News & Updates
Truebridge Appoints Casey Roberts National Sales Manager
Senior executive will provide solutions to a financial services industry that is searching for new sources of revenue
BOSTON, Mass. (January 11, 2012). Truebridge, Inc. (www.truebridge.com), a leader in marketing for the financial services industry, announces the appointment of Casey Roberts as EVP of National Sales. Truebridge provides innovative marketing services to help financial institutions increase revenue through more effective cross selling.
This addition is a major step in fulfilling the Truebridge goal of adding more value through a consultative approach. Roberts will lead the way in offering marketing solutions that align with client goals and are implemented in a way that show results.
“Casey is well positioned to get under the hood and really understand the issues and also help see and capitalize on the opportunities,” says Stewart Rose, President of Truebridge. “He has had a tremendous amount of experience and success in generating cross sell revenue, having run the investment program at Sovereign Bank where he grew their program tenfold in 10 years. He knows what goes on in the branches and he understands the challenges to cross selling.”
“This has never been more important than it is today,” according to Roberts. “With the new regulations in place and margins squeezed by the low interest rate environment, financial institutions need to generate more sales without adding associated cost. They have made a big investment in their branch network and now they need to leverage it for more than deposit gathering. At the same time, many traditional lead generating techniques are... Read More >>
New Tool Means More Sales in the Branches
BOSTON, Mass. (December 7, 2011). Truebridge, Inc. (www.truebridge.com), a leader in marketing for the financial services industry, announces the launch of a new version of a tool that greatly facilitates the generation of referrals and sales appointments by frontline branch employees, Branch Lead Maker.
Truebridge has created this tool to help banks realize the enormous opportunity they have to leverage frequent customer contact into stronger and more profitable relationships.
The system has been built especially for ease of operation in a retail branch environment. Branch Lead Maker provides frontline branch employees with a fast and easy way to generate sales leads for all of the products and services offered by the bank. For customers, it means easier access to the exact person at the bank that can help them with the financial needs that they face throughout their life, from buying a house to living in retirement. For the bank, it means an increased share of wallet, more profitable customers, and a higher return from their branch system.
Many factors have made it difficult for frontline employees to be an effective conduit between branch visitors and the people at the bank that can help them with more of their financial needs. Some of the challenges include the fast paced transactional environment of a typical branch and, in some cases, high turnover. “Opportunities are missed all the time because frontline employees are so busy and find it difficult to track down the right sales person and their schedule. Many of the lead generating and tracking systems out there today either don’t do enough or are way too complex so they don’t get used,” says Stewart Rose,... Read More >>
Laconia Savings Bank Launches Financial Answer Center
New Hampshire – November 21, 2011 – Laconia Savings Bank is pleased to introduce a great new website tool on www.laconiasavings.com. The Financial Answer Center, an education based system, provides customers with immediate answers to hundreds of financial questions and instantly provides contact information for the person at the bank best suited to assist them.
“At Laconia Savings Bank, we strive to be a financial resource for our customers. In addition to providing traditional bank products and services, we now provide them with the information they need to make informed decisions about their personal finances,” said Mark Primeau, President and CEO of Laconia Savings Bank. “Consumers often need financial guidance in their lives. When our customers need assistance or financial expertise, we want them to know they can turn to us.”
Laconia Savings Bank’s new Financial Answer Center is an extension of the commitment to their customers and their communities and provides articles such as buying and selling a home, cash and debt management, running your business, investing, saving for college, understanding estate taxes and much more. Laconia Savings Bank’s new Financial Answer Center is available at http://answers.laconiasavings.com/.
Laconia Savings Bank, founded in 1831, provides deposit, lending and wealth management services to families and businesses throughout New Hampshire. With 19 community offices within the state and assets exceeding $1 billion, Laconia Savings Bank is the largest independent bank in New Hampshire. Because Laconia Savings Bank is a mutual organization, it doesn’t answer to stock... Read More >>
New Financial Answers Facebook App for Banks
BOSTON, Mass. (November 16, 2011). Truebridge, Inc. (www.truebridge.com), a leader in education-based marketing for the financial services industry, announces the launch of a new Facebook app for banks, Financial Answers.
The new app enables banks to provide their customers with the information and guidance they urgently seek and, importantly, delivers this information in a way that attracts customers to more bank products and services. The interactive Facebook app allows banks to provide their customers with a simple way to uncover financial needs that may not be apparent to them. “What people don’t realize is that so many of us are blind to the most important financial decisions that we need to make. People get surprised all the time, in many cases after it’s too late,” says Stewart Rose, president of Truebridge. “This app can put banks in a position to help their customers see needs and get answers.”
Inside the bank’s Facebook page, customers simply click on the app titled “What You Should Know” and answer a short list of simple yes/no questions. For example, “Do you have kids at home?” The combined answers reveal likely needs and generate a series of questions that the customer should probably be asking. Under each question are links to the educational content that provides the answers and access to the exact person at the bank who can provide the personal help they are looking for. For one couple, it could mean starting a college saving plan early, for another, it could mean making the right choice with the distribution of their retirement plan.
Truebridge has created the app as a response to the enormous popularity of... Read More >>
Make content marketing increase your company’s share of wallet
September 2010 – Truebridge and one of our clients were recently featured in an online article of Target Magazine. The article which was written by Jeff Molander, titled Give Them Value, describes how many marketers want to help customers make better decisions by becoming the source of trusted information and how few are actually turning this practice into leads and increased referrals.
