Given the pressures that banks and other financial service organizations are under in the current economic climate, the challenge of defining and establishing best practice customer engagement models has never been more important. To quote the great Yogi Berra, “it’s not a matter of life or death; it’s much more serious than that.”
At Mulberry Consulting we think about this in terms of helping clients become more
Customer Intelligent. For us it’s about measuring an organization’s customer-facing capabilities, understanding what’s truly important to customers, and then establishing a framework within which a brand’s value proposition can be operationalized. Particularly in financial services,
Customer Intelligent companies tend to be better at acquiring and retaining customers, better at reducing churn, and better at leveraging customer insights effectively. But perhaps most importantly,
Customer Intelligent organizations know what they stand for. They have a clearly articulated value proposition, and they’ve defined the customer experience delivery needed at every touch point to support that proposition.
A good example of a Customer Intelligent organization is Canada’s TD Bank. It’s no accident that they just won J.D. Power’s Retail Banking Customer Satisfaction Award for the fourth year in a row. Their convenience-based value proposition - originated by Commerce Bank, which TD acquired - comes directly from the insight that they’re a retailer rather than a banker, and has allowed them to align their operations behind that idea, from end to end and across multiple touch-points.
One insight that we would offer from our own work with retail banking clients is the need for organizations to understand which touch points have the greatest potential to create – or to erode – equity in relation to a given value proposition. Clearly many touch points represent table-stakes for a retail bank – reliable automated transactions, online information and offerings, accurate statements and so on. These can certainly erode value if there are problems, but they also do little to build positive equity because they’re simply expected to work. In general it’s the more complex touch points - opening and closing accounts, particular service requirements, and particularly problem resolution – that have far greater potential to create or destroy equity. And it’s no accident that these all tend to involve direct interaction between staff and customers. We help our clients identify and then manage the high value touch points that are specific to their particular business.
A good example of customer focus being made intrinsic to a brand’s value proposition can be seen in the positioning adopted this year by Ally Bank in the USA (not a client), which is the reincarnation of GMAC Financial Services. Ally promises complete transparency on rates and terms, vows not to hide behind jargon and legalese, eschews teasers and bait-and-switch tactics, and employs the slogan “Straightforward.” Its website offers such customer-friendly gestures as a 24-hour service line that connects to live representatives, complete with a “current wait time” indicator. In its mission statement Ally say that they want to “find the pain points of traditional banking and improve them.” It sounds to us as though someone there did some customer journey mapping and has been paying attention to customer experience best practices!
It’s also worth noting that external circumstances can change customer priorities. A year ago at the height of the financial crisis the overwhelming customer need was for reassurance as to banks’ stability and ongoing viability. Now, with the crisis easing,
Customer Intelligent banks are starting to look for new insights into how the recession may have changed customers’ thinking – perhaps permanently.
For an example of a company responding to changing customer needs, look at one of the largest US mutual fund and brokerage organizations. When the equity markets collapsed in 2008 the company faced major outflows from its mutual funds. Critically however, they also had the insight that their customers’ primary need in the crisis was for reassurance, so their response was to reverse a previous strategy of driving for greater online automation, and to focus on making personal contact with higher net worth individuals, despite the higher cost of doing so. The program included increased personal outreach by account executives, invitations to local financial seminars, conference calls with fund managers, follow-up email, CSAT surveys, and so on. The point is that a
Customer Intelligent organization like this one is close enough to its customers to understand when priorities have changed, and is also flexible enough to adjust its strategies accordingly.
For more information visit:
http://www.mulberryconsulting.com/