American Express is the world's largest global travel services and integrated financial, financial investment and information processing company. American Express was founded in 1850 and is headquartered in New York, USA. American Express is the world's largest global travel services and integrated financial, financial investment and information processing company. It is a leader in credit card, traveler's check, travel, financial planning and international banking. It is a Dow Jones industry that reflects the US economy. The only service company among the 30 companies.
In June 2017, the “BrandZ Global Top 100 Most Valuable Brands List 2017” announced that American Express paid 36% of the top 100 list with a brand value of US$24.15 billion. [1] On June 7, 2017, Fortune's US Top 500 list was released, and American Express ranked 86th.
Company priceedit
American Express is headquartered in New York City. Mainly operated through its three branches: American Games
CITIC American Express Credit Card
CITIC American Express Credit Card
Travel related services, American Express Financial Advisor and American Express Bank. American Express Travel Related Services is one of the world's largest travel agencies with more than 1,700 travel offices worldwide. American Express Travel-related services provide debit cards, credit cards, and travellers cheques to individual customers, as well as corporate card and expense management tools to help companies manage expenses for travel, entertainment, and procurement. Individuals and companies around the world provide travel and related consulting services. American Express Financial Advisors, with its financial planning and consulting at its core, builds close relationships and long-term financial strategies with retail customers. To meet the needs of its retail customers, American Express Financial Advisors also develop and deliver financial products and services, including insurance, pensions and a variety of investment products. American Express Bank (American Express Bank), the US-based banks, the American Express Bank has one of the largest international branch network by 77 offices in 40 countries, providing private banking services, personal financial services, Interbanks and foreign exchange transactions.
American Express is a global financial, financial investment and information processing company founded in 1850 and headquartered in New York, USA, providing charge cards and credit cards, travellers cheques, travel, financial planning, investment products, insurance and International banking services, etc.
As the world's largest independent credit card company, the company's Express Card has the highest visibility and was first issued in 1958. It enjoys a high reputation for not pre-setting consumption limits and providing high-level services. It is a member of millions of American Express and globally. Most multinational companies adopt it.
American Express Company New York Securities
One of the 30 companies representing the Dow Jones Industrial Index, the stock exchange is the world's largest independent card issuer and has the largest self-contained network of special merchants. American Express is a century-old store in the United States, but the bank is not his own. In 1850, Express started its business in Buffalo , New York . In 1891, it invented and issued the Traveler's Traveler's Check - the check on the Express, which I have previously introduced, will not be repeated here. After World War II, Express has become a world-renowned company. The most profitable business at the time was the traveler's check that passed through the world . In fact, it has been several years since Yuntong considered whether to enter the bank card business. There are two main reasons for it to hesitate: one is afraid of affecting the company's good reputation, and the other is that the silver card business will erode its profitable business, the traveler's check business. It was only in December 1957 that it finally decided to launch its own silver card, which can be said to be forced by the situation. On October 1, 1958, the American Express Card - Express Card was launched. The company has a worldwide reputation. In particular, its traveler's cheques are recognized as available in the US dollar. As a result, the news of the issue of the silver card issued by Express has been widely responsive, especially for businessmen who travel frequently.
Originally, Yuntong predicted to reach 200,000 cardholders in five years, and the result broke through this indicator two months before the opening. Prior to this, DinersClub and other bank cards had no chance of gaining market share in large, well-known chain systems. For the bank card, the situation is reversed: due to its dominant position in the travel service industry, many merchants are afraid that they will not be able to catch the express train to expand the business . When the Express Card was opened, more than 17,000 merchants signed up for the network; in particular, the addition of 150,000 cardholders and 4,500 member hotels of the American Hotel Alliance marked that its bank card was finally accepted by the mainstream US business community. From the very beginning, the strategy of the company was to establish a silver card image that would provide convenience for the rich in the upper class. Its annual fee is set at $6, which is $1 higher than the $5 of DinersClub at the time, which is to show that it is a higher level. This strategy was later proved to be very successful. In the next 30 years, the Express Card has maintained its own "elite" image, and the high-ranking person has been able to avoid direct competition from other card-issuing companies in the silver card industry for a long period of time. But initially, the important motivation behind this strategy was to reduce the encroachment of our company's leading product, the traveler's check business that has been widely used by the public.