If you have any questions or would like to learn more about how our clients are using the Truebridge system to generate referrals, contact Pat Larkin at 800-476-6118 ext. 104 or send in a request to learn more about the EducateFirst Financial Marketing System.
Also try our new “Share of Wallet” Revenue Calculator to help gauge your opportunity for increased revenue by building your share of wallet and earning more revenue from your customers.
Read more >>
TwinStar Credit Union Announces New Service Featuring Member Education
Olympia, WA, May 18, 2010 — TwinStar Credit Union has announced a new member service featuring an online Financial Answer Center. The education-based service provides members with immediate answers to hundreds of financial questions and instantly connects them to the person at the credit union who can help. Members can access the Financial Answer Center via TwinStar Credit Union’s Web site at http://www.twinstarcu.com/resources.
“We want to give our members the information they need to make more informed decisions,” said Mary Beth Spuck, assistant vice president of TwinStar Credit Union. “People are looking to build their financial knowledge to help with many aspects of their lives. When our members go looking for help, we want to offer them the resources they need.”
According to Spuck, the Financial Answer Center is designed to help people identify and understand financial needs that may not be apparent to them. “One of the problems that many of us face is we don’t recognize what we need until it’s too late,” Spuck said.
“The Financial Answer Center works in two ways,” Spuck said. “First, it is used directly by TwinStar members as a resource to get answers, uncover needs, and find the exact person at TwinStar Credit Union who can provide personal help. Second, our frontline branch employees use it everyday during account opening or servicing to create dialogues with members and set up appointments on the spot.”
“We’re in the service business,” Spuck said. “Our goal is to provide help on our members’ terms. We introduced our new Financial Answer Center as an extension of that commitment. Members can access the Financial Answer Center anytime on... Read More >>
Truebridge Client Featured in article – “Teach Your Clients Well” (Bank Investment Consultant)
In the January 2010 issue of Bank Investment Consultant magazine both Truebridge and one of our clients, AnchorBank, were highlighted in an article. The title of the article is “Teach Your Clients Well: How Truebridge’s turnkey system made referrals easier for Anchor’s branch staff” and it was written by Steve Garmhausen.
If you have any questions or would like to learn more about how AnchorBank is using the Truebridge system to generate referrals, contact Luke Owen at 800-476-6118 ext. 104 or send in a request to learn more about the EducateFirst Financial Marketing System.... Read More >>
“Banks Unlock Cross-Selling Solution” – Community Banker
As seen in the section, The Lobby, in the November 2009 issue of Community Banker
It’s no secret across the banking industry that cross-selling has fallen far short of its early promise. That fact makes the success of Sovereign Bank all the more impressive.
Sovereign, a $78 billion-asset institution based in Philadelphia, has seen referrals to its retail investments unit rise between 15 and 20 percent in each of the past three years. “And the quality of those referrals has been higher as well,” said Casey Roberts, a Sovereign senior vice president, who is director of retail investments.
Sovereign is not the only bank that has solved the cross-selling riddle: A growing number said they have dramatically improved results by throwing away the traditional playbook and using a customer-centered approach. Partnering with Boston-based Truebridge Financial Marketing, they have implemented a new, low-cost marketing system that uses customer education to deliver more loyalty and profitability.
“Our improvement over the past five years in cross-selling has been remarkable,” said Gerard Lavoie, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Dedham Institution for Savings, a $1 billion-asset mutual institution in Massachusetts.
THE QUEST FOR CROSS-SELLING
There’s no question that cross-selling is the Holy Grail of banking. It allows banks to win a greater share of customers’ wallets, and it ties those customers more closely to the institution.
Truebridge launches “Education First” Employee Recognition Program
We have added a new program to EducateFirst Content Marketing System called the “Education First” recognition program. The program works hand in hand with our in-branch training process, which teaches employees to use the educational materials (Quick Guides) to start dialogs and generate referrals.
Upon completion of either the online training modules or through a customized training webinar, employees will receive in the mail a certificate and cover letter signed by their manager that reinforces the importance of using education available in their online Financial Answer Center and downloadable Quick Guides as a dialog starter. Also included is a one page “cheat sheet” as a helpful reminder for how to use the marketing handouts and Quick Guides during a routine customer transaction.
If you would like to learn more about this program, please contact your account manager at 800-476-6118.... Read More >>
United Nations Federal Credit Union uses Truebridge to boost cross selling and referrals
U.N. Credit Union Cross-Sells for Fast Wealth-Unit Growth
Published: Tuesday, September 29, 2009
By – Matt Ackermann
A few months ago, Stephen J. Ryerson got an e-mail from a customer in Sarajevo looking for automobile insurance.
To most financial services companies this would seem odd, but when you work for a credit union that caters to employees of the United Nations and their immediate families, nothing is unusual.
“‘Flexible’ and ‘nimble’ are my middle initials these days,” said Ryerson, the president of United Nations Federal Credit Union’s wealth management arm, UNFCU Financial Advisors. “There is just nothing typical about what we do. We aren’t Bank of America or Merrill Lynch. We are meeting the needs of international customers our way.”
This mentality has helped beef up the credit union’s investment business, and it is a cross-selling example that even big companies could learn from.
A survey of 4,600 Americans by Forrester Research said that four in 10 are open to buying more products from a single financial services company but, because of “a nearly industrywide failure to cross-sell,” most do not.
On average, consumers own nearly nine financial products – but just 2.5 of them with any single company.
Ryerson would have loved even that kind of production when he was hired in... Read More >>
