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Never has pouring a beer engendered so much media hype. Of course, I’m talking about the press around Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters pouring a fan a beer while on stage at a Foo Fighters concert a while back. What does pouring a beer have to do with banking?

Granted, you can’t – at least in your official capacity as their banker – buy a customer a beer. (What you do on your own time is your business!) But you can show the equivalent amount of understanding and compassion in other ways. 

What if you took advantage of SMS (Short Message Service) capabilities/opportunities and simply texted your customers every now and then?  Simple messages that, for instance, ask: “How are we doing?” or, better still, “Is there anything we can do for you?”  Offering a compliment or offering assistance seem like simple propositions. How hard is it?  Well, unfortunately, many find it remarkably hard.  When was the last time someone told you something, or asked you something, that actually made you feel good?  Rare even in the best of times and now, with a pandemic that has isolated us, rarer still.

It’s a known fact, yet often ignored, that a little caring goes a long way. And folks need it now more than ever. According to apnews, “the coronavirus pandemic has put millions of Americans out of work, but even many of those still working are fearful, distressed and stretched thin. A quarter of U.S. workers say they have even considered quitting their jobs as worries related to the pandemic weigh on them.”

In their recent article, Delivering Trust with Empathy – Where Next for Financial Brands, brandingmag.com tells us that “consumers engage with brands that understand their lifestyle and life stage. Financial brands really need to understand what matters to their customers…”

True. Importantly though, however, financial institutions need to do more than that. “Understanding customers” means more than simply offering products or services that happen to coincide well with a customer’s needs at that particular moment in their buyer journey. It’s almost like saying, “hey, we’re not here to sell you anything.  We just want to know how you are.”  Sounds odd, doesn’t it? That’s because, unfortunately, people seldom take the time to offer their appreciation or understanding.  While it might be a case of feeling it, but not expressing it because it can be uncomfortable, the result is the same; it doesn’t get said.

Grohl didn’t have to offer that fan a beer.  After all, the guy was already a fan, already in the audience and had, obviously, already purchased a ticket to be there. No sell was necessary. It was simply a completely selfless gesture.  And that’s what makes it all the more powerful.

About Bank Marketing Center

Here at BankMarketingCenter.com, our goal is to help you with that vital, topical, and compelling communication with customers; messaging that will help you build trust, relationships, and with them, your brand.

To view our marketing creative, both print and digital – ranging from product and brand ads to in-branch brochures and signage –  visit bankmarketingcenter.com.  Or, you can contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com.  As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

The Arkansas Bankers Association (ABA) announced on October 18, 2020 their endorsement of BankMarketingCenter.com (BMC), a web-based marketing portal that empowers banks to quickly and easily produce professionally designed, bank-branded marketing materials. Through the endorsement, ABA members will save 20 percent on BMC's already low-cost monthly subscription fees.

BankMarketingCenter.com offers more than 3,000 professionally designed marketing materials and is constantly adding new content. Through the portal, users can route their customized materials to their bank's compliance department for approval, and everything is automatically archived and easily recalled for regulatory exams. Users have access to a library of over nine million stock photos from Getty Images.

"The web-based marketing portal that Bank Marketing Center utilizes is going to change the marketing game for our community banks in Arkansas. Bank Marketing Center has thousands of pre-designed marketing materials including ads, direct mail, statement stuffers, flyers, posters, and more. Our banks can customize these marketing materials within minutes, saving valuable time and money! We are pleased to welcome Bank Marketing Center to the ABA as an Endorsed Vendor," said Lorrie Trogden, President/CEO of Arkansas Bankers Association.

"We are thrilled to have won the endorsement of the Arkansas Bankers Association and look forward to building relationships with all of the wonderful banks in The Natural State," said BMC Founder and President Neal Reynolds. "I am pleased to say that this is the twentieth endorsement we've received from state banking associations."

For over 10 years, BankMarketingCenter.com has worked with hundreds of banks of all sizes and is currently partnering with 300 financial institutions. Community banks are able to create their own professionally designed marketing materials in seconds, saving valuable time and money. Larger banks are able to have their own private labeled marketing portal, giving their branches the marketing tools they need while still protecting the bank's brand and compliance.

The Arkansas Bankers Association was established in 1897. It is the state's largest and oldest banking industry organization and represents banks, bank holding companies, and savings & loans in Arkansas. The ABA provides a variety of member services, including educational programs, products and services, publications and a comprehensive government relations program.

Cnbc.com stated on August 27, that “25% of U.S. malls are expected to shut within 5 years. With a report circulating earlier this month that the biggest U.S. mall owner, Simon Property Group, has been in talks with Amazon to convert some shuttered Sears and J.C. Penney department stores into fulfillment centers, many industry analysts have been pontificating on the future of malls as logistics hubs.” 

