United Commercial Bank and El Banco

Andrew SanFelippo

OSCM 4015

1/26/12

United Commercial Bank and El Banco

1. In terms of the service delivery system, UCB and El Banco have distinctive features. Both find that people, both customers and employees play an important role in services. UCB has adjusted its banking options to fit the needs and tendencies of its Chinese-American base of customers so that they feel satisfied once they place their money in the bank. El Banco's approach is to create a Hispanic atmosphere with its layout and through its employees. They have included Spanish music, newspapers, and color scheme to help customers feel comfortable. The tellers also speak fluent Spanish to give customers even more of that at home feeling. Both banks have a similar operating strategy. They both focus on attaining customers from the respective ethnic customer bases and they attempt to retain them through the ways in which they conduct their service. The service concept of each bank is unique because they each adjust their operations in order to fit the needs of their customer base. UCB uses an unusually high proportion of savings accounts because Chinese-Americans like to save their money in banks instead of brokerage firms. El Banco is a fee based service because it is a basic financial service desired by Hispanics. Lastly, each bank does a really good job of reaching out and serving their specific target market. Evidence that they do such a good job in this area shows up in UCB winning the safest and best customers in the Chinese-American community, and El Banco attaining customers early and keeping them coming back for more banking services.

2. For a bank an obvious service qualifier would be a safe and secure building to hold people's money in. Customers will not leave their money in a building that they feel is not secure. I feel another qualifier would be the basic financial services that all other banks offer. No one will come to the bank if it lacks basic financial services they could get elsewhere. The service winners for UCB would be their various services they offer specifically to their Chinese-American base. That aspect will draw people of Chinese-American background more so than a bank that doesn't offer such a high proportion of savings accounts. Also UCB offers a full-featured trade finance department because their customer base is usually involved in importing goods from China. El Banco's service winners would their layout and the atmosphere they create. Customers in a foreign country feel at home in El Banco because of a focus on creating a comfortable environment. The case did not talk a lot about were each bank falls short, but a service loser could be losing customers that fall outside of the specific ethnicities that the banks are targeting.

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