As the only banking partner of the 16th Asian Games, ICBC opened three outlets at the Guangzhou Asian Games Town (the Main Media Centre, international area of the Athletes' Village and the Technical Officials' Village) and started operation since November 1, 2010. These three outlets were highly praised by a great number of athletes, technical officials and media reporters for delivering quality and efficient financial services to delegations from 45 countries and regions.
As of November 17, the three ICBC outlets in the Asian Games Town have processed around 4,000 currency exchange deals, totaling USD 1.29 million, and 32 deals of traveler's cheque exchange, totaling USD 220,000. On a single day of November 17, the number of currency exchange transactions hit a single-day record high of 470, since the Asian Game Town was open.
In order to offer quality foreign financial services during the Asian Games, ICBC has developed various measures to appeal to specific needs of Asian Games customers, which have brought about positive results in the bank's daily operations, said an ICBC official.
First, "convenient access" to the outlet. In a bid to offer quality financial services for various delegations of the Asian Games, ICBC carefully designed the outlet layout to meet the specific needs of athletes, reporters and other customers as early as in the preparation period. Two types of service counter-- regular counter and emergency counter are in use, to deal with massive crowds.
Bi-lingual queuing number system and service-guide signs are in place at the gate and on the counters. Information on currency and interest rates and all kinds of service guides in English and Chinese are on display, and full spectrum of forms and samples are prepared in the customer's waiting area, making sure that all financial information and services needed are within convenient reach of customers from the very moment they walk into the outlet.
Second, "zero distance" smile services. Smile is a universal language around the world that can narrow down the distance between foreign customers and the bank. Keeping the highest service standard in mind, ICBC staffs are all wearing the Smile Service Badge for Asian Games. They are more than ready to smile and extend warm greetings to foreign customers in the first time when they drop in the outlet.
Third, free communication with "no language barriers". To offer high-quality services to foreign customers, all staffs at the three outlets in the Asian Games Town are selected and trained with high proficiency level of foreign languages. Apart from introducing the "green" channel and featured services for Asian Games customers, ICBC outlets are equipped with English-speaking employees and a selection of staffs chosen bank-wide who are able to provide customer services in foreign languages including Korean, Japanese, and Russian.
To ensure free communication with customers with no language barriers, each ICBC staff at the three outlets in the Asian Games Town has a service handbook in eight languages at hand, which contains frequently asked questions by foreign customers in Arabic, German, Russian, French, Korean, Portuguese, Japanese, and Spanish.
Staffs are able to provide any service that the customer chooses. The 95588 Customer Service Hotline also offers multi-lingual services for the Asian Games in Guangdong province in foreign languages including English, Japanese, French, Korean, Arabic, and Russian.
Fourth, comprehensive products and services available for customers. As athletes, officials and reporters from various countries and media participate in the Asian Games, ICBC offers a large variety of products and services to address diverse and colossal needs from customers. All staffs at the three outlets in the Asian Games Town are capable of dealing with complicated transactions and requests.
Since their opening on November 5, ICBC's Asian Games outlets have processed transactions of corporate currency exchanges, corporate overseas remittances, corporate large-sum cash withdrawals, corporate cash deposits for the neighboring merchants, bill payments for the Organizing Committee of the Asian Games and for the GAB billing card program, personal currency exchanges, personal domestic/overseas remittances, and Internet Banking registration.
For athletes and reporters who have large demand for foreign currency exchanges, all the three outlets are able to provide currency exchange services in 18 foreign currencies, including Japanese yen, Hong Kong dollar, Macau pataca, Singapore dollar, Korean won, Thai baht, Philippine peso, and New Taiwan dollar, and traveler's cheque services in 6 foreign currencies, with different currencies in stock to meet the foreign currency exchange needs of customers from various countries.
Fifth, self-service machines with "zero failure". To cater for foreign customers who prefer using self-service machines, every ICBC self-service machine carries bi-lingual instructions. ICBC has also improved management and maintenance of its self-service machines. Professional technicians are assigned to conduct real-time monitoring and increase the frequency of loading banknotes in all machines, in an effort to ensure all-day smooth operations of its self-service machines.
