CX Zone View at Digilog Branch Seosomun of Shinhan Bank. (Photo: Shinhan Bank)

Chairman Cho Yong-byoung stressed the need for a new customer experience through digital evolution from a customer perspective in his online speech in honor of Shinhan Financial Group’s 20th anniversary in early September.

Shinhan Bank, the flagship affiliate of Shinhan Financial Group, is carrying out a new experiment that combines state-of-the-art digital technology with warm sensibility.

A case in point is Digilog Branches, which recently opened at the Seosomun Branch, the Shinhan PWM Mokdong Center in Mokdong, the Hanyang University Branch in Seoul and at the Namdong Central Financial Center in Incheon.

“For customers, we need digital capabilities and human touches for customers,” said Jin Ok-dong, president of Shinhan Bank. “Digilog Branch is the result of this mandate.”

Shinhan Bank has designed optimized financial roadmaps for customers by analyzing customers over the past decade through the Digital Innovation Group.

All counseling services at Digilog Branch at the Seosomun Branch which are frequently visited by salaried workers, are being run on a 100 percent reservation basis.

Digilog Branch feels quite different from existing banks when customers see its entrance. It maximizes openness by utilizing glass as its outer wall and employees do not carry out financial work but guide customers about the use of digital devices and digital financial services.

Digilog Branch is made of three main spaces - the Concierge Desk for customer guidance, the Customer Experience Zone (CX Zone) and Consulting Lounge for strengthening customer relationships. Customers can use simple services on their own at the Concierge Desk.

Counseling services are offered on a reservation basis. During waiting time, customers can receive information on recommended financial products that suit them at the CX Zone and sign up for them through Shinhan’s SOL App.

Shinhan Bank also paid great attention to the layout of Digilog Branch. In the Seosomun Branch CX Zone, contents such as ordinary finance for ordinary person which provides customized financial products for 98 customer groups by genders, age groups and generations.

What is more, customers are able to use the Shinhan Financial Type Indicator (SFTI) service which analyzes financial behaviors by 16 financial preferences.

In order to promote the locality of Digilog Branch, Black and White Photo Studio in Our Neighborhood shows photos of old stores near Digilog Branch by creating a digital photo album.

Digilog Branch also holds the Knowledge Warehouse Seminar every week, where top experts from Shinhan Bank give lectures on real estate, financial investment and exchange rate forecasts.

Digilog Branch is characterized by different spaces by the main services of the branches. Digilog Branch at the Namdong Central Financial Center has an expert consulting zone for corporate customers what Digilog Branch at the Shinhan PWM Mokdong Center has a counseling room for individual customers.

Digital devices for college students are popular at Digilog Branch at Hanyang University Branch.

“Digilog Branch is a human space designed to be a unique and extraordinary bank,” a Shinhan Bank official said. “Digilog Branch will be Shinhan Bank’s competitiveness that differentiates itself from big tech companies.”

In the meantime, Shinhan Bank announced on Oct. 15 that it signed a strategic business agreement with Galaxy Corporation to strengthen its content competitiveness.

Galaxy Corporation is the first company to attempt to utilize entertainment sub-characters, reinterpreting existing celebrities to create various sub-characters and stories to provide contents to the general public.

Companies are using a new type of digital marketing and promotion channel as a means of expansion by utilizing sub-characters.

The two companies will cooperate by strengthening the competitiveness of advertising and marketing content using sub-character entertainment and setting up a collaborative model for upgrading payment systems in metaverse platforms, expanding the use of the SOL character and PR contents and carrying out sub-character marketing.

The signing of the business agreement was held with Shinhan Capital’s strategic investment. It amounted to 5 billion won.

Shinhan Capital is in charge of managing One Shinhan Connect New Technology Investment Association No. 1, a strategic investment fund created by Shinhan Financial Group to strengthen its core digital capabilities.