Research Report: ICBC Customer Perception and Satisfaction Analysis

This report delves into the impact of customer perception on satisfaction within the context of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the broader Chinese financial services industry. It begins with an overview of ICBC's operations, market position, and its evolution within China's banking landscape, including a discussion of key competitors. The core of the report focuses on customer research, including the creation of customer personas for both individual and corporate clients, such as a manufacturing company (360 degrees) and a restaurant owner, highlighting their needs and preferences. Customer journey maps are developed to illustrate the customer experience before, during, and after service interactions, identifying pain points and opportunities for improvement. The report also includes a competitor analysis, comparing ICBC with other major Chinese banks, and discusses tools for monitoring customer experience, such as social media monitoring and direct customer feedback. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of technological innovation and customer-centric strategies in driving ICBC's success and growth in the competitive banking sector.

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Introduction
This paper focuses on the research on the impact that perception has on customer
satisfaction when it comes to consumption of goods and services. Research on the
impact that perception has on customer satisfaction is identified and customer
personas are made from the data collected. Customer journey maps are also generated
using the data on customer research on the subject. The paper contains a research on
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. General market research is carried out the
banks operations to help understand the operations of the company and the financial
services industry in China (Oswald& Kleinemeier, 2017). The information on
customer behavior and the impact that perception has on customer satisfaction levels
in this industry is determined and explained.
About Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the financial services
industry in China
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is a Chinese Multinational banking
company and it is the largest bank in world by Total assets. ICBC is also the most
valuable bank in the world by market capitalization since February 2017. The
company was formed in the year 1984 by the year 2015,it had assets worth
US$3.616trilion (Solis, 2015). ICBC opened its first branch outside China in the year
1999 in Luxembourg. It later became the European headquarters of the bank in the
year 2011. The company was made public in the year 2006 and it became the largest
IPO at the time valued at US$21.9 billion. As at the year 2015,ICBC had
approximately 3.5 million corporate customers and more than 170 million individual
customers. The company serves corporate clients from across all sectors and industry

including manufacturing, transportation, power, gas and water as well as construction
industry. The biggest customer is the manufacturing industry followed by
transportation, storage, and telecommunications industry.
China`s banking system underwent significant changes between 1990s and 2000s.
The banking system of China has become more like the banking system in the West.
Before the 1990s banking in China was run exclusively by the state (Pijl, Lokitz&
Solomon, 2016). Over the previous two decades, the narrative has significantly
changed since more private banks are emerging and more of the public owned banks
have become autonomous. Financial and banking services in China are regulated by
the People’s Bank of China. The four biggest banks in China commonly referred to as
the “Big four” are state owned and this shows that the banking industry in China is
still largely controlled by the state. The four biggest state owned commercial banks
include the China Construction Bank (CCB), Bank of China (BOC),The Agricultural
Bank of China(ABC) and the ICBC (Kalbach,2016). The banks were formed through
the introduction of commercial Bank Law in 1995 which helped in commercializing
operations of state owned bank. BOC specializes in foreign exchange transactions and
trade finance. The CCB specializes in medium and long term specialized projects
such as infrastructure an housing projects. ABC specializes in offering financing to
the agricultural sector in China as well as offering wholesale and retail banking
services to farmers.
The policy banks in China banking and finance industry include the Agricultural
Development Bank of China (ADBC), China Development Bank(CDB) and the
Export-Import Bank of China (Chexim) (Diamond,2016). There are also various city
commercial banks that are majorly owned by the local governments. Private investors
also have a minority shareholding in these banks. The other significant players in

China`s banking system is the Trust and Investment Corporations, County Banks,
Credit and Deposit Insurance companies.
Identification and illustration of customer personas
Creating customer personas is very important for a company since it helps the
organization offer tailor made services that help to improve the levels of customer
satisfaction. The use of personas in business has increased in the recent past since
organizations are facing growing demand for more personalized and tailor made
services. Customers expect organizations to understand their tastes and preferences
better and serve to meet their needs as expected. The personas help the organizations
in understanding how customers behave and why they behave in such a manner and
this enables brands to make changes in their operations which help them to improve
customer satisfaction. ICBC serves different segments of the banking sector globally
(Kalbach, 2016). In order to develop customer personas in different industries, it is
important to segment the market of ICBC based on the industry in which a corporate
customer is operating. Customer persona for individual customers is based on the data
on the behavior of individual customers conducted through market research. A
persona of a company operating in the manufacturing industry is created based on the
available primary and secondary data on that company.
Customer persona profile for 361 degrees
361 degrees is a major designer and manufacturer of shoes and sports products in
China. The company was first established in the year 2002 and the brand name,361
degrees was launched in 2004. The brand name represents 360 degrees of a circle plus
an extra one degree which represents the professional functionality on which
innovation and creativity is added (Barnes & Kelleher, 2015).