Centennial ups and downsedit
On October 4, 2004, it will be a day in the history of the development of the global silver card industry. On this day, the US Supreme Court announced that it refused to accept Visa and MasterCard’s appeal against the US Department of Justice’s allegation of monopoly and decided to maintain the original
American Express Credit Card
American Express Credit Card
Judge. The refusal of the Supreme Court ended the six-year high-profile lawsuit, and also announced the end of the silver card alliance dual-led system that dominated the silver card market for nearly 30 years .
Starting from the express
More than 100 years before entering the payment card industry, Express was originally formed by the merger of three express mail companies. Its mail and cargo express delivery service is credible for its speed and reliability. Especially during the American Civil War, Express was known for its reliable and convenient delivery of express parcels and letters. After the American Civil War, the development of the railway system brought about the nationalization of regional markets, and cross-regional national currency flows became more important. However, cash is easy to steal. In the absence of a national bank in the United States, the transfer of funds can only rely on the mailing system.
The US post office should invent a simple check - a money order. The mailing of bills quickly became a popular method of money transfer. American Express also immediately introduced competitive bill of exchange products. However, it is clear that bills of exchange lack the flexibility of cash and are also facing the threat of being stolen and forged. In order to solve this problem, an employee of American Express in 1891 invented a traveler's check, a two-way signature verification, which reduced the loss caused by theft. Traveler's checks quickly became one of the company's important products. Express has spent a lot of effort to convince banks and merchants in the United States and Europe to receive their checks, to ensure that they do not charge any fees from merchants, and to guarantee against counterfeiting.
After the end of the civil war, as the number of Americans traveling abroad increased, the network of Express in Europe developed very rapidly. In 1955, Express provided customers with approximately $12.5 billion in traveler's cheques, accounting for 75% of the world's travel and check industry market share. By 1977, Express had issued 50% of all traveler's checks worldwide. Even today, American Express travel checks still out any amount of money to replace cash used in many parts of the world.
In 1950, the Diners Club was established as it entered 100 years. At the beginning, the Diners Club introduced the Diners Card, the first payment card in the world, targeted at restaurant customers. The payment card does not provide revolving credit, and the cardholder must repay the full amount of the monthly debt; there is no fixed credit limit set in advance.
Soon, the Diners Club extended its bill payment business to other travel and entertainment, such as hotels, restaurants and the flower industry. Around 1960, the number of cards in Dalai Lama reached 1.25 million. American Express has considered the acquisition of Diners Club several times and has given up for various reasons. Express also considered setting up its own card from scratch, but hesitated for several years because of concerns about the main source of income at the time, the traveler's check.
In October 1958, Yuntong heard that Dalai was preparing to develop traveler's cheques, and finally couldn't sit still and decided to enter the billing card industry. Express designed an image with a characteristic hue for its billing card. As a result of the merchant network and customer base of the travel check business, the Express Card has just started running, with 17,500 merchants and 250,000 cardholders.
The market target for the Express Card is the higher income class, especially for business people or other people who travel frequently. However, the merchant's discount for the business is slightly lower than that of the Grand Leica. In order to distinguish it from Diners Club, the Express Card is a more "fashionable and advanced" card. Express intends to set the tone for high-end customers for the Express Card from the beginning - its annual fee is $6, which is $5 more than the Diners Club. 20% higher.
The Express Card was originally made from cardboard cards. In the second year, Express launched the first card made of plastic. The main information such as the card number on the plastic card and the cardholder's name are made into embossed lines, which can be printed on the card by copy paper on the card reader. This innovation not only significantly reduces the risk of counterfeiting, but also the cashier does not have to copy the credit card information by hand, which greatly simplifies the card swiping process.
Initially, due to lack of card issuance and operational experience, some customers did not pay due, and Express was not profitable. By 1961, Express almost wanted to sell the Express Card business to the Diners Club, or to merge it with it, but it was considered that it could not pass the test of the US Department of Justice and stopped.
At this critical juncture, Yuntong hired George Watt, who was later called the “father of the payment card,” to manage the operation of the Express Card. Watt increases the annual fee to $10 and puts pressure on customers who do not pay on time, strictly managing it. The situation is moving in a good direction. At the end of 1962, the number of merchants receiving ATM cards increased to 82,000, and cardholders also nearly doubled to 900,000. Express's payment card is profitable for the first time.
