Sales, Social and Tech

Two of Singapore top banks are in a vanity battle of who has the most number of Facebook likes that ironically have little or no effect on their bottom line. Yet, OCBC Singapore and DBS Bank decided it is worth fight over at Marketing Interactive. Wrote Rezwana Manjur of Marketing Interactive , "OCBC Bank’s claim that it is the leading social media bank in Singapore has sparked retaliation from arch rival DBS.... ... In reaction to OCBC’s claims, Edna Koh, senior vice president, group strategic marketing & communications, DBS Bank has refuted the claims and told Marketing that in 2010, DBS was the first Asian bank in Singapore to adopt a regional corporate Facebook page which now has over 590,000 fans across its 12 Facebook pages established for different audiences...." If you were to ask either OCBC or DBS Bank how much of these likes or fans are actually account holders of the respective bank, you are more likely to get a blank check than a definite answer. ...

We know money doesn't grow on trees. Most of the time, however, we feel that our money expenditure is as fast as the falling leaves on a windy autumn day. (Ok, Singapore only has two seasons so it should be trees falling on a heavy downpour.. I digress.) Many financial experts advise that you shouldn't let money dictate what you can or cannot do. As such, you should take the proactive step to track your money, inflow and outflow. You can find many tech tools to help you manage your money, but that can be hassle at times. How many of you have downloaded apps to manage your bills but stop after your third entry? OCBC introduced their Monthly Insights tool which comes free with their Online Internet Banking Service for personal banking accounts. OCBC Money Insights works with its iPhone and iPad mobile banking applications and integrates with the custoemrs' savings, current and credit accounts. This means that it helps save OCBC bank customers the hassle...

The Editor-in-Chief of CardsNow! & PassAgeNow! magazines. Fredy Yiap, has found himself "blacklisted" by Bank Negara, Malaysia's Central Bank, because of cards which HSBC, MBF/Ambank and Eon (now Hong Leong Bank) call centers failed to "cancelled". HSBC even upgraded Fredy's card status even when he called to cancel that particular card. Wrote Fredy on his Facebook Profile, "Never have I so pissed with cardians!! I am now in the blacklist of Bank Negara because of these banks:- 1) HSBC (Amount owed : RM 0.05) They issued me a Visa Platinum in 2008/2009, I didn't like it and cancelled it. Few months later, they upgraded my "cancelled" Visa Platinum to Signature card, and during that process, left a rounding up 5 cents in the account. The customer service said it might take weeks to months to reverse that big deal RM 0.05 OUT! 2) MBf/Ambank (Amount owed : RM 50.00) When the 1st World card was out in Malaysia, MBf's President J...

The headline of the article at Asiaone.com highlighted the Jim Pasqurell, DBS managing director of compliance services and security, has resigned due to health reasons.  Wrote Asiaone.com , "DBS said its managing director of compliance services and security, Jim Pasqurell, has tendered his resignation due to health issues but added that ongoing investigations will not be hampered by his departure. Mr Pasqurell, 62, will remain with the bank until end-May to ensure a smooth transition process." According to LinkedIn , Mr Pasqurell joined DBS in November 2010. Prior to joining DBS, Mr Pasqurell was with CitiGroup for 10 years 10 months.  The resignation came in an awkward time when DBS, Asia's safest bank, saw unauthorised withdrawal from its customers' ATM account for the second time  recently .   You can draw your own conclusions about the real reason for Mr Pasqurell's sudden resignation.

If a customer spotted an error on your website and gave the brand a suggestion to improve the site, you would expect the brand to reply with a thank you. Citibank SG social media strategy, however, is to delete the post, fearing that it could cause negative repercussion if other customers were to know of this technical error on their site. This happened with a Facebook user found that the Citibank website does not render statements well on Macs. Instead, the administrator, deleted the post instead and told the user that the case has been resolved. Seriously, if Citibank isn't confident that its brand name can withstand one small complain about rendering issues about bank statements on their website on a Mac machine, it has wasted the millions of dollars spend on advertising and promoting its brand.  Plus, this is a suggestion, a thank you would have generated more social media goodwill.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Westpac Bank is going on a delete rampage on its Facebook Page after the bank decided to retrench staff and increase interest rates. Wrote The Sydney Morning Herald, Negative comments posted on Westpac's Facebook page over the past week have been deleted within minutes, which has prompted accusations of a ''propaganda campaign'' by the bank. But Westpac has defended the practice, claiming that ''partisan views'' could deter customers from researching its financial products on social media sites. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/westpac-in-facebook-crackdown-20120211-1sylt.html#ixzz1mDuRUczE Deleting posts only generate more coverage as it creates the perception that the bank has something to hide. One Facebook user wrote on Westpac Bank 's wall, Pity to see Westpac censoring public comments on its public media sites - as a Westpac shareholder, I believe the bank m...