The characteristics of the company and its needs are analyzed to help ICBC
understand its needs as a customer and hence improve customer satisfaction. 360
degrees may get services and products such as long term loans for expansion and
investment, short term capital, cash deposit services. ICBC can also offer corporate
mobile banking, corporate telephone banking, and corporate internet services (Wright
& Snook, 2017). Given that 360 degree has outlets in many countries across Asia and
Europe, Internet banking services for the company can be tailor made to help
customers from different countries pay for goods using a common paying method
which is simple and convenient. 360 degree also needs corporate wealth management
services. A company operating in different countries and especially through outlets
that are not owned by the company needs to manage its wealth effectively and
efficiently. ICBC can manage the manufacturing plants of 360 degrees to help cater
ICBC should create a special profile for the company to help cater for all the
corporate banking needs of 360 degrees which is a manufacturing company. ICBC
can also receive deposits on behalf of 360 degrees (Information Resources
Management Association. 2018). The deposits can be in form of payments made by
different clients or the sale of assets.
The following is a diagram showing the 360 degrees profile
Persona profile for William Sam
Customer name: William Sam
Who is he?
 30 year old entrepreneur
 He has been in restaurant
business for the last 9
years
How he finds us?
 Referral by friends
 Advertisement by the
company
 Through our website
Pain points
 The business is privately
owned
 It has seven employees
 He needs deposit services

 Location of business is
Shanghai
 He needs short term
business loan to expand
his business
What he wants to know from
us?
 The interest rates charged
on loans
 Conditions for getting
loans
 Loan repayment policy
 Interest on deposits
What he does not want
 The customer does not
want high interest rates on
loans
Buying behavior of the
customer
 The customer deposits
cash regularly
 Most of the transactions
by the customer are online
 He takes huge risks in his
business
 Has a saving culture
Persona profile for a company employee
Name of customer:
Who is he?
 47 year old marketing
manager
 Middle income level
 He has a variety of
personal investments
How he finds us
 Advertisement
 Positive free publicity
 Referral by other
customers
 Visiting the companies
websites
pain points
 The business is privately
owned
 Salary account
 He needs deposit services
Customer preferences and
personality
 Likes tailor made
banking and finance products
 Uses mobile banking
a for most of his transactions
 Makes regular
transactions involving deposits
and withdrawals
What the customer wants
 High quality services
 Internet banking products
that offers customer
convenience
Why he is our customers
 Low interest on loans
 Wide range of
personalized banking
services
 Loan terms depending on
the customer history with
the company.

Customer experience journey maps
Journey map for 360 degrees
 Poor communication with customer -Improvement in communication -effective
 Poor service delivery -Improvement in service delivery communi
 Unfavorably high interest rates on loans -Reduction in interest rates cation
 Irrelevant products -Tailor made products that favour -Good
Needs of the customer services
- high customer satisfaction levels
Customer Journey map for William Sam
Before the service
experience
During the service
experience
After the service experience

 Inappropriate personal deposits -improvement in loan terms -High quality customer
 High business loan rates -Reduction in interest rates service
 Low rates on deposits -More favorable rates on deposits -Increased customer
 Complex internet transaction -easier online transactions satisfaction levels
 Difficulty in assessing credit - easy for clients to get credit -More referrals by the
 High hidden bank costs -reduction in costs of transactions customer
Before the service
experience
During the service
experience
After the customer
experience

Competitor analysis
The Chinese banking industry is very competitive. One of the major competitors of
ICBC is the Bank of China limited. The bank is also government owned and it offers
the same products as ICBC.
One of the metrics that is used to compare the two banks is the customer support
services. ICBC has better customer support because it has online customer support
system where the customers can be able to interact with the company and problems
that they face are addressed (Cardoso, Fromm, Nickel, Satzger, Studer& Weinhardt,
2015). The other metric is the problem resolution time. ICBC takes less time to solve
problems that customers present to the company. This is because the company has an
elaborate online automatic customer support system. ICBC also has a large number of
staff working in the customer care department.
Comparison with China construction Bank Limited; China Construction Bank
Limited offers banking services mainly to the businesses in the construction industry.
The customer support system of CCB is efficient and effective and it enables the
company to become competitive and to offer specialized customer care services to
different customers. This helps in improving the level of customer satisfaction.
The time taken to solve customer problems is also a crucial determinant of customer
satisfaction. Both competitors have focused on coming up with the right systems and
programs to help improve customer satisfaction. This has been mainly by designing
online customer self service websites where customers can be able to solve their
problems without having to consult the company.

Monitoring tools
Social media monitoring is one of the tools that can be used to monitor customer
experience by ICBC. The company should establish social media accounts through
which the company can get feedback regarding the experiences of customers when
dealing with the company.
Another tool is seeking for feedback directly from customers and avoid over-reliance
on social media. Customers can be requested to fill feedback forms after they visit the
bank or through the companies` website.
Analysis of company information regarding customers is also an important tool for
monitoring as well as the rinse and repeat technique.
Summary and conclusion
From the analysis of the results of the study, it is clear that ICBC offers its customers
high quality products and services compared to its customers. This has promoted the
companies` growth beyond China and ensured that ICBC becomes the largest
company in the world in terms of assets. ICBC has relied on technological innovation
to improve customer satisfaction which is at the core of the success of any company
in the banking industry. ICBC offers corporate customers mobile and internet banking
and it was one of the first companies to offer these product. ICBC has been able to
focus on satisfying customers in the corporate world by making it easy for them to
open accounts and obtain big loans at highly competitive interest rates. The paper also

discusses the profiles of different categories of customers, both individual and
corporate customers and draws journey maps for both.
References
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