While he was still a presidential candidate, Mike Bloomberg ran an ad campaign that, while it may not have been too well-received, can teach us something about what works on social media — and what doesn’t.Bloomberg hired popular Instagram accounts to post memes about him with the intent of building a more relatable, self-aware persona, but the plan Read More
The financial industry is being reinvented as mobile-first generations grow in buying power. Physical branches sit empty as customers flock to digital solutions. Almost everything customers want to do can be done online — and millennials and Gen Z prefer it that way. All of this creates trouble for marketers in financial services companies. How can they update Read More
Can marketing’s creative, spontaneous spirit productively partner with IT’s more structured, security-obsessed culture? It has to. The most brilliant big ideas produced by the marketing team will go nowhere fast if the technology needed to execute is not properly identified, executed and managed. At fintechs, traditional banks and credit unions alike, the marketing technology stack and functionality Read More
Let’s say your bank or credit union wants to raise its customer experience game. What step would you take first? Balloons in the branch lobby? A cute email on the customer’s birthday? Or how about something substantial—like New Math 101? “The first is that you have to acknowledge and understand that customer satisfaction, management and monitoring is Read More
Here’s how I think about successful customer relationships these days: Entanglement does not equal engagement. The way we do business now, in trying to become our customers’ primary financial institution, we entangle them: We get them in and then make it hard for them to “undo” the relationship web we’ve created. Direct deposit represents a great example. Read More
Financial services professionals traditionally see their marketing efforts through the lens of the “sales funnel” or “marketing funnel”; it’s been that way for decades. But working within that model could actually cause you to miss out on the majority of a customer’s potential lifetime value—most of which occurs after the initial transaction. That demands reimagining what’s possible. Read More
While social media has become an important marketing channel in the financial services industry, many banks maintain a presence simply for the sake of it. And those platforms—whether on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat—are just too crowded to embrace the wishful thinking of “If you build it, they will come.” Think of it this way: Would banks Read More
Like an overwhelming number of banks, Wells Fargo wants to treat its customers individually. It wants to know what products and services they want based on their life and financial situations. And in making a clean break from its past, it doesn’t want to suggest products its customers don’t need or already have—or have turned down a Read More
In an age when so much stress is placed on customer experience, financial institutions need to keep an eye on the safeguards that guarantee success. Terry Ammons, partner at PKM, explains how savvy banks can take security measures to the next level. Listen weekly on BAI Banking Strategies or subscribe to the podcast via: iTunes Stitcher Soundcloud Google Play You can listen Read More
For all the noise surrounding customer experience, dialing in to the best practices and effective strategies is another story. Kerim Tumay, vice president of marketing for Kiran Analytics (a Verint company), explains how outstanding in-person interactions can drive an overall customer experience that ensures loyalty and gives banks an edge in the marketplace. For more insights from Read More
While financial institutions know data holds the key to success, many haven't figured out how to collect it or what exactly to do with it. Kunal Chopra, leader of Gradient Ascent's financial services practice, sheds light on how banks can move forward with data, artificial intelligence and more. For more in-depth insights from Kunal Chopra check out Read More
As the financial services industry begins a new year, three topics are sure to dominate the agendas of many banks. How can institutions win the talent war? How can they use data and analytics to give consumers the experiences they want? And how can banks leverage customer empathy to stand out from the competition? Join BAI president Read More
Are branches here to stay or going away? Is more high tech a good thing or an obstacle to human connection? The questions won't go away; smart answers are hard to find. Enter David Kerstein, president of Peak Performance Consulting Group, who shares with us his equally nuanced and no-nonsense views on what’s ahead for branch banking. Read More
If you’ve ever wondered why banks should teach employees serious content in amusing and engaging ways, consider the bottom-line effect it can have on customer interaction and experience. John Findlay, founder and CEO of Launchfire, walks listeners through the benefits of gamification and how it takes talent management to the next level. Listen weekly on BAI Banking Strategies or subscribe to the Read More
When it comes to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, compliance isn’t exactly up there with celebrity news. But it hardly matters, given this: The very nature of financial industry regulation creates a chilling effect on any attempt made to market it. An alphabet soup of regulatory bodies such as the FFIEC, FINRA and the SEC—along with government-enforced legislation Read More
Once upon a toaster, banks wooed customers with kitchen gadgets, piggy banks and points rewards on credit cards. Some still do it. But the fintechs? Not so much, if at all. Toast itself is more like it. SoFi, for example, holds “payoff celebrations,” where members celebrate their debt payoff. And Final Four parties. And wine tastings. Other Read More
Here’s to the artificial intelligence-driven bots that comb troves of consumer data, analyze the information and then reliably predict what a customer needs. But that’s only half the story. It takes the softer, intuitive human touch to convert those machine-crafted insights into a seamless, personalized customer experience. It goes beyond the chatbot experience that some banks have Read More
The tired stereotype of banks handing out toasters to attract new customers is alive and well but in a more 21st Century form. One of North America’s largest retail banks recently lured potential new customers by offering free 28-inch Samsung televisions to anyone who opened a checking account. Add a credit card and you can have a Read More
Many executives and marketing professionals view consumer loyalty as the Holy Grail: Simply put, loyal customers will stay with you and give your bank a stable customer base and stable revenue for years to come. Loyalty ranks as so important that most metrics used to assess consumers, such as a promoter score, focus on that trait and Read More
At a recruiting open house at ESL Federal Credit Union’s Rochester, N.Y. headquarters, Maureen Wolfe discovered—much to her delight—that members of the recently formed young professionals organization ranked as her institution’s most passionate brand ambassadors. “We drew upon our young professionals at the event, and I was amazed at how well they did,” says Wolfe, ESL’s senior Read More
