FNB Customer Experience Analysis

This assignment analyzes First National Bank (FNB)'s online customer experience, focusing on its strengths and weaknesses. It examines how FNB leverages social media to gather customer feedback and build relationships. The analysis emphasizes the importance of customer satisfaction, loyalty, and the role of positive reviews in shaping perceptions of FNB's online platform.

banking on social media
Management of social media strategy
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Management of social media strategy 1
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Subject: Management Communication
Introduction
FNB (First National Bank) is one of the oldest bank in South Africa founded in 1838. Jacques
Celliers is the CEO of FNB bank who deals with the financial services. In 1998, The First Rand
Group was established by the merger of First National Bank, Rand Merchant Bank and
Momentum Insurance & Asset Management (Mazinter, 2015). FNB is one of the “big four”
banks which include Ned bank, Standard bank and Absa. In 1998, FNB became a wholly-owned
subsidiary of FirstRand FNB. On 30 June 1999, FirstRand formally merged its banking interest rate
into a single entity to form FirstRand Bank. FNB, Wes Bank and RMB now trade as divisions of
FirstRand Bank (FNB, 2018).
About 30% of the online customers were using FNB online products that proved to be an increased
volume transaction. .FNB CEO used to discuss various topics and complaints of the customers online
which created a positive impact on the minds of customers and boosted them towards online transaction.
Moreover, according to the case study given(case study page 5), FNB conclude 1.5 million South
Africans on twitter, 1.8 million on LinkedIn and 5.3 million people on Facebook which is a huge attempt
to engage its customers. The company conducted survey where 78% of the people in the survey stated
that CEO involvement in social media helps in improved communication where 71% of the respondents
said it enhanced brand image and 64% of them responded that it created transparency. Thus, due to
extended digital media, the company grew from one to many in very few months. And was successfully
able to attract more and more customers.
According to Strydom (page 5 of case study), the benefits FNB obtains from social media
strategy is building a strong relationships between customers and potential customers. The media
included engagement in various sectors like marketing (awareness), sales (acquiring), support
(education, results, advice and complaints) and transacting (Internet commerce and loyalty)
which booted up the customers. The additional benefits included customer’s lifestyle choices and
interests. According to its customers, 78% of them responded FNB as a platform for better

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communication, 71% of them responded like it leads to improved brand image and 64% of them
responded like it provide a clear transparency which is again a pros for the company. FNB
follows the core value” How can we help you?” which represent bank as trustworthy and
likeable and these media strategy add as an additional benefit for the customers and improved its
overall business in terms of growth and success.
FNB is only engaged on Facebook, LinkedIn and twitter but it should target themselves on more
social networking channels and platforms. In 2012, standard bank group accused FNB of
misleading advertising where FNB involved itself on twitter many times and adopted the rule of
transparency. FNB always focused on the core value” How can we help you?” which was
misleaded due to poor customers experience and lack of personal contact but then Jordaan
improved it with vocal assistance and improved brand communication. Developing and
implementing a social media and maintaining its brand image is a very difficult task because it
requires both the transparency as well as customer’s satisfaction. FNB used several social media
strategy to engage its customers and they all successfully worked out.
There are several factors that an organization must focus on in order to boost themselves on
social media because established a good image on social media is a very difficult task because it
seeks customers satisfaction which is again a big task to deal with. (Kaplan and Heinlein, 2010).
Some of the important factors that an organization should focus when they are using social
media platform in order to communicate with their customers and improve their experience are
shown below.
Generate your content strategy over and over
As Rich Brooks writes, “A keyword analysis and social media demographics will only take you
so far. You’ll need to evolve your content strategy over time, based on what’s going on in your
industry, with your audience and in the world around you.” Which says that an organization must
revise its content strategy again and again and be flexible enough about what and when to post
(Hemley, July 16).
Respond to inquiries honestly

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In order to rectify a situation, one must have to reveal the truth information that has not been yet
revealed to others because transparency plays a major role when you are using social media
platform to work on (Social media marketing, 2018). If a customer have a query, do not
manipulate them and respond to it honestly and make sure the customer is satisfied with the
solutions provided because honesty works as a boon in an organization.
Work on customer experience
Customer experience is building a relationship between customer and an organization through
awareness, purchase, services and discovery (Mazinter, 2015). Organization who have
successfully implemented customer experience strategy achieves high customers satisfaction
rates which ultimately reduces customers churns and improves revenues (MacDonald, 20th
December, 2017). Customers becomes loyal only when they are satisfied and study shows that if
you want your customers to be loyal towards you, you must invest in with their experiences.
Capture customers’ feedback on social media immediately
Customers are the king and whenever a customer post a feedback on social media, an
organization should respond to it within a prompt (Noe, 2003) basically an organization should
deliver a wow experience to its valuable customers. More frequently the customers feedback are
responded, more the customers are satisfied. It will also create a positive impact on the minds of
customers when their feedback are taken into a quick considerations (Kissmetrics, 2018).
Thus, it can be concluded that FNB has attracted huge number of customers on its online
platform where maximum of them are satisfied but then it should work more on its online
platform because it will build a strong bonding between end user and the customer. Satisfying
the customers and then getting their feedback positively is a great task. Customers feedback and
their reviews play a major role when you are working on an online platform because it helps new
customers to create an image in their mind.

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References
FNB, 2018, ‘About Us’, viewed on 10th January, 2018. Available at
https://www.fnb.co.za/about-fnb/about-us.html
Hemley D, July 16, 2012, ‘Tips for Managing a Social Media Community’, viewed on 10th
January, 2018. Available on: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-community-
management/
Kaplan, A.M. and Heinlein, M., 2010. Users of the world, unite! The challenges and
opportunities of Social Media. Business horizons, 53(1), pp.59-68.
Kissmetrics, 2018, ‘10 ways to make customers fall for your businesses’, viewed on 10th January
2018. Available on: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/true-love-with-customers/
MacDonald S, 2017,’ 7 Ways to Create a Great Customer Experience Strategy’, viewed on 10th
January, 2018. Available on: https://www.superoffice.com/blog/customer-experience-strategy/
Mazinter, L, Kleyn, N, Goldman, M & Lindsey-Renton, J 2015, ‘Banking on Social Media’, Ivey
ID: 9B14A070, Ivey Publishing, London, Canada (case study).
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2003. Gaining a competitive
advantage. Irwin: McGraw-Hill.
Social media marketing, 2018, ‘4 steps to enhancing the customer experience with social media’,
viewed on 10th January, 2018. Available at: https://marketingland.com/4-steps-enhancing-
customer-experience-social-media-226632

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