While shuttered retail stores might make great fulfillment centers for the likes of Amazon, what can financial institutions do with their Triassic Period branches?  Video arcade?  Internet café? Maybe museums dedicated to what banking used to be; displays could include teller stations, pens chained to desks, check books displayed in glass cases along with the Mr. Coffee® machine and powdered creamer.

Kidding aside, branch banking, I think, is as dead as the retail shopping experience.

There’s been, of course, lots of back and forth on the fate of branch banking.  Some like Renaud LaPlanche, CDO of Upgrade – as quoted in the Bankdive May 6 article, Do Bank Branches Have A future?, speculates that “Americans are forming habits that could continue once the pandemic is over. People are understanding that they don't really need a branch for a lot of the transactions they want to accomplish.”  Others, like Andrew Cecere, Chairman, President and CEO of US Bank, in a Financial Brand interview, said that  “…branches will always be important to and a key part of how we serve customers…”

It’s a tough call to make, best left, probably to the reliable ol’ Magic 8 Ball.

Will branch banking survive the pandemic?  “Doubtful,” says 8 Ball.  That’s because, in my opinion, branch banking has never offered the “value add” that the shopping experience did for consumer goods… and look what happened to shopping?! 

According to Accenture’s Financial Services, and this was back in 2017, “online banking has become the preferred way for North American consumers to access their banking services, with two-thirds (65 percent) using online banking at least weekly. The one exception is Gen Z consumers, as more than two-thirds (69 percent) of this group prefer to bank via a mobile app, making mobile the preferred banking channel for today’s youngest consumers.”

Seniors and GenZers who, as far as I can tell, once seemed like the last two segments of the population that even considered branch banking, have now moved away from it; in favor of the online and app experiences they’ve more or less been forced to adopt over the last six months. 

It’s too late for retailers to rethink their business models and strategies in order to survive the onslaught of e-commerce.  Is it too late for banks?  Perhaps not.  But banks need to start to really think out of the box.  What does a branch experience really bring?  Throwing some teller pods, booths, video conference rooms and café-style lounges with Keurig® machines into a 2500 square-foot space does not a branch bank make. From Independent Banker: “Some industry research predicts that there could be another 40 to 50 percent decline in the transaction volume within bank branches over the next decade” However, statistically, 80 percent of all consumers prefer to walk into a physical branch to open up a new account.” 

So, do we need retail banking centers or not?

Perhaps it makes sense for banks to consolidate branches and, at the same time expand, using “micro” branches to tap into new markets and that new-account-opening opportunity. But, those branches can’t be what we’re seeing.  Capital One cafes, Bank of America virtual centers, and PNC pop-up branches (shipping containers with windows and a coat of paint that can be dragged by a pick-up truck) are at least attempts at revolutionizing the retail banking center experience.  Are they working? I’d love to know as there doesn’t seem to be much evidence out there one way or the other. Some are staffed, some are not; kind of like Home Depot nowadays, where employees are there to help you at self check if the card processor won’t spit out your receipt.  To me, these branch concepts are a lot like carnival fun houses… minus the fun.

C’mon, banking industry. We can do better.

I remember when I was growing up, a service station was truly that. As you pulled in and ran over that little black rubber pipe, a bell rang inside and someone would literally run out to pump your gas, check your oil, and clean your windshield. Those days are over. Now the successful service stations in Florida, for instance, are selling everything from Hot Donuts to Boiled Peanuts to Alligator Heads.

Asking people to walk into an 800 square-foot, pseudo space age shipping container for the same services they can get while sitting on their couch is not a winning proposition. Maybe banks need to think of other products to sell or services to offer. How about “Bank and Brew,” where customers can enjoy both financial guidance and their favor IPA? It could give new meaning to the phrase, “bank draft”!?  Or, maybe banking is best left to the SmartPhone…

About Bank Marketing Center

Here at BankMarketingCenter.com, our goal is to help you with that vital, topical, and compelling communication with customers; messaging that will help you build trust, relationships, and with them, your brand. Visit our site now to view the professionally prepared campaigns that you can easily customize and put in front of your customers in just minutes. 

To view our creative, both print and digital, and ranging from product and brand ads to in-branch brochures and signage, visit bankmarketingcenter.com.  Or, you can contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com.  As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

I bank, at least partially, with one of the big, national institutions and was recently unpleasantly surprised by my interactions with them. This prompted me to put some thoughts to paper.  While I appreciate this institution’s “transformed digital experience,” I don’t appreciate what has transpired between us over the last couple of days.

First, the email I received regarding increased fees for checking accounts. The email informed me that in order to continue to enjoy no-fee checking, I had to maintain a certain monthly balance.  When I called the bank and asked them why they were now going to be charging me a monthly fee, they did a bit of research and determined that the fee would not apply to my account and that “I should not have received that email.”

Just a few days later, I visited the same institution in person, via the drive-thru, to get a money order. When I was told that there was a fee, I asked the teller if that really and truly applied to account holders and was told, “no, the money orders are free to customers.”  I drove away congratulating myself for having just saved a few dollars, but later discovered that the teller had, in fact, taken the fee out of my account.

