With more than three-quarters of Qatar’s population come from overseas, Doha Bank is focusing on expatriate customers, says Parveen Bansal.

With energy needs expanding worldwide and oil prices remaining high, the Qatari economy is booming. Under the prudent leadership of His Highness Sheikh Hamad Ben Khalifa Al Thani, the state’s development strategy is focusing on diversification of the economy away from oil, toward extensive gas reserves and industrial expansion. Oil and natural gas revenues enable Qatar to have a per capita income not far below the leading industrial countries in western Europe.

Additionally, Qatar is hosting the 2006 Asian Games and has embarked upon developing the country as a leading destination for tourists and sporting events. To this end, the infrastructure sector is witnessing unprecedented growth. As a natural ripple effect, the banking sector (made up of 14 banks) is expecting a high growth trend over the next few years, as the strong economy and job prospects continue to attract an influx of all segments of people, from semi-skilled to high-end professionals. Eighty per cent of the 0.8 million population of Qatar are expatriates.

It comes as no surprise then that the expatriate segment is of high interest to Qatar’s Doha Bank. “We need to have our product and services matching the expectations of all segments – the expats as well as the Qatari nationals,” says Salah Jaidah, Doha’s general manager.

However, Mr Jaidah adds that as expatriates are probably familiar with the foreign banks, attracting them to a local bank is a challenge. He remains optimistic, saying: “We can differentiate our offering of services provided through the most extensive ATM network in Qatar and our branch network.”

Doha Bank’s products and services, such as the welcome package, are particularly popular among the professional segments as it enables them to get easy access to vehicle finance and personal finance to help them establish themselves in the country. To keep up the bank’s good credit record, the bank has an efficient assessment process to help its customers balance their various financial needs and repayment capacity.

The bank is also hoping to cash in by offering support (project finance and working capital management) and advisory services for foreigners looking to invest in joint ventures in the country.

Bilingual banking

When questioned about the language barrier for foreign nationals, Mr Jaidah points out that the language of business at Doha Bank is both English andArabic. “Every employee of the bank is required to be able to speak both.”

More broadly, the bank is pursuing a customer-centric service strategy, to provide growth by building loyalty. Another area of focus is the high-net-worth segment. The bank is using its relationship with these customers to continually adjust and change pricing and fee structures to make the products and services more attractive. “We are moving toward relationship banking,” says Mr Jaidah. “Our strategy focuses on meeting the needs of various customer segments, while offering them the widest range of products and quality services in a convenient manner.”

The bank continues to develop its customer relationship management (CRM) systems to ensure its products and services are differentiated for each segment. “We are in the process of strengthening our CRM initiative further by using advanced data-mining and statistical techniques to help us further refine our product packaging and bundling to satisfy the targeted customer segment, and further strengthen the bank’s services.” According to Mr Jaidah: “If you cater for the mass without addressing the needs of specific segments, you lose out. So you need to address the specific segments in order to satisfy the mass.”

Closing product gaps

Using its CRM system to identify various customer segments, Doha Bank was able to introduce more than 15 products and services, closing gaps in its products portfolio. Mr Jaidah notes: “While we believe 20% of the bank’s customers are profitable, we are not ignoring the 80%, because we are aware of the possibility of change in the customer profiles.”

According to Doha Bank, focusing on the customer means serving them as they go through the main events of their lives. With this in mind, the bank launched a car loan promotion that had the lowest interest rates in the country, making the car more affordable for more customers. With the lowest interest rate and longest repayment period, the bank’s highly innovative housing loan also had a major impact in the market.

Aware of niche market needs, the bank launched ‘Q’s pack’, a customised package of products and service focused on serving the employees of government and semi-government companies.

Albeit a little delayed for the highly modernised state, the bank is the first to introduce a banking and financial planning service that focuses on Qatari women. Known as Al Assriya, the service offers women-only banking suites within larger branches staffed by female bankers. Confidentiality and personal guidance are ensured.

As well as using customer-centric technology to help align its initiatives with the needs of the customer, the bank follows an impressive distribution strategy. Through its 62 ATMs (expected to grow to 85 by the end of 2004), the biggest ATM network in Qatar, the bank offers a wide range of self-service functions, including account verification, bill payment and forex services so customers can withdraw Qatari riyals as well as US dollars. The bank has also invested about 1.2m Qatari riyals ($329,579) into providing mobile ATMs for exhibition centres or distant camps.

Although Doha Bank is the only one in the country with a bilingual web site – for corporate communications, product and service information – it has only just begun preparations to launch an internet banking service. On the other hand, it was the first bank in Qatar to launch a short messaging service (SMS) mobile phone banking facility. Mr Jaidah explains: “While there are 275,000 mobile users, there are only 10,000 internet connections.”

Currently customers are able to conduct over 25 different functions using the SMS banking service – this includes balance checks, account transfers and event-based notifications. “We have also launched mobile-based online stock alerts – this service is called Infovest.” Customers can also use the SMS service and other channels to settle utility bills from anywhere in the world.

Catering for HNWIs

With the aim of maximising customer convenience, the bank is investing in increasing the number of branches and aims to improve the customer experience. “We are standardising the look and feel of our branches and enhancing the branch ambience to create a positive environment for the customer,” saysMr Jaidah.

More specifically, for high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), the bank is pioneering a branch lounge that allows customers to explore and trade online on most major markets, including the Indian and European stock markets, with competitive commissions.

The bank is continually investing in improving internal efficiency by using technology and process simplification. It has invested in a workflow system to improve the flow of electronic documents between the branch network and its back office to minimise turnaround time.

Similarly, the bank has recently upgraded its 24/7 customer contact centres. It has set up a state-of-the-art phone banking system that supports both pulse and tone telephones, to offer a full range of banking services. Relationship staff in the branch and call centres are continuously evaluated to ensure that they remain motivated and meet the highest customer service standards.

“We have laid the foundation for a state-of-the-art e-security environment to enable the introduction of a series of secure and reliable e-service,” says Mr Jaidah, noting the successful pilot test of an integrated ATM camera installation. “In order to strengthen the technology governance, technology policies and procedures have been redefined in line with international Cobit standards.” The bank is also preparing for BS7799 certification for international standard security compliance.

Market repositioning

Since July 2001 the bank has undergone significant re-engineering, based on the board’s recommendations and vision. “The changes were made in order to reposition the bank more competitively in the marketplace and to improve and modernise the banking services,” says Mr Jaidah.

Having successfully completed the modernisation, the bank was recognised for its outstanding efforts when it was awarded The Banker’s Bank of the Year in Qatar for 2003.

Mr Jaidah highlights the important role of the Qatari Central Bank in guiding the sector to achieve international operating standards: “The Central Bank is aware of the international market and is helping us overcome anychallenges and issues.”

Doha Bank is clearly innovative in its approach to the Qatari retail market and hopes to capitalise on this further by entering strategic alliances with partners in the five other Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states.

PLEASE ENTER YOUR DETAILS TO WATCH THIS VIDEO

All fields are mandatory

The Banker is a service from the Financial Times. The Financial Times Ltd takes your privacy seriously.

Choose how you want us to contact you.

Invites and Offers from The Banker

Receive exclusive personalised event invitations, carefully curated offers and promotions from The Banker



For more information about how we use your data, please refer to our privacy and cookie policies.

Terms and conditions

Join our community

The Banker on Twitter