Li Rui had a busy Spring Festival Holiday this year. Being a customer service representative working in ICBC E-Banking Center, Li Rui spent several days on duty during the long holiday providing heartfelt services through phone to customers across the country dialing 95588. Li Rui answered their questions and helped them with banking services.

"Although I cannot spend more time with my family during the holiday, I am very happy when I hear "Thank You" from the customers through the phone", said Li Rui.

During the Spring Festival Holiday, 4,400+ ICBC Telephone Banking customer representatives, just like Li Rui, were on duty and attended over 1 million inbound calls, where 90% calls were answered within 20 seconds. All customers were deeply impressed by the speed and high-quality services of ICBC.

In recent years, ICBC uses electronic banking as one key measure to improve services and customer experience. Much effort has been spent on the quality and functions of e-banking services. More staff have been recruited to serve the customers and shorten their time of waiting. By end-2012, nearly 6,300 call desk staff in all ICBC branches were ready to attend customer calls. Today, ICBC Telephone Banking attends about 400,000 inbound calls every day on average, leading all other banks in China in terms of number of calls and answering rate. In a bid to provide the best-quality services, ICBC enforces strong management and organizes training for customer representatives to improve their skill and services.

While focusing consistently on the improvement of telephone banking services, ICBC also rolled out SMS banking services to cater to the needs of customers. To customers, just edit the question into a short message and send it to 95588, and ICBC SMS Banking will send back an accurate reply immediately. At the end of 2012, ICBC SMS Banking has attracted more than 18 million users, and over 60 million SMS replies have been sent. As a continuous upgrade to this service, ICBC was the first bank in China to launch SMS Banking apps for Android cell phones and iPhone. When compared with the former version, the new ICBC SMS Banking app features rich functions, user-friendly interfaces and easy-of-use on top of fast and convenience. Now mobile banking services are grouped under 9 categories, including account enquiry, transfer/payment, ICBC Messager, financial news, customer setting, hot functions and credit card services, which are available for customers to look for further information, check accounts, subscribe or use other banking services. The new app improves the friendliness, availability and self-services of SMS Banking services.