The MoneyMatch Spotlight series continues! This time, we’ll be looking at one of the most important departments supporting our Corporate division—B2B Account Management. More commonly known as Customer Relationship Management or CRM, this team is led by Shaun Jared Soosay. Graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting, Shaun began his career with FedEx in Special Services before joining MoneyMatch. He started as a Account Manager himself before climbing up the ladder to be the Head of the department in the span of just over 3 years! Let’s find out how his team approached relationship management and customer retention in the B2B space.
Introduction to B2B Account Management
Hi Shaun, can you provide an overview of your role as the Head of B2B Account Management at MoneyMatch?
The B2B Account Management team currently comprises 6 Account Managers stationed at our central office. Along with an additional Account Manager each in our Johor and Penang offices. As the Head of B2B Account Management, my responsibility is to lead the team in retaining MoneyMatch’s business customers.
While the B2B Acquisition (Corporate Sales) team diligently scouts for new customers, our team focuses on providing these customers with a continued sense of value, satisfaction, and engagement with our organization. This commitment translates to enhanced customer retention and sustainable business growth.
Building strong customer relationships is crucial for business success. How does the department you lead maintain positive and long-lasting relationships with our business customers?
In today’s highly competitive business landscape, we encounter big players such as established banks. This makes maintaining unwavering customer loyalty a challenge. However, we choose to focus on delivering exceptional service rather than allowing this reality to deter us. A strategy is to pair each customer with an Account Manager who is well-versed in their industry and fluent in their preferred communication language.
This personalized touch builds a strong rapport, ensuring that our customers feel understood and catered to. As a business user, you can confidently approach us to request rate matching or better offerings that align precisely with your needs. Beyond this, we also pride ourselves on delivering value-added benefits. We go the extra mile to resolve any challenges our customers might encounter along the way.
Effective CRM Strategy & Measurement
In your experience, what are the key components of an effective customer relationship management strategy? How do they align with the goals and objectives of our organization?
Teamwork is the core of our success. As a team, we each handle different sets of customers, which means we encounter various challenges and opportunities. To maximize our effectiveness, we openly share the problems we face and the solutions we discover, learning from one another’s experiences. This collaborative environment ensures that we collectively deliver the best possible service.
Perseverance is another key component. We understand that in this line of work, there may be moments when we feel discouraged, especially if we lose a customer to a competitor. However, we continue to push forward, fully committed to providing top-notch service to every customer we serve. At the heart of our mission is to retain customers for the long term. By working cohesively as a team and staying persistent in the face of challenges, we foster strong customer loyalty. Ultimately, this unwavering dedication contributes to the long-term growth and success of our department and the entire company.
How do you measure and track satisfaction levels of our business users? How do you use this information to improve our products, services, and customer experience?
We have a specific target to physically meet and catch up with around 8 to 10 customers weekly. We categorize these customers into top, middle, and lower tiers based on their transaction volume. For our valuable top-tier group, we ensure to meet them around 6 times annually. During these meetings, we actively seek feedback from our customers, which we then carefully evaluate and present to the management.
If the feedback involves other departments, we share it to collaboratively address any areas of improvement. This constructive process takes place weekly and has proven to be beneficial in enhancing our services and overall customer experience. For instance, based on the feedback received, we were able to make valuable adjustments to our margins by working with our Operations team. Additionally, we invested in enhancing our platforms, like Pulse. Making them more user-friendly and efficient for our customers with features such as bulk payment.
B2B Customer Communication & Retention
Business customers in the Malaysian SME segment may have different preferences when it comes to communication. How do you tailor our communication strategies to effectively engage and stay connected with our SME clients?
Essentially, our communication strategy centers on understanding each customer’s portfolio to cater to their specific needs effectively. We recognize that customers often prefer positive responses, so when faced with challenges, we find alternative solutions rather than outright refusals. For instance, we may propose higher volume transactions to fulfill their requests for better rates.
When customers transition to us from the B2B Acquisition team, we may not be familiar with their preferences or characteristics. To establish a connection, we reach out via call and a dedicated WhatsApp group together with associates from our Operations and Communications teams. This open line of communication continues daily, as customers frequently seek information like current exchange rates. Ensuring that our customers feel supported and well-informed remains our top priority throughout their journey with us.
Can you share examples of customer retention initiatives that have been implemented? How have these initiatives contributed to long-term relationships and customer satisfaction?
Currently, our primary focus is aimed at reaching out to approximately 1,500 companies within our customer pool. Many of these companies have not yet conducted any transactions, so we engage with them to understand the reasons behind this. During this project, we have gathered valuable feedback from the companies.
Some mentioned that they simply forgot about our services. This prompts us to arrange meetings to rekindle our relationship and explore opportunities for significant volumes, which in turn, can lead to increased profits. In other cases, we learned that certain companies had closed down. Another critical feedback we received involved instances where companies were rejected by our Compliance department. In response, we have suggested our Compliance team adopt a more flexible approach in handling these types of businesses. This customer-centric adjustment is not only aimed at driving long-term profitability but also at building a robust customer satisfaction system.
How do you encourage cross-selling opportunities within our customer base? For example, offering our Corporate Insurance or SME Financing products to existing remittance users. What tactics do you employ to leverage these opportunities for business growth?
We follow a structured approach during our customer meetings, ensuring that we cover specific checkpoints to better understand their needs. For us to cross-sell our insurance product, we inquire about their existing insurance coverage, the insurance provider they are currently with, and the expiration date of their policy. Simultaneously, we leverage the opportunity by informing them about our insurance or financing offerings that could be beneficial to their business.
Additionally, we introduce them to our referral program, where they have the chance to earn up to RM500 for each successful business referral they make. This tactic has proven effective in engaging customers and encouraging them to join our offerings. The comprehensive checkpoints we employ have been thoughtfully prepared to ensure that we cover all essential aspects to provide personalized and effective solutions to each customer’s requirements.