Relationship Management in the Banking Industry : The Use of Facebook

Abstract: The economic situation and the improved technology weaken the bond be-tween banks and their customers. To adapt to the changing behavior of customers banks engage in Social Media with the aim to strengthen their relationship. However, Social Media may not have the expected effect on the banks’ customers. The purpose of this thesis is to answer whether interaction through Facebook can improve the relationship between Handelsbanken and its customers and whether the employees’ and the customers’ perceived value of interacting through Facebook is equal.  The theoretical framework focus on how to build relationships with customers, how to add customer value and what encourages consumers to engage in word-of-mouth. The concept of Social Media is explained and a description of Facebook is provided. The last section in the theoretical framework discusses the implementation of Facebook into the organization of Handelsbanken. A qualitative study was conducted through interviews with employees and customers of Handelsbanken. During the study it was revealed that both the customers and the employees had low awareness of Handelsbanken’s presence on Facebook. The content on the Facebook page does not encourage interaction or add value to the customers. The main problems for succeeding with the Facebook page are absence of marketing and no customer need for interacting on Facebook with their bank. In addition, it was revealed that implementing a centrally moderated communication tool to a decentralized organization is not successful.