The Perceived Effects of the Equitable PCI Bank Merger BG Aguirre Branch on Corporate Public Image and Customer Satisfaction

Abstract

Recently, organizational change and development are the trends that we see in the economy. They have become more rampant. It may be because of our country's need for globalization or just a good business decision on hand. Mergers and acquisitions are without a doubt the good examples of organizational changes. It entails total organizational renovation and revamp. This then calls for a new, innovative and attention -getting corporate public image. It would be natural for the organization to change its mission and vision statement, products and services and management. The dilemma lies in how the new organization can entice the attention and elicit the continued support of customers. Aside from this, they have to maintain or better the satisfaction level of their customers. A fitting example of this is the recent Equitable PCI Bank merger. The two leading banks recently merged in the hopes of fixing their management troubles and to give their clients better service and products. Equitable Bank and PCI Bank combined their two impeccable reputations to build a new corporate public image, which will lead them to the 22nd century. They are now able to offer their customers a very wide range of products and services, v11hich cannot be found in other banks. Equitable PC! Bank launched a new corporate public image and this of course had a very big effect on their customers. The new management had to consider how all these changes would affect their relationship with their customers. This then leads us to our study, which focuses on the corporate public image and customer satisfaction level of the Equitable PCI Bank. We are now faced with our problem which is "How did the recent Equitable PCI Bank merger affect the corporate public image and customer satisfaction?". The study generally tackles the issue of whether the customers are aware of the new corporate public image of the merged bank and were their reaction towards it positive. This then would lead to the satisfaction level of customers. Was there an improvement or downward move of customer satisfaction level? Generally, this study would like to see if a move of this proportion is good for an organization and how does rt affect the reputation and the customers of the organization. To be able to gather this information, questionnaires focusing on the corporate public image and customer satisfaction level were provided. Specifically, the questionnaire gathers information about the respondents' previous bank and what information they know regarding the corporate public image of their bank then compares it with the information disseminated by the new Equitable PCI Bank. The latter part of the questionnaire compares the satisfaction level of the respondents towards the services offered by their previous bank and the new and merged Equitable PCI Bank. Interviews were also set up with some key people to get a better understanding of how the merger information was disseminated. A little of their opinion was also asked to get a clearer view of how this merger was perceived from the inside. The Equitable PCI Bank merger is generally perceived as a good organizational move. The respondents of the study showed that their satisfaction level towards the different services afforded to them has improved. It was also seen that the corporate public image of Equitable PCI Bank was very positive even if the respondents had reservations about the merger of the wo banks. Though, Equitable PCI Bank was very involved in providing customers with information about the ·: merger, these results did not solely rely on the efforts of the corporate communications department of the bank.