(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat- United Securities was named 'Oman's Most Trusted Brand' in the investment companies category when the results of the online survey were announced on October 19.
The award was presented by H E Yahya al Jabri, chairman of the Capital Markets Authority and the Special Economic Zone Authority at Duqm, to Hassan Ali Jawad, managing director of United Securities.
The online voting process for the awards lasted from June 7 to July 10 this year, with the public voting for their preferred brands across ten categories. The survey was conducted by Muscat Daily.
In an interview, Jawad talks aboutUnited Securities' customer-focused approach, that helped establish it as a trusted name among Oman's investment and brokerage firms. He also discusses the general business outlook for the company.
What has helped United Securities become the most trusted brand among investment firms in Oman?
We are excited to be selected as the most trusted brand in Oman. This is the latest but most important testimony of the trust people have placed on us and our services. We hold this recognition very dear because this award came directly from none other than our customers. We are a major player in Oman's investment banking space and have served more than 30,000 clients, ranging from foreign and local government and quasi-government institutions, large institutional investors, corporates, family houses, HNIs, and a very large number of retail clients. Apart from Oman's resident investors, we also serve a significant number of non-resident and foreign investors and institutions. We are proud to be a major player in creating investment awareness among the public here.
Since we deal directly with the hard-earned money of our clients, we hold a special place in their hearts. The idiom your heart is where your investments are holds very true in our case. And we are honoured that our customers hold us very close to their heart.
I am proud to see the years of hard work put in by our board and employees getting recognised by one of Oman's most prestigious awards. The success of a brand is directly linked to the satisfaction of its customers. At United Securities, we have a fully customer-centric approach, and we strive to delight our customers in every service that we offer.
Being the most trusted investment services company of the sultanate, our aim would be to introduce newer and innovative investment solutions and services to uphold and continue the relationship with our customers and ensure their delight in return.
How do you focus on building trust with clientsand customers?
We deal directly with the savings and investments of our clients. The motive of our each and every client would be superior returns based on their risk appetite. We understand that better than anyone else, and strive to outperform their expectations. This is where we can make them delighted.
Our brokerage department provides fast and accurate execution in the markets, and our goal is to achieve global standards of speed and accuracy in execution, and our performance is very much comparable to the benchmark.The returns that we provide our clients are far superior to the benchmark returns.
Our GCC mutual fund has consistently outperformed the index all throughout its life. When we provide these kinds of superior returns, the investor need not look anywhere else, and they will continue to provide their wholehearted support to us.
With slowing economic growth and weak stock market activity, what challenges do you anticipate in retaining United Securities' position as the best brandin Omanmarket?
Ours is a customer-centric organisation. Our customers are at the core of our business, and we provide very detailed individual attention to each and every one of our customers. We don't segregate our customers based on service quality. For us, a very small retail investor is as important as a very large corporate or government entity.
While the quantum of business that we do with large institutional investors is very large, the amount invested by a retail investor would be high in comparison to their disposable income. So this small investment would be very dear to them, and you gain their confidence and loyalty when you understand this and treat them accordingly. Our people are very well trained, experienced, and are experts in their individual fields of expertise, and they are specially trained in offering highest quality customer service.
Yes, we are going through a challenging time, and any changes in the economic situation are immediately reflected in the financial services sector. Despite the current external circumstances, we are not sitting idle. We have expanded our service offering to markets outside the country and region, where economies are doing well. We are using the advancements in technology to our advantage, and provide a diverse set of markets to our clients.
We haveanassociate company in Egypt, where the market has performed well this year; we enhanced our US trading desk, which offers clients the opportunity to trade in the North Americanmarkets. We have a multi-pronged strategy for customer retention, which includesintroduction of new innovative products for investors with varying degrees of risk tolerance. Our asset-management services will be expanded beyond the region, to help in risk diversification. We hope to attract more new investors from untapped segments through these products.
With persisting weak trading activity on the local bourse, what is your general business outlook for investment companies next year?
Low oil prices and weak economic growth have had their effect on financial service companies in the same way as other sectors. The value of shares traded in Oman has declined by around 30 per cent during the past ten months as compared to the previous year's levels. This holds true for other regional markets as well. Additionally, market performance has also been very subdued since 2014.
This poses a challenging situation for investment-service companies, particularly smaller ones. They find it difficult to even to cover fixed overheads. We are likely to see some consolidation in the sector next year; there are some developments to that effect.
Another trend that I see is expansion of service offerings. Adding new markets for brokerage companies and offering new products covering other economies and asset classes for asset management companies are to name a few.
How do you maintainUnited Securities'market share and brand image?
We maintain a diverse set of customers. Some of them might be active always. As we see now, retail investors are dormant right now, but we are gathering business from local and foreign institutions, who are active now.
Once the markets recover, we will see more retail participation. Our customer-retention strategy is very simple: Knowing the needs of each set of customers and going the extra mile to serve them; this is instilled in our work culture. This results in customer delight, and loyalty. We do this in the best way that we can, and it helps us in customer retention.
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