For the same period, total
revenue for Consumer Banking increased 7.2%.
Consumer Strategy. Three words describe
our strategy: Attract. Retain. Deepen. We are contin-
uing to attract new customers, retaining more of
those whose business we have earned and deepen-
ing our relationships as customers pass milestones
in their lives that create new financial needs.
Customers will be more highly satisfied with
us, and therefore more likely to retain and deepen
their relationships, if they have a good initial experience with
the bank, if they use more of our products and services earlier
and if they move to the right service level faster.
That requires us to listen carefully to our customers,
finding out as much as we can about their needs and learning
what it takes not just to satisfy their requirements, but to
delight them, so that they give us top ratings on
customer satisfaction surveys.
Research shows that “highly satisfied” cus-
tomers are more likely to stay with us longer, more
likely to buy more products and services from us,
more likely to recommend us to their friends and
colleagues – more likely, in other words, to enable
us to increase both market share and profitability.
Attract. Ours is already one of America’s
most powerful financial services brands, promising
overwhelming convenience across location, chan-
nel, transacting capability, products and services.
But in today’s increasingly competitive environ-
ment, these advantages can’t be taken for granted.
Our customers have more than 16 million
checking accounts, and checking products attract
more new customers than any other product.
The ability of checking products to draw new
customers makes these accounts a valuable
engine of relationship growth for several reasons.
The first is customer interaction. Opening a new
checking account involves spending time with cus-
tomers and creates the opportunity to turn a person walking in
the door into a multi-product customer from the start. Second,
because these customers rely on us for continuous service,
We have a tremendous franchise and customer base. Our job now is to grow net
income by deepening relationships through our entire range of products and services.
Doing so represents the largest net-income growth opportunity in the corporation.
STEADY GROWTH IN
ONLINE BANKING
CUSTOMERS WHO
SAY THEY ARE
“HIGHLY SATISFIED”
Dec
1999 Dec 2000 Dec 2001
42% 43%
49%
40%
30%
50%
Dec
1998 Dec 1999 Dec 2001
Dec
2000
1
0
2
3
Source: Model Banking Center Gallup Results
(Number of active consumer
users in millions)
Getting Customers
the Right
Phone Number