By 1969, the number of cardholders in the card had grown to 3 million, and the transaction volume of nearly $7 billion had made the bank's payment card business profitable by $50 million (note: the dollar amount here and below is converted into the 1998 value). In the year, the Express Card adopted a new design, turning the card's main tone into a greenish dollar. Since then, it has also been called a green card.
The green card business has become the most eye-catching single product of Express. By 1977, Express had a certain size – there were 6.3 million cardholders in the US and $20 billion in transactions. The cardholder of the green card is more than 5 times that of the Grand Leica, and it is mostly an economic elite. Nearly 50% of American households with annual incomes of more than $55,000 hold green cards for express . Green cards are widely accepted by travel-related businesses, such as high-end restaurants and high-end stores, and green cards are a superior payment card that dominates travel and entertainment consumption.
Interestingly, the classic TV commercials of "Can't go without it" and "Do you know me?" emphasize the green card's popularity in the world and the superiority of green card holders - they are always in a certain The area is very famous. Holding the Green Card of Express has almost become a symbol of superior status. In the early 1970s and early 1980s, it could be called the golden age of green cards. In the early 1980s, the merchant's merchant discount was almost 50% higher than Visa and MasterCard. The cardholder’s annual fee has also risen to the standard green card of $60 and the gold card of $85.
Go to the folding point
As Express believes that consumers and merchants will be willing to continue to pay extra for "excellent" Express Cards, in the mid-1980s, Express also launched an "Advanced Member of the Express" advertisement to emphasize the superior nature of the Express Card. However, in the era when the concept of “value” was introduced into consumers, when it was discovered that the card began to introduce the percentage-based cash rebate incentive method, the advertisement of Yuntong brought more confusion to the customer.
Therefore, by the end of the 1980s, the development of the situation made Yuntong’s strategy of continuous effectiveness for 30 years gradually fail. There are several reasons for this.
First, 90% of the cardholders at the same time also hold a universal credit card issued by the bank for Visa or MasterCard. Gradually, the merchant receiving the credit card has more than the payment card for receiving the transfer, because the card holder of the express card can not pay the bill, and the credit card seems to be better. In addition, credit card instant credit and revolving credit are not available in the payment card. Moreover, the two major associations of universal bank cards have given banks more benefits and are more widely accepted by merchants because they want to encourage banks to issue more of their cards. Therefore, in two price terms, Express faces a severe competition with Visa or MasterCard - the cardholder's annual fee and merchant discount. Of course, at the same time, the payment card of the company also has some advantages: for example, the cardholder has a flexible spending limit; in addition, due to the closed-loop trading center system of the company, it can have a lot of data and develop more enterprise cards.
The challenge for Express is the conflict between the credit card and the payment card business economy. Credit cards can fulfill all the functions of the payment card, and more. However, Express does not seem to be aware of the customer's pursuit of value in the process of increasing economic growth. As a result, in the 1980s and 1990s, the rapid development of credit cards limited the development of payment cards, and the cardholders of the payment card lost the power to pay the bills; merchants were also reluctant to pay additional fees to continue to maintain the card.
In the early 1990s, Express faced serious problems. In 1993, Harvey Colub became the new CEO of Express. As soon as he took office, he made several major changes in the business model.
First of all, the launch of a variety of products based on the best logo of the Express, to compete with the increasingly popular card of the bank card. For example, they introduce a reward method: when a cardholder joins the member reward program, each dollar paid with the Express card can win a reward point, and the reward point can be exchanged for the frequent flight of the airline that has a contract with the express company. Miles, hotel frequent flyer programs, car rental offers or shopping rebates.
Secondly, the advertising of Yuntong has also shifted from emphasizing the elite nature of the card to the aspect that the transportation system is relatively superior to other systems.
Third, reduce merchant discounts and increase investment to expand the acceptance point of merchants.
Fourth, efforts should be made to establish alliances with banks belonging to the Silver Card Association to increase the issuance of cards.
