I found the recent article in American Banker, "2023 tech trends banks can't ignore," a pretty interesting read. It talks about a few of the challenges that banks face and some of the tech solutions out there that can help them address those challenges. Among many take-aways, this occurred to me: It’s not so much tech trends that banks can’t ignore. It’s their customers that are feeling ignored.
“With the cost-of-living crisis and general economic uncertainty” says the article, “many consumers want their banks to offer them more financial advice. A 5,000-person survey by Personetics uncovered that 51% of consumers want more advice on managing their money and 66% want proactive insights from their bank. But, sadly, 63% say they have not received any advice or communications from their institution about their financial stresses.”
Now, you might be thinking, “well, we’re a community bank, of course we offer financial advice and, of course, our customers know that.” And, to some extent, you’d be right. But, as you can see from the stats above, you’d be missing the mark by almost 40%; that’s a pretty significant number of customers. American Banker goes onto say that “sitting back and waiting for customers to find your financial advice content or proactively reach out to a financial advisor means they likely won't.” This missed opportunity to show your support for customers during tough times, and to provide them with personal money management guidance, is a tremendous (and costly) miss for those bankers who aren’t getting that message out to their customers. And here’s another eye-opening (and a bit frightening) statistic. A JD Power satisfaction survey revealed that 63% of customers won't switch banks… as long as their bank supports them during challenging economic times. And only 44% say their institution is offering that support. You might want to ask yourself: “Are 40% of our customers thinking that we simply don’t care?
The article goes on to suggest the use of one of the self-serve appointment scheduling tools that are out there. And, I think that’s good advice. Being a “marketing guy,” however, I wonder if that’s enough. After all, simply because one offers a product or service doesn’t mean people will be interested in it… or even know about it, for that matter. This is where a bit of bank marketing can really come in handy.
“When something is easy, clients are more likely to do it—and more facetime with them will give them the peace of mind they need to weather the storm with your institution,” the article tells us in conclusion. And I couldn’t agree more. Now, go make it easy for your customers by reaching out and telling them that you’re here for them in tough times.
About Bank Marketing Center
Here at BankMarketingCenter.com, our goal is to help you with that topical, compelling communication with customers; the messaging — developed by banking industry marketing professionals, well trained in the thinking behind effective marketing communication — that will help you build trust, relationships, and revenue. In short, build your brand. Like these bank marketing campaigns designed to help community banks tout the fact that they offer personalized, money management guidance.
To view our marketing creative, both print and digital – ranging from product and brand ads to social media and in branch signage – visit bankmarketingcenter.com. You can also contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or via email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com. As always, I welcome your thoughts on the subject.