The world cheer as the curtain rises for the opening of Expo 2010 Shanghai China. ICBC, the commercial bank with the most number of outlets in Shanghai, and ICBC staffs, as usual, welcome all visitors enthusiastically and attend all the services to every detail, in every corner of the Expo site, as the theme of the exposition says "Better City, Better Life".

Meet the "Big Test", Help Customer in Desperate Need

In the evening of World Expo opening's eve when all offices were about to close, the phone in ICBC Shanghai south Xizang road sub-branch rang up in a gush. The call was from a customer who wished to come to the sub-branch to remit cash in large amount and asked for the sub-branch's address and the driving route. The manager of the sub-branch immediately informed the customer to come over and explained that the banking hours were extended till 10:30 at night since the sub-branch was one of the key outlets in serving World Expo. The manager asked the customer not to hurry and drive slowly. Later, the ICBC sub-branch in Huangpu south Xizang road immediately opened the green channel for the customer. Two hours later, an old gentleman hastily arrived at the outlet. The ICBC staff knew at once this was the customer as the anxiety shown on the face of this gentleman. The floor manager immediately walked over and arranged the gentleman to the "green channel" window. Two well-prepared tellers started to count the money while the floor manager assured the gentleman that ICBC was doing the best to complete the remittance in the shortest span. Tea and pastries were offered to let the gentleman calm down and wait patiently. While talking to the old gentleman, the reason of the urgency became clear as the remittance was desperately needed by the gentleman's relative in overseas. Yet in such a coincidence this old gentleman was occupied by other affairs and forgot the remittance. As the night fell, most of the bank outlets were closed. The old gentleman was very anxious and called ICBC hotline 95588 for the last hope. ICBC help desk immediately referred the old gentleman to go to ICBC south Xizang road sub-branch. That explained the call mentioned above. The remittance was completed after a while. The old gentleman gave ICBC the thumbs-up and thanked for the ICBC fast response and all the attentive services.

In light of the opening hours of World Expo as late as 12 o'clock at night, ICBC implements flexible work practices. Banking hours of the outlets around World Expo site and in clustered areas of the exhibitors are extended. All the outlets are ready to serve the customers with quality financial services. Besides, ICBC monitors in real-time the customer flow in the outlets around main areas of World Expo. Assign more staff, open more bank windows and green are some of the measures to increase the service capability of the outlets to serve the customers during peak hours, so that no waiting queues in the outlets.

Close Proximity, Heartfelt Services

To welcome all the domestic and foreign visitors coming to Shanghai for the World Expo, ICBC beefs up its services through renovation and better-located outlets around the main areas of the site before the opening of the exposition. Customers will be delighted to come to the ICBC spanking outlets. At present, there are a lot of ICBC outlets with FX services available covering airports, hotels and World Expo site. ICBC outlets in the main areas of the exposition have all the FX services available for individual customers in foreign currency conversion or traveler cheque settlement. Meanwhile, ICBC has implemented plans on the geographical location of the outlets in commercial districts around the World Expo site, Broadcasting/TV center, mid-to-high class hotels, large shopping mall, tourist sites, restaurant streets, MTR and airport. Outlets have been beautifully renovated. Standard signs and guides in correct English are posted inside and outside the outlets at the conspicuous locations.

The Pudong Zhoujiadu sub-branch opposite the China Pavilion is the most front-area of ICBC World Expo services. To better serve the customers, during the World Expo the sub-branch has added tens of customer managers, front-line tellers and floor managers working together. Not only they are the key staff, but their good language skill is an asset to serve foreign guests on the FX services. Being a VIP Peony Card Service Center the sub-branch draws careful attention on corporate culture. The sub-branch is imbued with visually cultural elements of bank card and World Expo telling the development history of peony card and the strong appeal of World Expo, also showing a delightful mix of corporate culture and outlet services. In the spatial layout, main services such as FX, corporate settlement are diversified for maintaining good business order. Since the opening of World Expo, the professional staff, clean environment and heartfelt services have won the hearts of many visitors from home and abroad.

From MTR to Airport  Serve tourists from all over the world

While efforts are spent on the customer services at the outlet, ICBC leverages its IT strength to streamline its electronic banking channel during the World Expo. Today, ICBC has more than 2000 ATM in Shanghai areas. All ATM support cash advance by foreign cards. Meanwhile, ICBC also standardizes the ATM labels, transaction slips and the operation guide in English and Chinese. ATM interfaces are user-friendly and easy to follow. Under the close monitoring and maintenance of ICBC, ATMs are running smoothly, cash are supplemented in time for customers to draw.

ICBC international airport sub-branch is located at the aviation hub of Pudong International airport. On the eve of the World Expo, several ICBC ATMs were installed at the airport concourse for all the visitors to arrive at this first stop of World Expo. The ATM is a boost to ICBC service capability. In places where lots of people moving around like MTR station, the new MTR banks inside the stations are welcomed by the World Expo tourists. The ICBC sub-branches in MTR stations of People's Square, Zhengping Road, Jingansi, Xujiahui are located at the central interchange area of MTR lines. The sub-branches, with clear ICBC identification and clean environment, are offering convenient financial services to all the tourists going in and out of the MTR.

Meanwhile, ICBC raises its service standard during the World Expo by proper staff placement, improved management efficiency and innovative business flow. Currently, more than 98% calls to 95588 Telephone Banking in Shanghai are well-received by the help desk. In an effort to serve the non-English speaking visitors, ICBC service hotline 95588 in Shanghai offers services in other languages including German, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Portuguese. Customers warmly welcome the service.