In the mid-1990s, as a joint strategy, Express was preparing to develop its payment cards and other cards through member banks belonging to Visa or MasterCard. However, in the second half of 1998, as Visa and the MasterCard Association adopted cards that banned their member banks from issuing other "destined to become competitive systems" such as express and discovery cards, the transfer plan was not implemented. The Visa and MasterCard associations did not adopt this rule in Europe because they were afraid of EU antitrust practices. As a result, more than 40 banks in more than 30 countries outside the United States formed alliances and issued ATM cards.
xpress modeedit
The so-called Express mode can be understood from two different levels: one is the product of the Express Card and the mode of operation of the switching network. The other is the overall development strategy of the company. These two levels are closely related to each other.
In the past half century, the rise and fall of the business card product and exchange operation mode has historical reasons.
In the 1950s, not only Dalai and Yuntong were developed, but also many
Express mode
Express mode
bank. But except for the Bank of America card, which later evolved into the predecessor of VISA, other bank credit cards failed. For example, Chase Bank also launched credit cards in the 1950s, but in 1962 it sold its credit card business because of its unbearable losses. The key reason was that the US Banking Act at the time prohibited cross-state banking. As a result, these bank cards cannot be used in the industry that most needs credit cards and is the first to accept credit cards – tourism, making it difficult to achieve the economies of scale necessary to operate credit cards within the area permitted by banking law.
Both Dalai and Yuntong issued the charge card at that time . In fact, short-term credit was also required to pay the merchant before the cardholder paid the monthly bill. However, because it is counted as a “payment business” rather than a credit business, it is not subject to the geographical restrictions of the banking law. Therefore, Dalai and Express have been developing businesses for the national market from the very beginning, and have actively expanded their international business and can quickly achieve scale operations.
In 1966, the establishment of the two major silver card alliances broke through the geographical restrictions of the banking law, which caused a fundamental change in the pattern of the silver card industry. Since then, all banks have been able to join the Silver Card Alliance. Therefore, VISA and MasterCard set the strength of all banks to compete with Diners and Express Cards, and the general trend of later and then dominated the silver card market is almost inevitable. Although the two major silver card alliances were challenged by antitrust lawsuits from the beginning, they were not strong at first, they had no market influence, and without them, banks could not break the geographical restrictions of banking laws, so they repeatedly Win the case.
This time the two major silver card alliances lost, the reason is because they are already too strong, and have obvious market influence. Moreover, the ban on US banking law for interbank operations has been cancelled, and the Silver Card Alliance has lost its function as the only compensation system defect.
Express has introduced revolving credit cards since 1986. But so far, its flagship product is still the charge card. With the opening of the Express Exchange Network to other card issuers, the product structure and network operation mode of the Express Card may be fundamentally changed. Therefore, how long the Expressway's Expressway model has been established for nearly half a century is still a problem.
- The inspirational significance of the Express Card model to the development of the Chinese credit card market.
First of all, Chinese commercial banks are currently pushing the development of the credit card market, and most of their attention is on revolving credit cards. However, the bank is trying to develop a high-quality customer base with high income and good credit. These customers hardly need credit from credit cards. In fact, many cardholders also habitually deposit a large amount of cash in the account, using the credit card as a token card. Even if they are prohibited from pre-depositing, the vast majority of them will pay their arrears in the month. For a significant portion of this consumer group, perhaps the big Leica and the Express card charge card are more suitable for their needs.
Second, the Express Exchange Network will be the exclusive operating system and merchant payment in the future, but share the exchange function of the network with other card issuers, which is similar to the operation mode of China UnionPay.
Third, the industry and commerce with the largest service network system is the most conditional. ICBC can learn a lot from the process of closing and opening up the Express Network.
As a whole, the company is a typical example in the history of American companies. There are many large companies in the United States with a history of more than 100 years, and it is like a company in which it has a very unique position. Coca-Cola was also founded in the 19th century, but its main products today are no different from the company when it was founded. Citibank has been in business for over 200 years, but it has been primarily engaged in commercial banking . From the time when the package was transmitted from the package, it has undergone many transformations such as bills of exchange, traveler and check business, travel service company, credit card, comprehensive financial service company, etc., and still continue to innovate and advance with the times, it is really not Easy to find the second home. - What is the company's ability to last forever?
