Barclays India adds loyalty program

Barclays Global Retail and Commercial Bank (GRCB) India has launched a new loyalty program for its Retail Liabilities Division with help from ElectraCard Services.

The loyalty program is designed to help Barclays increase customer registration for and usage of its multiple service channels, including mobile banking, SMS alerts, debit cards, ATM and online banking. The program is a first for Barclays GRCB India, which has not attempted loyalty programs before. ElectraCard was chosen to manage the solution because it has industry experience with loyalty and rewards programs.

“Loyalty programs encourage our target customers to use electronic channels, as the customer receives reward points,” wrote Ramanathan Gopalakrishnan, interim managing director and COO, Barclays GRCB, India, in an e-mail to DMNews. “These electronic channels help customers to fulfill their banking needs and transactions on channels without the need to visit our branches.”

Gopalakrishnan added that the idea behind the new loyalty program is to reach out to as many customers as possible through Barclay's electronic channels. Rewarding customers for using the channels is expected to help helping Barclays GRCB India increase channel transactions.

The program launched in early March, and, after one and a half months, Gopalakrishnan reports seeing an upward trend in e-channel usage.

Barclays started offering commercial banking services in India in late 2006. Retail banking was introduced in May 2007. Barclays also offers Barclaycard, a range of branded credit cards, in India. It serves more than 830,000 clients in the nation and focuses on the mass-affluent and upwardly mobile population found in metro areas.