Now, like many, I’m a big fan of mobile banking and feel my “big” bank does a pretty good job of it. I love being able to deposit checks and withdraw funds without, especially right now, having to go to a branch; terrific.  Why then, am I ready to change banks and probably would if I weren’t so deeply entrenched in this one? 

Because they just don’t seem to care.

Offering services such as mobile check capture, I think, is easy.  It’s table stakes stuff.  I also bank with a much smaller community institution and their mobile banking is, to me, almost as good.  I say “almost” because, admittedly, the big bank digital experience really is superior. But a banking relationship is not based on the digital banking experience alone; whether it’s true or not, it sure seems like one bank cares about me and the other, frankly, doesn’t. Is this really that hard? I mean, if you can’t show your customers the love they deserve, can’t you at least show them that you can get stuff right??

Financial institutions have a huge opportunity right now. Some are taking it, some are blowing it.  Banks need to remember that their customers are not the likes of R2D2 and C3PO.  And, they need to grasp the fact that offering a fabulous digital experience can do very little for their business if they can’t do the most basic blocking and tackling that attracts and retains customers. 

There’s a bit of a Catch-22 here.  While online  banking can help banks cut costs – eliminating the costs associated with maintaining branches and employees – I believe that those branches and employees provide people with what they want and need from their bank.  There are, of course, some who would disagree.  Studies show that bank customers are decreasingly interested in advisory services, which one would extrapolate to the argument for eliminating branches and employees.  Perhaps, though, the banking customers expectations are simply lower than that.  By that, I mean that while customers are not looking to their bank for advisory services, they are looking to their bank for those simple, blocking and tackling services. That may not be love, but for most banking customers, perhaps a little bit of appreciation and understanding is enough.

Is that so very hard?  Apparently, from what I’m seeing, it is. 

About Bank Marketing Center

Here at BankMarketingCenter.com, our goal is to help you with that vital, topical, and compelling communication with customers; messaging that will help you build trust, relationships, and with them, your brand. Visit our site now to view the professionally prepared campaigns that you can easily customize and put in front of your customers in just minutes. 

To view our creative, both print and digital, and ranging from product and brand ads to in-branch brochures and signage, visit bankmarketingcenter.com.  Or, you can contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com.  As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

At least, that’s what he would like you to believe. 

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a time to remind ourselves that, unfortunately, cybercrime is on the rise. The last six months have brought an exponential increase in fraud and scams… in particular, crimes that involve financial institutions. Every day, in fact, thousands of bank customers are targeted by scammers posing as bank employees, hoping to steal their personal information, then, their money.

Since March, regulatory agencies have been flooded with complaints about suspected scams. According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers reported losing more than $1.9 billion to fraud in 2019, with nearly $667 million lost to imposter scams alone. “While scammers target consumers using every possible method of communication, phone calls were the most common,” the agency states.

Considering that the $1.9 billion loss was reported prior to the economic downturn, that approximately 15% of cases go unreported, and that the last six months has seen an exponential growth in the use of online banking tools, the fraud loss for 2020 will undoubtedly be considerably higher.

A bit of history. Cybersecurity Awareness Month was launched by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in October 2004 in an effort to help Americans stay safer and more secure online.

When Cybersecurity Awareness Month first began, those awareness efforts centered around advice like updating your antivirus software twice a year to mirror similar efforts around changing batteries in smoke alarms. Much has changed since then. Cybersecurity Awareness Month has “grown significantly,” according to the National Cybersecurity Alliance “in reach and participation. Operated in many respects as a grassroots campaign, the month’s effort has grown to include the participation of a multitude of industry participants that engage their customers, employees and the general public in awareness, as well college campuses, nonprofits, and other groups.” 

One participant that has really ratcheted up its participation? The federal government.  Federal agencies are now paying real attention – and justifiably so – to cybercrime. Valuable guidelines and resources can be found on federal agency websites such as usa.gov, the US Department of Justice, and the Federal Trade Commission. These sites go into great detail, describing the various types of cybercrimes and what action individuals can take to protect themselves. 

As their financial institution, it’s imperative that your customers know that their personal information, and their money, is well protected. Remember, too, that your customers aren’t the only ones who suffer. Banks like yours face significant monetary and reputational losses from these increasingly sophisticated scams targeting your customers.

About Bank Marketing Center

Here at BankMarketingCenter.com, our goal is to help you with that vital, topical, and compelling communication with customers; messaging that will help you build trust, relationships, and with them, your brand. Visit our site now to view our new campaign addressing cybersecurity, which you can customize and put in front of your customers in just minutes.  Here are just a few examples of the new creative:

To view our marketing creative, both print and digital – ranging from product and brand ads to in-branch brochures and signage –  visit bankmarketingcenter.com.  Or, you can contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com.  As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.