Best practices in prepaid solutions:
partnering for success
Applying the corporate prepaid solution strategy that led the industry in North America, Citi drives global expansion. By Drew Kese, managing director, global head of prepaid services, at Citi
Through the tumult in the global economy over the past two years, some things have not changed. One case in point is the power of prepaid solutions. To do more with less, forward-thinking organisations, both public and private, are employing prepaid to replace inefficient payment methods, including paper cheques. The benefits are clear – enhanced return on investment, greater efficiency and an improved user experience, with immediate impact on the bottom line.
While acceptance of prepaid continues to surge, the critical mass of competing electronic payment offerings, coupled with the widespread emergence of new applications, puts the burden on prepaid solution providers to identify points of differentiation to optimize results for the client as well as the recipient.
Having proven itself a leader in the highly competitive, ever-evolving North American market, Citi is applying its expertise and experience to new markets to expand globally. Citi Prepaid Services’ proven methodology has helped launch successful programmes for more than 1,200 leading private and public sector clients, including over half of the Fortune 100 and government agencies at every level. “The widespread benefits a prepaid programme provides, almost instantaneously upon launch, have resulted in leading companies across all sectors coming to rely on Citi Prepaid to cut their payment costs and improve the speed and experience of their payments,” explains Drew Kese, global product head, Citi Prepaid Services. “These programmes provide a win-win payment solution for both organisations and their recipients, who can be employees, beneficiaries, sales professionals, distributors or customers.”
Citi Prepaid designs and powers unique payment solutions based on a winning formula of four “C’s”: client focus, customization, cardholder experience and communication.
Client focus
Citi Prepaid remains the prepaid leader through a highly specialized method of solution design. Citi Prepaid starts by identifying the client’s need and, in turn, shapes a unique product solution that addresses the client’s current payment challenges, industry nuances, operational goals and desired recipient experience. This focused approach has positioned Citi Prepaid as the prepaid card expert across nearly every industry segment. Citi Prepaid’s continual focus on both client and recipient ensures that they receive a product that alleviates expressed “pain points” and promotes positive returns. In turn, Citi Prepaid gleans the knowledge to stay ahead of both a maturing competitive landscape and increasingly sophisticated consumers.
Customized solutions
An early entrant in the prepaid industry in 1997, Citi Prepaid became the pre-eminent prepaid card provider by allowing clients’ needs to shape solutions. Listening to clients helped Citi Prepaid pave the way for precise solution design, new product applications and an unmatched prepaid global footprint – and to arm clients with the tools to optimize their business performance. According to Kese, “Prepaid is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Every client faces a distinct payment challenge that is a product of their business environment.” Citi Prepaid’s consultative approach uncovers meaningful learnings during key stages of the programme lifecycle, pre- and post-implementation, to empower clients with targeted and customized product solutions.
Cardholder experience
Citi Prepaid’s clients are just as concerned with the recipient experience as they are with operational efficiencies; Citi Prepaid has designed solutions to provide cardholders with convenience, security, support and control over their payments. Of course, this satisfaction often warms cardholder goodwill, translating into increased sales, decreased attrition, enhanced loyalty, reduced turnover or boosted revenue, depending on a programme’s application.
Communication
The best time to communicate with a cardholder is when he or she is receiving a payment. Smart organizational leaders realize that aside from cutting costs and streamlining operations they must seize every opportunity to extend their brand, increase their impressions and achieve their goals through more effective communications. Citi Prepaid’s solutions take advantage of customized branded communications – including client-branded card collateral, cardholder website and promotional marketing elements – that can help support business objectives, including improved education, increased sales, reduced costs, expanded market share, retention and referrals. Expanded communication channels give clients direct access to their cardholder base and greater transparency to programme metrics.
Driving global growth
Building on its success in North America, Citi Prepaid expanded into new markets in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Latin America in 2009. The one true global prepaid card provider plans to accelerate this expansion. To further this, Citi has developed an implementation process that can launch with minimal client requirements in about 30 business days, leveraging local resources and technology already in place to build efficient, streamlined processes.
At the heart of this expansion is a world-class team dedicated to the performance, optimization and growth of client programmes – drawing upon best practices and learning gleaned from a portfolio of over 1,200 global clients. Citi’s methodology for ensuring clients’ success in these regions is based on “DRIVE”, or determine, review, innovate, validate and enhance.
Determine
Listening carefully to determine the true needs of a market is important. Citi Prepaid’s experts assess the pain points for organizations and specifically the payment process they are looking to improve. Whether they are looking to replace cheques, replace vouchers, offer rebates, disburse funds to unbanked recipients or find new efficiencies, Citi Prepaid develops solutions that can drive benefits across operations, marketing, sales or treasury. What are the nuances of local industry? Operational standards, recipient behaviour, payment frequency and the regulatory environment are all factors that can influence the design and implementation of the prepaid product. What is the desired recipient experience? In many aspects, this is the most important question. Clients that wish to motivate behaviour or create an impression are driven to implement a payment vehicle capable of prompting specific action as it sustains operations.
Review
With a deep understanding of the nuances of a market’s needs, the Citi Prepaid team reviews its current solutions to match offerings to needs – an honest and critical assessment.
Innovate
Of course, where current solutions don’t quite fit, Citi Prepaid has a proven track record of innovation, from developing more dependable delivery methods to designing solutions that will be more likely to be adopted by large populations that may be unfamiliar with cards and banking solutions.
Validate
Citi Prepaid’s proprietary client and cardholder survey and segmenting applications ensure that its tailored approach to solution optimization continues long after implementation. Feedback obtained through these evaluations is used to develop product improvements and enhancements for both client and cardholder, ultimately shaping Citi Prepaid’s offerings to stay ahead in the market. Most importantly, our cardholder surveys help our clients gather feedback straight from their constituents to help evaluate programme performance.
Enhance
Citi Prepaid places the utmost value on the cardholder experience, as it is directly tied to clients’ success. Citi Prepaid stays engaged to enhance continuously the security, convenience and control of its prepaid programmes and tools. To support this, Citi Prepaid is continually reinvesting in features and functionality that will promote a premier user experience. At the heart of these enhancements is technology that provides immediate payment delivery, flexible fund and on-demand channels to view account information and provide complete control fund control.
This DRIVE, with its laser-sharp focus on the needs of clients, will continue to help Citi Prepaid and clients alike stay one step ahead in the evolving global competitive landscape. “If the global financial crisis has taught us anything, it is that our practice of listening to and then delivering on client needs will be successful in any environment,” says Kese. “Our solutions have been battle-tested with a wide array of businesses, from consumer and industrial companies to local and national governments; we’re working with leading organizations to help them not just focus on survival, but to help them achieve sustainable success."