Wanna Buy a Checking Account?
A recent study from Thunderhead Communications shows that loyalty to financial services companies hovers in the 16% - 17% range. Further, more than six in ten financial services customers say they are actively looking to switch banks or insurance companies in the next year or so.Yikes. With numbers like that, and with the economy facing a strong headwind, I wouldn’t be surprised if prescriptions for Prozac have increased in New York and Charlotte.
Not surprisingly, the conclusion of this study was that financial institutions need to communicate more often and effectively with their customers. A shocking conclusion given that Thunderhead provides those services.
But before discounting this study as self-serving, there were some interesting and unexpected nuggets within.
The study indicated that the vast majority of consumers said they wanted the option of receiving communications via email, and two out of five said they preferred to get info like this from personalized web portals.
Here’s the biggie: half of the consumers surveyed said that it was “very important” to receive communications in real time. Even if the other half all said this is “not at all important,” if it was feasible to make half of your customer base happy and this was cost effective, wouldn’t you jump at the chance?
Somewhat less believable, but interesting just the same, some number of consumers actually want offers or communications directed to them on social networking sites like FaceBook or MySpace. Imagine chatting with your peeps on MySpace and MegaBank pops in and offers you a quarter point bump on your savings interest rate if you and ten of your friends sign up today.
This is a new age indeed.
Lest we lose focus on what’s important, however, the big finding here is the large number of consumers who don’t feel any loyalty to their financial institutions. With interest rates still high, higher approval standards for loans, and the proliferation of more creative “non-interest income opportunities” (i.e., fees), most financial services companies wear a black hat these days.
Communication with customers is often a critical element for creating and maintaining customer relationships. Companies that study their own customers, and evaluate what’s best to measure for their businesses will be able to confirm for themselves whether any of these recommendations or findings are relevant for their customer bases.
In the meanwhile, I’m going to print out this blog entry and use it to wrap all of the new Prozac and Zoloft prescriptions bottles in major financial centers throughout North America.
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