First, Express always emphasizes quality service. Whether in peacetime or during wartime, the reliability and efficiency of the service is well known. Of course, in order to satisfy customers, Express has sometimes exceeded the scope allowed by economic laws, and it has also caused problems. For example, one of the important reasons for the early loss of the Express Card is that it is unwilling to collect and punish the default cardholders in a timely manner. Although the charge card stipulates the repayment of the month, at that time, the transfer often waits until three months after the arrears. These problems were solved step by step after George Watt was in charge of the Express Card business.
Second, Express pays special attention to image shaping. With quality service, we have to let everyone know. Since the 1880s, when it has tasted the huge benefits of advertising to promote the sale of money orders , Express has spared no effort in advertising and other publicity. The advertisement of "Can't go without it" has become a classic in the history of advertising.
Third, it is the courage to innovate and challenge reality. Many innovations and innovations in the past century and a half have provided it with continuous vitality. In the early days of the establishment of the company, it challenged the US Postal Service and launched a cheap postage. The competition of Express was one of the important reasons for the implementation of the federal unified postage by the US Postal Service. The invention of traveler's cheques made Yuntong finally stand out among the many delivery companies, laying the foundation for the subsequent development and growth. On the other hand, Yuntong launched a legal challenge to the two major silver card alliances, which finally led to the results of the Federal Ministry of Justice's victory in the Silver Card Alliance, which opened up a vast world of transportation development in the 21st century. Of course, Express is not always active. It launched the Express Card for many years and was forced to take action. But after all, it changed its course. And once a decision is made, it goes all out and there is no halfway. There are many big companies in the world that have been prominent for a while, because they can’t cope with the changes in the situation, they have to give up the past, or they have to change but they have been dragging their feet and finally abandoned by history.
Mode of operationedit
Organization
American Express has a Asia Pacific Operations Center, a European Operations Center, a South American Operations Center, and a US Local Operations Center. The business operation implements a vertical management mode, and regional administrative management plays a horizontal coordination role between different vertical services. Take the Asia Pacific Operation Center as an example to select several representative departments to introduce their centralized operation mode and organizational structure across regions.
American Express
Customer service center
The American Express Asia Pacific Operations Center in Sydney covers Japan, Asia Pacific and Australia , with centralized operations and management, but the location is not entirely concentrated in one region. As far as the customer telephone service center is concerned (the organizational structure is shown in Figure 1), Sydney's direct service targets are mainly Australia and New Zealand, while customer services in other countries and regions such as Hong Kong, India, Singapore, and Taiwan are mainly local. The difference is in the Japanese market. The local customer service department only keeps a small number of people, mainly serving local Platinum card customers, while the service to other ordinary customers is done by the Sydney Customer Service Center.
The geographic location of American Express's customer service department is mainly to optimize resource allocation , reduce costs, improve service efficiency and service quality, such as the advantage of convenient communication in local languages and cheaper labor costs, but this Does not affect centralized operations and management. In Figure 1, the customer service operations management department can deploy tasks across regions with advanced scientific management tools. If the customer service center in Sydney is busy, you can transfer the call to a customer service center in Hong Kong or other free customer service centers without waiting for customers to wait for a long time. In this way, the existing resources are maximized while improving service efficiency. The customer service effect analysis and management information department is responsible for the centralized management of customer service quality in all regions, such as the assessment of indicators and the regular convening of meetings to conduct cross-regional summarization and exchanges. The customer opinion collection department uses the same customer questionnaire to collect customer opinions and summarize analysis in each region as one of the basis for assessing the service quality of the department.
- Customer Service and Back Office Support Department
The customer service and back office support department provides back-office business support for the customer's telephone service center, and can receive and process various service requests (such as modifying the billing address) sent by the cardholder by mail or fax. Take the chargeback and dispute resolution as an example. The general process is:
- After the call center receives the customer's call, if it needs to be further investigated by the background, it can be automatically transferred to the back office support department through the case system, and the customer is required to send the necessary written documents (such as the purchase order, etc.) by fax or mail. Backstage support department.
- The imaging team of the back-end support department first pre-images the written information provided by the customer and then puts it on a shareable imaging platform (based on the Internet). The questions are then automatically entered into the work queue of the appropriate dispute resolution team, depending on the source of the region. If the problem comes from a Hong Kong customer, it will automatically enter the work queue of the Hong Kong Dispute Resolution Team.
After the issue is resolved, the issue in the work queue will be turned off. Through the shared system, the first-line telephone service personnel can always see the record of problem solving and reply to the customer accurately and timely in the processing and results of each business.
