JiFi - A Easy Social Banking - A New Initiative In India

I came across JiFi today in one of social meets by Indiblogger (More details below). JiFi is a new social initiative from Kota Mahindra Bank. As soon as I came to know that you can use twitter & Facebook for this account all kinds of thoughts started pouring in.

• Will I as a customer use social accounts for banking?
• Will it be secure?
• Is it just a new channel for banking?
• Is it just to get the new generation to banking?
• And many more...

What Features are offerened by JiFi  ... Are they Positive or Negative?

• It Invites user to either join using Facebook or Email (Positive)
• Kind of self subscription
• Better than other self subscription as details to be entered is much lower
• Doesn't make user feel so much reluctant to join
• Invite makes consumer feel better than just subscription
• No Minimum Balance (Positive)
• With no minimum balance, initial entry barrier is removed
• No Interest Bearing Account (negative / neutral)
• This will make user not keep much money in this account
• It makes user feel it as just a transnational account 
• No Interest and fears of web/social security of the money will make user have hiccups of using of the account
• Its more closer to P2P Banking.
• Looks more like Airtel Money / Eko with use of Twitter as a new channel

Social Banking through Twitter  (neutral / positive)

• Transaction details are in Direct Messages and not public twitts. So privacy is there.
• For security concerns, if user want they can disable or delink the twitter account.
• It's easy, just tweet to ‘@kotakjifi’ with the corresponding hashtag for your request 
• E.g. #JifiBal for balance Inquiry
• Referals (Positive, great opportunity for Kotak Mahindra Bank)
• Usage of Referal was one of the obvious things to use, if going social
• Kotak Bank is trying to leverage a positive network effect of already existing Facebook & Twitter networks.
• Adding Reward points will attract consumers to refer others in their network
• Loyalty Club (Positive)
• Addition of loyalty points will help increase loyalty.
• Consumers have to read between lines here - Social Points is not same as transaction points.
• Social points is more for discounts in lie of indirect advertising or marketing done by user.
• Transaction points are actually for usage of the JiFi service.
• Mobile Apps (Neutral)
• Launch of mobile App is just one more thing done by the bank. Most of the banks have mobile apps, so its not any new great differentiation.
• Kotak Money Watch (positive for 1 year )
• One place to manage your various financial assets
• Its free for just one year, so user may be concerned with those fine prints.
• Debit Card
• Similar to other banks.
• Liability is lesser as you just carry transactional money and not your complete bank with you
• You can use other banks for funding also (Positive)
•  You can fund your account online through Net Banking or a Debit Card transaction from your other bank account(s) or handover a cheque to our executive at the time of account opening.

Overall it looks a good deal ... But I am really concerned with the fine print of "Free for 1st year" for few of the features... If it goes Airtel Money way later on charging transaction fees to user it won't succeed... If no transaction charge, Indian users may still use it.

For More details on KotakJifi

Why Venture into Social Media for Banking by Banks?

It was a well thought move by Kotak Mahindra bank. Following are the advantages which it will get

• Social Media marketing offers a better targeted advertisements
• Social Media provides a better customer insight thanks to all the technology - cookies / Analytics.
• Cost Effective way of Brand Building.
• New youth (potential new account holders) . It can't be ignored. Its necessary for survival. To stay relevant & grow for long term they need to attract the new Gen Y. Approx. 20 million youth have joined higher education last year.
• Improvisations:- Social conversations about bank products and services can be used by banks to identify the pain points, trends, delight areas, etc . This will help to reduce the pain points and increase the areas of delight.
• Word of Mouth Publicity.
• Improved Customer Experience & customer engagement
• Reduced costs - Paper, employee, etc
• Reduced queue in bank branches & ATMs
• Increasing the channels available to acquire & maintain customers
• Also its a known Fact that more Engaging customers are more Loyal customers.

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Recently, I participated in the launch event of JiFi by Kotak Mahindra Bank in partnership with IndiBlogger. More details about the event be

When & Where?

Location: Bangalore
Sunday March 23, 2014 - 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM

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The Venues

Bangalore
The Biere Club
20/2, Vittal Mallya Rd
D Souza Layout, Ashok Nagar

Event was great. Atmosphere in The Biere Club was really happening, all the bloggers were in great energy. I also met few of the unknown folks as this was my first IndiBlogger Meet. There were many events like a songs by the bloggers, pics, twitting and many others.... 

Guess the Guest seemed an easier one, as Chethan Bagat was the guest... I believe the most guessed second possibility was Arvind Kejriwal, else he would have made all of us do BLOG DHARNA :-). Chethan tried to host the show well, but seems like he was not in great mood or all the blogger wanted to move things fast.

Once JiFi was introduced, we felt it was a great concept and is adding a differentiation to Kotak Mahindra Bank in already commoditized banking sector. I really like the media Ads for JiFi which were really thought of and focused well.

After all the nitty gritty and Q&A about the product, It was an open house and people were having a nice lunch. During the exit, we were given a nice IndiBlogger T-shirt.