President Wi Sung-ho of Shinhan Card won the 2014 Financial Man Award in the credit sector of the financial industry this year in recognition of his achievements in managing the credit card company, including the development of The Code 9.
“The Code 9” is a customer insight model that Shinhan Card developed by analyzing its cardholders by age and gender, which resulted in dividing its customers into nine models based on their habits and preference for using their credit cards in their everyday lives.
As soon as he took over the credit company as CEO, he felt that big data can be used to divide up the 22 million cardholders by the way they use the cards and their preferences, so that the company can improve its services to customers by providing them with smarter and creative solutions. He felt the existing Customer Relations Management (CRM) only managed to analyze past records of the customers, while the Big Data management intended to help the customers to make their lives more creative in consumption and open up their future lives for more choices.
New credit cards created with Code 9 data, “23.5 and “S-Line,” numbered more than 10 million as of the end of October and in December.
The company plans to introduce a variety of programs to its cardholders under the Code 9 marketing strategy. One of the programs includes providing a free lesson to college students on Big Data, as instructed by Wi to hold customer satisfaction clinics to listen to what customers have to say on the use of the credit cards, such as their preferences and the products available to them.
Wi wanted the employees to create a new chapter where they can communicate with the customers and listen to their experiences before practicing the management ideal, the “Compassionate Finance,” as called for by the top management of the Shinhan Financial Group, the chairman, Han Dong-woo himself. They wanted to maximize the values of the customers and society through the management ideal of the financial group.
The credit card company also has a program called “Hearing to Learn the Mind,” which is used to inform the executives of the company to listen to the customer complaints as soon as they are made on the program so that the measures can be taken to solve the complaints as soon as possible.
CEO Wi is satisfied that the complaints have been reduced by around 30 percent since the program was kicked off and he plans to expand the program around the country to make its social contribution more diverse.
The “Beautiful People” Brand is one of the outstanding brands in the program to make social contributions by the company. By the end of November, the company opened around 380 libraries at children centers and hospitals around the country with the name of “Beautiful People Library.” The cardholders can participate in the program by donating books to the libraries.
Wi has been pointing out the stable management of risk the most important management goals for next year, along with boosting the number of check cards. He said since he became CEO, he has had a very good result from his management strategy on check cards with the amount of the money settled with the cards rising to 14.2 trillion won at the end of the third quarter this year, up around 2.9 trillion won year-on-year.
“We knew that the customers would use more check cards than credit cards in the days to come and took actions timely to take advantage of the changing pattern,” said Wi looking in regards to the company’s increased earnings from its check card operation.
The company’s success has been such that it has become a leading credit card firm in Korea winning various awards and prizes, 10 altogether in the first half alone.
Brand Stick named Shinhan Card the top financial company in the first half. It was the first time a card company won over banks and insurance firms.
