Financial Marketing and Cross Selling Blog
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.
How to Restore Branch Profitability
Mary Beth Sullivan from Capital Performance Group, in her recent blog article The Future of Branches: Reinvention in the Banking Strategies section of the BAI website proposed an interesting solution to retail branch profitability. It’s called sales. She referenced a huge market that banks can own by leveraging their branch network. This market is people who are looking for advice. Martha Stewart realized this a long time ago and built a business around it. People want to be told what to do. It holds true in personal finances as well. People are looking for simple and easy to understand information and guidance from someone they trust. And they will do business with the one who is there to provide it. This includes the enormous baby boom generation that has been turned upside down by the Great Recession. They want to be told what to do as they face retirement – without the confusing jargon.
While WE are Cross Selling, THEY are Cross Buying
It is the classic battle between WE and THEY in the financial banking arena. You know your consumers (THEY) need the products and services that you offer but you struggle to find a process that effectively allows them to buy multiple products and services. How can you bridge the gap between WE and THEY and make it an US relationship?
In the May 2011 issue of Bank Investment Consultant, Elizabeth Wine brings up some very valid points about the importance of cross selling and the poor execution that is happening inside many financial institutions.
Managing the cross sell is a task that does not have an end. To do it well, you should never be ‘done’. The art of cross selling involves all parties within the financial institution to be working together. The same BIC article also stated that “ninety percent of a recent BIC survey respondents said the support of senior management was critical for the successful implementation of a cross sell program.” Read more >>
A Lesson in Sales for Banks – Education Works Wonders
This story goes back to the mid 90’s but I will never forget it. It was a Saturday morning and I was standing in the kitchen when the phone rang. (This was before the “do not call” lists that we have today.) My young daughter answered and said, “Daddy, it’s for you.” As she handed me the phone, a pleasant sounding woman on the other end said, “Hi, I’m from MCI, and I’m calling to explain how our long distance service can save you money.” Now flash back to the time that MCI was making inroads into the long distance business that had been dominated by AT&T by offering lower long distance rates. I had always been with AT&T. In my mind, they were the standard and I was not interested in saving a few cents per minute for what I assumed was an inferior service.
Having been in sales as a cold calling stockbroker early in my career, I tried to be polite in my response, but I also wanted to be direct. I responded, “For the past two years I have seen your advertising, I have had countless direct mail pieces show up in my mailbox, and I am really not interested, but thank you for the call.” As a sales person knowing what you’re up against in cold calling, I was absolutely floored when I heard her response. She said, “You’re just the person I want to talk to?” How could I be just the person she wants to talk to when I said, “No thanks”? She continued without hesitation, “Most people don’t understand one key fact about long distance... Read More >>
Creating a Service Oriented Sales Culture
In a recent GonzoBanker newsletter, Steve Williams makes the case that sales culture in banks is dead and a new chapter of sales culture is about to begin with the hope that banks have the chance to get it right this time.
In this well written piece, he states, “Across the country, many banks have 10+ years of effort on sales culture without significant improvement in results, but fail to question if they are even building the right mouse trap.” He challenges banks to develop a new type of sales culture built by creating value for customers. In other words, provide a service that customers find valuable that, at the same time, initiates dialogues and creates sales.
What kind of service will do this for banks? To find the answer, you only need to look at what customers are facing today. Customers are scared. For many, the bottom has fallen out of their retirement savings. They are fearful of losing their job. They feel they have no place to turn for answers. The world as they knew it has changed.
And the world too has changed for bankers. In many cases – trust – the backbone of the customer relationship – has eroded. For banks to acquire and retain customers today they need to focus more and more on the value customers see in their bank relationship. The new customer experience needs to go beyond an array of product offerings.
To build strong relationships, banks... Read More >>
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