- Bill printing and card production department
The card-making center uses 5×24 hours of punching to create cards for Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong. It can automatically seal the cards and automatically bring promotional materials.
The Statement Production Center uses a 7 x 24 hour billing method to produce statements for countries and regions such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Bar code technology is used in the bill making process. Through the barcode on the bill, the system can automatically distinguish between different countries and regions and promotional materials that need to be packaged. If something goes wrong, the system will stop automatically.
In terms of operational quality, American Express has developed strict quality management systems and inspection procedures in addition to improving automation and reducing manual operations. For example, the printing process of the bill involves four sampling steps, and the sampling personnel in each step are required to check according to the scientific sampling rate. Taking the Japanese statement as an example, the center responsible for the scope produces an average of 600,000 statements per month for Japanese cardholders, and the average customer complaints about the statement service are less than one per month, which shows the quality of its operations. high.
High quality customer service management
High quality, low cost and high efficiency are the goals pursued by American Express, and service quality is always at the forefront. American Express has many years of experience in quality management, forming advanced management ideas and relatively complete means and systems. Due to space limitations, the following focuses on the experience that is worth learning from the customer's telephone service management. - Improve basic operational procedures and improve service efficiency in all directions
(1) Provide different service hotlines for different products
American Express has set different hotline numbers for black gold cards, platinum cards, ordinary credit cards, charge cards, company cards, etc. Customers can quickly enter the target functional area after calling to avoid the efficiency of the voice tree being too long. To make customers feel cumbersome and inconvenient. The phone number is printed on the back of the card for easy access by the cardholder.
Based on the customer value of different products, American Express determines to provide customers with full manual or voice services, provide free calls or charge local calls, and different products correspond to different service teams.
(2) Develop automatic voice service functions as much as possible
Of the American Express customer calls, 33% were resolved through automated voice services. Automatic voice service features include: card activation, account balance and detail inquiry, point inquiry and redemption, password modification, etc.
(3) Using the powerful information function of the system as an auxiliary means to ensure that the manual service is fast and accurate
Manual services are divided into different groups based on customer value. After the customer calls and transfers to the manual service, according to the card number and password entered by the customer, the system can automatically identify the product type, customer value (such as consumption record, credit history), cross-sell the product, and automatically assign it to the corresponding service team. The customer service's desktop system will automatically pop up the customer's information and account information, no need to ask and verify the customer's identity. These types of information include: customer advisory history; case records that require back-office support; personalized retention measures available to customers who are ready to sell; corresponding cross-selling information; general basic information. For customers with different products and different values, the specific content displayed by the information platform is also different. The customer service staff can not only answer the questions raised by the customer accurately and quickly, but also actively promote the appropriate products according to the different characteristics of the customers, or take attractive measures to retain the customers.
(4) Set up a special operation coordination team to guide the operation of the first-line customer service work.
American Express typically predicts the workload and advises on the number of people to be deployed before launching a marketing campaign or launching a new product; assigning workload in real time with work schedule management software and the busyness of all regional service personnel To ensure the efficient operation of customer service. - Constantly tap the potential to promote the continuous development of service quality to higher goals
First of all, each customer service staff will have at least 10 calls per month to be recorded. The supervisors will examine the accuracy, responsibility, enterprising spirit and customer satisfaction of the customer service staff based on the answering process and the screen used.
Secondly, in order to ensure consistent quality of telephone service in all regions, the quality management department convene a seminar once a week, attended by regional quality management departments, advanced service quality departments and telephone service evaluators from 11 countries and regions. Through horizontal comparison and learning from the experience of advanced departments, identify gaps, analyze the possibilities for improvement, design and implement improvements.
Finally, in addition to efforts to improve the service level of customer service personnel, American Express also conducts a coordinated analysis of incoming call demand and improves quality by reducing or adjusting customer incoming calls. For example, by analyzing the questions asked by the customer and the reasons for the call transfer, the system or process optimization is performed to reduce the customer's incoming demand and strive to solve the problem once, avoiding the call transfer or subsequent processing; actively encouraging the customer to use the online service and voice. Service; negotiate with the marketing department to plan, launch new products or promotions at the right time without affecting the quality of customer service.
