Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) stands as the financial flagship company of the esteemed Yuchengco Group of Companies (YGC) in the Philippines. With a rich history and reputation, RCBC is one of the country's largest private domestic banks in terms of assets and has garnered multiple accolades for its trailblazing digital banking services.

Amidst the global challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, RCBC demonstrated its resilience and adaptability. The bank embraced a holistic digital transformation journey, and Salesforce emerged as a key enabler of this metamorphosis. By leveraging Salesforce's cutting-edge technologies, RCBC automated and digitized its internal processes, transformed marketing strategies, and reimagined customer engagement practices.

Holistic Digital Transformation Amidst Pandemic Challenges: 

The emergence of the pandemic served as a powerful impetus for RCBC to accelerate its ongoing digital initiatives. To ensure seamless client service amidst strict lockdown measures, RCBC adopted Salesforce as a central component of its transformation journey. Leveraging the platform's versatile capabilities, RCBC revolutionized its internal processes, marketing campaigns, and overall customer experience.

SME Banking Group: 

Redefining Customer Experience through Digitization: At the heart of RCBC's transformation was the SME Banking Group (SMEBG), driven by an unwavering commitment to delivering unparalleled customer experiences. Embracing a forward-thinking digitization strategy, SMEBG streamlined manual processes and eliminated duplication of effort through automated workflows. The ultimate goal of becoming the best SME bank fueled the optimization of processes, leading to remarkable improvements in turnaround times.

The SME Transformed project, initiated well before the pandemic's onset, involved the integration of changes in processes, spearheading technology innovations, and ensuring alignment among all stakeholders. Consequently, RCBC made the strategic decision to leverage Sales Cloud, empowering the bank to automate lending processes end-to-end. In parallel, a modern space planning method, anchored on a plug-and-play concept, equipped all relationship managers with laptops and VPN access. This enhanced setup facilitated efficient tracking of sales productivity and balanced work distribution, thanks to intuitive dashboards provided to team leaders.

"We realized that we needed to change internally; that was the only way for us to ultimately offer a digital experience to our clients. By proactively undertaking this transformation project, we became one step ahead in responding to the pandemic. Our relationship managers were equipped to work from home, and team leaders had increased visibility into their activities."

Kristina Davila, Head of Business Development Division of SMEBG.

With the successful completion of the first phase of transformation, SMEBG experienced an estimated 50 percent simplification of its manual end-to-end processes. Moreover, the integration between Sales Cloud and third-party bureaus resulted in an auto-credit investigation (CI) capability, slashing the CI turnaround time from one day to a remarkable four hours. As a result, the total turnaround time was significantly reduced, enabling faster and more efficient customer service.

Data-Driven Customer Engagement: 

Personalization as the Key: RCBC recognized the significance of personalized marketing strategies in navigating the challenges posed by the pandemic. Unlike past practices of casting a wide net, the bank prioritized customization to cater to individual customer needs. Salesforce's Marketing Cloud emerged as the solution to harness customer transaction history and demographics, enabling the establishment of behavioral patterns and insights. These valuable insights served as the foundation for creating personalized campaigns and customer journeys, making each interaction more relevant and meaningful.

"Salesforce helps us understand our customers and communicate with them more personally, which gives us a clear advantage. This is especially important in The Philippines, where there is so much competition in banking."

The Head of the Digital Consumer Engagement Department, Alexis Villafuerte.

To fully realize their goals, RCBC recognized the need to bid farewell to manual processes and embrace technology-driven marketing. The Data Science Group played a pivotal role in this decision, with multiple team members well-versed in Salesforce's Marketing Cloud, understanding its vast potential. With internal training and collaboration with the marketing team, the Data Science Group optimized customer journeys, empowered by Salesforce's Trailhead, to enhance their digital marketing capabilities significantly.

Arnel de Guzman, VP of Campaigns and Analytics in the Data Science Group, expressed the transformative power of Salesforce: "For us to go digital, we had to change our ways and apply new tools. The great thing about Salesforce is that it allows us to do so much on one platform."

Intelligent Automation for Enhanced Customer Engagement: 

Within a remarkably short period, RCBC made impressive strides in customer engagement by capitalizing on Salesforce's Marketing Cloud. The bank's ability to harness customer data allowed for the creation of customized and targeted journeys that engaged customers at every touchpoint. Moreover, real-time visibility into customer interactions empowered the bank to prioritize and focus on potential leads while optimizing marketing spend.

"Now, we have visibility when customers have opened our email or have connected with us inside a branch. This allows us to prioritize and work on other leads we have yet to reach or make follow-through offers to those who have yet to respond. This helps us make the most of our time and optimize our marketing spend."

Geleen Gutierrez, Head of the Smart Customer Acquisition Department at RCBC.

RCBC's retail banking also witnessed tremendous growth, driven by a strategic focus on converting new-to-bank customers and enhancing the financial needs of existing clients through upsell and cross-sell campaigns. In 2020 alone, campaigns for term deposits contributed to ₱4.5 billion in incremental deposits, while recent campaigns for checking accounts led to an additional ₱4.4 billion in deposits.

Furthermore, the bank achieved remarkable efficiency in marketing operations, with a substantial 94% decrease in the total cost per conversion. Meanwhile, the total volume of card transactions surged by an impressive 89%.

Targeted Digital Engagement: 

Precision in Advertising: With Salesforce's Marketing Cloud, RCBC significantly refined its digital advertising approach. Collaborating with the Data Science Group, RCBC successfully identified potential customers yet to enroll in online banking. Leveraging Advertising Studio, the bank directly targeted this segment via social media, effectively engaging them with relevant offerings and promotions.

RCBC also embraced data-driven advertising, tailoring ad creatives to customers' interests and factors such as new-to-bank or existing clients. The bank's ability to track ad performance provided valuable insights into customer behavior and the impact of marketing efforts. Monitoring key metrics like click-through rates (CTR) and cost-per-click (CPC) offered early indications of campaign success, contributing to savings of ₱773,000 from 2020 campaigns alone.

Conclusion: 

Salesforce has undoubtedly played a pivotal role in RCBC's digital transformation journey, empowering the bank to deliver exceptional customer experiences and achieve unprecedented operational efficiencies. By embracing a holistic approach to digitization, RCBC has strengthened its position as a frontrunner in the Philippine banking landscape.

As the financial industry continues its rapid shift towards digitalization, RCBC remains committed to leveraging Salesforce's capabilities to enhance customer interactions and marketing precision. With Salesforce at its core, RCBC is poised to unlock new frontiers in customer engagement, charting a path towards greater innovation and sustainable growth.

Ready to embark on your own digital transformation journey and achieve remarkable efficiency and customer experiences like RCBC? Contact VMO today to explore how Salesforce can help your organization drive growth, streamline processes, and deliver personalized customer engagement. Don't wait; take the first step towards becoming a trailblazer in your industry. Reach out to VMO now and unlock the full potential of digital innovation for your business!