Case Grading Schema (NA) Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Grading Schema (NA) - Case Study Example Thus, while the other departments provided the bank with operational challenges, the HR department was the most affected. This study seeks to delve into the growth of the BoE, with a focus on how the growth has impacted on its effective delivery of services to the customers, as well as how the challenges experienced in the HR department has impacted on the bank’s performance. Summary When it first opened its doors in the year 2001, the Bank of Excellence (BoE) became the center of attraction to many. Despite the fact that it started as a microfinance institution, its growth and transformation to a fully fledged bank took only 6 years, and by the year 2007, it was granted a fully fledged bank status. The bank now prides itself for having 8 branches in different regions, with a growing profit margin every single year, except in the 2012 financial year, when the profit of the bank declined significantly. Several questions have been raised, regarding how the microfinance instituti on registered such a rapid growth, to attain a bank status within 6 years of its operation. First, the innovative product strategy was applied by BoE when it first opened its doors, to give the customers a range of new financial products that were not offered by other financial institutions. BoE specialized in offering low-interest loans to the customers, which were processed fast and the terms and conditions attached were not stringent. This made it easy for the many customers to apply and qualify for loans, which they would not have otherwise been granted by other financial institutions, due to the strict requirements that hindered their application for loans, such as high security and collateral requirements (Falcone, 2009). BoE introduced the system of giving loans to the customers based on movable and other less secured assets, which allowed many applicants to qualify for the loans. Excellent customer service is the other strategy that the microfinance institution had applied t o attract many customers. The microfinance institution ensured that customers were served as quickly as possible, while also ensuring that they got good customer service from its employees. This made the customers feel valued by the financial institution, and thus kept increasing by the day. The microfinance institution had also ensured that its employees are well motivated and enabled, to deliver the best services to the customer, an aspect that helped to build good customer relationship and consequently customer loyalty to the microfinance. There was a direct and cordial relationship between the employees and the management of the microfinance, which made the employees feel appreciated. There was also a reward system for the employees, who were rewarded with bonuses and even promotion, once they performed well and even came up with innovative ideas for the microfinance to implement and benefit the business, the employees and the customers. By the end of its first year of operation , the microfinance had managed to attract over 200, 000 regular customers. This growth trend continued until the microfinance attained a customer base of over one million, and thus applied to be registered as a fully fledged Bank. Analysis The attainment of the bank status was a privilege to the microfinance institution, since it would now benefit more from the central Bank lending, as opposed to when it was just microfinance.