Financial Marketing and Cross Selling Blog
With Less Branch Traffic, Multi-Channel Marketing is a Must for Banks
According to a recent article entitled Piloting for Multi-Channel Marketing by Alan Schiffres and Jim Bramlett of the bank consulting firm Novantas LLC, about 25% of retail bank customers almost never visit a branch after opening their first account and 50% are big users of remote channels instead of a branch. So how is a bank supposed to increase its cross selling when fewer customers are coming into the branch? That question is especially pressing now, when cross selling is seen as a necessity to shore up fee revenue lost under the new Dodd Frank regulation.
There is a way. Let’s think about how educational information links to a sale. Imagine that you want to build a fence in your back yard. It’s likely that you will seek information on how to build the fence before you buy the fence posts. Lots of top retailers are well aware of that. It is why Home Depot has educational information on fence building not only in their store but on their website where they can catch your eye while you are looking for help. They know quite well that if they provide the helpful information that you are looking for, you are likely to come to them to buy the fence posts.
Cross Selling Continues to be a Top Priority of Bank and Credit Union Marketing
According to the recent 2012 Bank and Credit Union Financial Marketing Survey developed by Jim Marous of Bank Marketing Strategy and Jeffry Pilcher of The Financial Brand, cross selling is at the top of the list of marketing priorities. With fee revenue under pressure from new federal regulation, it is not surprising that generating more revenue per customer is so important. This is nothing new. Looking at this year’s Grant Thornton LLP’s 18th Annual Bank Executive Survey, along with previous years’ surveys, you will see that organic growth (cross selling) has been a top priority for quite some time. Read more >>
How Can Banks Use Social Media to Improve Customer Service?
What does customer service mean to you? Personally when I think of customer service, I can’t help but have my thoughts be overshadowed by frustrating experiences, automated call services and plenty of dead ends. If you provide any product or service, no matter what it may be, you have to be 100% dedicated to assist your customers when something goes wrong. You can’t simply provide a service and then turn a cold shoulder on your customers when something goes wrong. Customer service is a HUGE factor in how your brand is viewed and when your customers need help with your products or services, they should be able to count on you to provide them the information that will help them, which in turn will increase their loyalty to you in the long run. You may be reading this now and thinking that the connotations attached to a brand’s customer service is something that is hard to change. However, I was recently involved in a scenario with a certain internet service provider that left me utterly amazed.
The path to more fee income for financial institutions
It’s been discussed time and time again – banks need more fee income to remain stable in this volatile market. For the past few years this type of revenue has been mainly based on fees from debit card use and overdraft protection. According to a recent Gonzobanker article, 80% of fee income comes from these two sources.
It’s no secret that these two sources are now in danger of falling off the cliff. In this same Gonzobanker article, they suggest taking an account analysis approach to retail customers, similar to how small business accounts are handled to determine if certain fees will occur or not based on the accounts activity every month. While I’m not against this approach, I feel strongly that growing out a relationship versus changing up the way a customers existing services are priced has greater potential for both the bank and the customer.