Inspiration
The transformation of production methods has promoted tremendous progress in productivity while reducing production costs and increasing production efficiency. Similarly, the operation mode is from decentralization to concentration. For a credit card company, it is essentially a revolution of specialized division of labor and resource optimization and integration. It is an inevitable choice for its development to a certain stage, and it will definitely improve operational efficiency and operational level. . The successful operation of American Express's centralized operations is a strong testament to this. - Centralized operation is the ideal way to reduce costs and improve quality
The actual experience of American Express Company shows that when the business develops to a certain stage, adopting a centralized operation mode can significantly reduce costs and improve quality. Such as centralized card and bill making, you can concentrate on purchasing and maintaining advanced equipment and reducing duplication of investment.
On the basis of centralized management, American Express's telephone service can uniformly allocate resources across regions, allocate tasks reasonably, and make full use of production capacity. At the same time, it can also take advantage of the lower local labor price.
In addition, centralized operation is also conducive to the implementation and timely update of more complex business processes, facilitating quality monitoring, risk prevention and data information management, especially for centralized operation, unified management and close integration of customer service front and back. It is of great significance to the high standardization and unification of service standards and the stability of brand image and service quality. - The centralized operation should follow the principle of low cost, high efficiency and high quality.
When establishing a centralized operation mode, it should focus on content, not form, and adapt to local conditions, and cannot be "one size fits all". Different business content can have different centralized forms. The objective conditions have changed and the specific forms have changed. The only criterion for whether it is concentrated, how to concentrate, and how it is concentrated is whether it can reduce costs, improve operational efficiency, and help improve service quality. As far as American Express is concerned, the scope or form of concentration varies among different departments. For example, the customer service center of Sydney, the direct service of the Sydney Operations Center is Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The customer service centers in other regions mainly serve the local area; except for India, the bill production in other regions is concentrated in Sydney. These eclectic arrangements reflect American Express's principles of low cost, efficiency and quality. - Scientific and technological means are necessary conditions for the successful operation of centralized operation
Without highly automated job management, American Express is having difficulty completing billing and card making tasks in so many national and regional markets. Similarly, without technology and network support, its cross-regional customer service is difficult to operate and manage centrally. The close connection between front and back and the high efficiency and high quality of service are difficult to guarantee. It is the technological means that makes it beyond The limitations of geography. It can be said that there must be advanced scientific and technological means behind the centralized operation. Otherwise, even if the operating position is concentrated, it is only a superficial accumulation, and it is difficult to achieve the goal of truly improving efficiency. - Advanced corporate value concept is the soft environment for scientific implementation of centralized operation
In the value concept of American Express, it is the core content to provide customers with high-quality services, coordinated action, cross-regional teamwork, respect for employee performance and development, and a spirit of initiative and responsibility. These value concepts, as an important part of the training of new employees, have been deeply integrated into the thinking and actions of employees. "100% customer service" is their common belief. In such a corporate culture, even if they are far away from each other in different countries, they have never even met each other, but the common values and beliefs enable them to work together in a timely manner, regardless of geographical and departmental restrictions. It can be seen that the implementation of centralized operations is not only the concentration of operational methods, but also the concentration of management tools, and the concentration of all employees' thoughts and actions.
Brand structureedit
Past brand structure
Core customers: successful businesses and travelers
Demand: excellent service, respect and recognition, a global, secure network
Main products: credit card, TC and TSO
Brand promise: superior service (special treatment), recognition and respect (special crowd),
Universal, safe and reliable
In the history of American Express, until the mid-1980s, our core customers could be called successful business travelers. During that time, this group needed superior service, respect, recognition, global roaming, and emergency safety nets because they did travel a lot. To meet their needs, our core products are credit cards and travellers cheques. In addition, there are our travel service offices, which are important support points for our core products. These products fulfill the brand promise: superior service, recognition and respect, global versatility and safety. Combining core customers, their needs and expectations with the key products we offer is the best example of our brand promise.
The important content of the American Express brand - confidence, security, reliability, reputation and quality service
Current events are changing, and our wealth, the brand, needs constant improvement. The market situation is changing, customer needs are changing, our target prospects and cardholders are placing ever higher demands on brands. In order to adapt to these changes, our products need to be continuously expanded, and our main commitments need to be constantly updated.
