How Česká Spořitelna Optimized Its Branch Network

The Client

Traditional Bank With Hunger for Innovation

Česká spořitelna, a member of the Erste Group, is the largest bank in the Czech Republic as measured by the number of clients and one of the oldest, with a 190-year history. Česká spořitelna’s tagline “We are closer to you” personifies the fact that it has the biggest branch network on the market as well as the highest density of ATMs and POSs. The strengths of the bank–its tradition and size–are supported by three pillars of strategy: digital transformation, getting even closer to clients, and expanding and tailoring offers for every client.

The Challenge

Are We Really Closer to Our Clients?

The current financial market is influenced by newly established banks, new digital technologies, mainly cloud and mobile, and changing customer behavior. Even with the biggest branch network and the highest density of ATMs and POSs, the question for Česká spořitelna is “Are we really closer to each of our customers and prospects?” as our tagline suggests and promises. To answer this question positively, Česká spořitelna has to achieve the following:

• Accessibility and availability of the service at times expected by customers

• Maximum coverage of the population, meeting its market potential

• Optimal coverage of the market with low level of overlaps

• Reconfiguration of the current network without risks of customer churn and decrease in customer experience

• The chosen format of the sale unit is tailored to the needs and potential of the location and its catchment area

• Overall validation in keeping the company tagline “We are closer to you”

  
  

“Even after using it for months, we are still thrilled with how our comprehensive business data can be visualized in an easy-to-understand way.”

- Jan Drobny, Branch Network Optimization at Česká spořitelna

The Solution

Insights for Getting Closer to Customers

Česká spořitelna’s data is processed and stored in multiple systems and includes tremendous amounts of data about branch visits, ATM operations, and payments via credit and debit cards.

Managers of network branches were missing easy ways to combine the data from different silos, analyze it based on particular business needs, and display it in an easy-to-understand form.

CleverMaps combined all internal data with external demographic data such as purchase power or migration within regions and provided network management departments with the following insights:

• Real catchment areas of each branch

• Overlaps with both internal and external competition

• Overview of activities of clients in different times and regions

• The market potential for each branch

• Real market share

• Market penetration of key products

  
  

CleverMaps brought new metrics, both for each branch and for common and custom administrative divisions of the market.

The Result

Data-Driven Business Decisions

Using a combination of selected internal and external data, CleverMaps delivered a complex overview of the banking market. At the same time, CleverMaps brought detailed insight into customer behavior and needs through geolocation and analysis of hundreds of millions of card transactions and customer visits to branches.

By combining the information with external sociodemographic data, the real market coverage, potential, and share were revealed and the appropriate format and strategy for each branch was selected to correspond with the local conditions.