Brand structure
Core customers: high-level careers and merchants
Demand: global, edible or debit, rewarded, safe and reliable
Main products: credit card, universal card, TC, blue credit card, co-brand, various financial services
Brand Commitment: Providing paid services to forward-thinking clients and acknowledging them
We conduct regular surveys among cardholders around the world to understand what our customers need, what they want, what they want and what they want, compare the same and different needs, and then work out our goals:
Opportunity + control = realization
Opportunity means that our customers want more choices, knowledge from other cultures, entrepreneurial entrepreneurship; control means having the ability to dominate their own destiny and confidence; the key factors for the ultimate realization are: The desire for innovation, hope to leave its own imprint in life, to meet the challenges of the future.
People want to have the ability to do more in life, American Express is to help customers do more. As you can see in our latest commercial film: the popular comedian Jerry Seinfeld has done a better job with the help of the Express card. In 1979, American Express established its first office in Beijing. When we first arrived here, as with other markets, the first thing was to listen to opinions. We ask consumers: they want us to do something for them in China. They told us truthfully. The traveler told us: They want us to extend the business of travel to China. We have done this. Four American Express offices have been established in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xiamen, and 30 CITS travel representative offices have been established throughout China. We have become one of the most extensive travel and financial services networks in China.
Thanks to the joint efforts of our financial and travel services business partners, our customers and cardholders enjoy the same high quality service when traveling to China. These services include credit card loss and reissue after theft. Emergency check exchange, ATM, traveler's check settlement and commercial fraud prevention.
When more and more Chinese went abroad to do business activities and travel, they hoped to have a US dollar universal card. We listened to their opinions and started the business in 1987. The more opinions we hear, the more we know, and the more things we do, more than we want. We have relationships with many merchants who travel and entertain travelers. Our cardholders can use American Express cards at thousands of commercial outlets in more than 400 cities across China . This figure accounts for about 45% of foreign card consumption in China, which makes American Express products and services account for more than 15% of China's annual foreign exchange earnings . American Express also understands the needs of business partners and implements a series of travel marketing programs to make China a world-class tourist destination. It is worthy of pride that the China National Tourism Administration has named the American Express Card the "China Official Travel Card" from 1994 to 2000 .
Brand Developmentedit
The world's top 500 ranked Express has tens of millions of members worldwide and is widely accepted by merchants in more than 200 countries. The card gives members a number of exclusive benefits, including global replacement cards, shopping protection, points programs and travel accident protection. The card is distributed in more than 45 currencies in more than 50 countries around the world, providing convenience for members' daily life and travel consumption and management. American Express is also actively rushing to the Chinese market. On March 30, 2004, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Express announced that American Express and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China signed the Agreement on Issuance of Cards and Acquisitions. ICBC will issue the first credit card with American Express logo - Peony. The Express Card, which is also a successful person positioned in China, has a relatively high threshold, but it is also a breakthrough for overseas cards in China. On December 8, 2004, the Peony Express Card was officially issued. It is important to know that under the WTO agreement, Express will not be able to issue credit cards directly in China until 2007.
American Express International Co., Ltd. opened offices in Shanghai, Tianjin, and Hong Kong in 1916. It returned to China in 1979 and opened four representative offices in Beijing and other places. It is the first international card organization to enter China. Early China Express adopted a gradual penetration development method in the Chinese market. Given that the domestic wealthy class was still relatively limited, the company could only start from the acquiring system.
On December 3, 2002, American Express and China International Travel Service Co., Ltd. signed a cooperation agreement to designate China Travel Service as the only authorized franchise partner for leisure travel in China, and established the China Travel Service Company. In 2005, China Travel Express Air Service Co., Ltd. Shanghai was formally established. This is the number of offices that Express has already owned in China. More than 400 cities in China have accepted American Express card spending, including hotels, restaurants, shops, airlines and many other industries.
American Express is one of the most respected brands in the world. The front is followed by Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM, General Electric, Intel, Nokia, Toyota, Disney , McDonald's, Mercedes-Benz, Citi, Marlboro and HP. By the way, there is no Chinese brand in this top 100. The corporate brand is ranked 34th in the 2006 World Brand Top 500 list compiled by the World Brand Lab. The company ranked 243th in the 2007 Fortune Global 500 list.