A perceptive article by Cameron Cooper in the current edition of Connexus (p24-32) discusses the challenge facing the Mutual Bank/Credit Society sector in expanding their customer base into younger generations. I won’t attempt to paraphrase the article…..it’s really worth reading for yourself.

However I will make the observation that “engagement” with customers of financial services is becoming increasingly sophisticated and spread across multiple channels irrespective of the age of the customer. Old and young alike are increasingly exposed to options for engagement in social and work-based situations and they are choosing in increasing numbers to use those preferred means to engage with their financial institution. To meet that need, any financial services provider be they big bank or single branch mutual will need to develop effective channels of engagement beyond the traditional branch and call centre options.

All is not lost! The perception that the investment needed to deploy the technology and processes for these channels “may stretch the budget of smaller credit unions” is not accurate. The solutions supporting these new channels are typically delivered via the cloud with innovative pricing models that permit them to be deployed cost effectively even for a small number of users.

A typical multi-channel approach will include a combination of any of:

• Web Self Service: where customers can find the answers to even sophisticated questions intuitively and quickly 24×7. These interactions can be costly to your organisation when they find their way into the higher value channels like call centres & branches but worse, they impact negatively on the customer experience who’s increasing expectation is seamless self service at their convenience.

• Email management: which enables even large volumes of emails to be “smart-routed” to appropriate resources to answer promptly, productively and accurately even across a distributed branch network. An auto-response to a customer’s email suggesting “we’ll get back to you in 5 working days” is no longer acceptable.

• Social Media management: where monitoring tools enable your customer service people  to address customer issues or questions that are raised in social sites like FaceBook, Twitter or perhaps a financial services blog. Not only can you “nip in the bud” potentially damaging negative sentiment but you can add substantial value through more mass communication to customers with similar issues. (see the Qantas volcano story)

• Live (Web) Chat: either as a “reactive” response to a request from a customer visiting the website  for immediate, personal service or (& this is where it can be really interesting for business growth) in a “proactive” mode where website visitors trigger business rules created by the business that indicate that customer (or potential customer) could do with some personal service eg filling out an online form, visiting an online saver product page. By addressing low value interactions via efficient methods above, you free up limited well trained people to interact productively with customers at critical value-adding crossroads & dramatically improve new business conversions.

As Cooper’s article suggests, it is no longer optional to ignore the engagement preferences of customers irrespective of their generation. However the answer to the challenge is also within the reach of all Mutuals no matter their size.

Like the airlines impacted by the Icelandic volcano last year, airlines in & flying to Australia & NZ had to contend with the challenges & disruption caused by Chile’s Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano this month (& maybe for a while yet!)

Chief among them has been the need to communicate the volatile changes in schedules to hundreds of thousands of travellers. Read More…

With a 19 year old son already in the media industry I have learned not to fear “new media” channels like Facebook, streaming video & Twitter. OK, as a “Boomer” with a marketing background I am pretty consistently astounded by the rate of development of new channels. In particular I love the innovative use of these within a multi-channel strategy & take inspiration from the vision & agility-of-thought of participants. I make it part of my mission to distil the salient points & identify the opportunities for our corporate clients. Bottom line is it’s not time to be fearful of the challenge but embrace the changes in the way we go about our work to engage with our customers.
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It’s official! Online shoppers are heavily influenced by reviews from other customers……particularly negatively influenced by a bad review.

According to the latest American Express study 60% of Australians admit a bad review or website posting influences their decision to purchase from a shop or supplier, underscoring the importance of retailers needing to work hard to keep customers satisfied over the festive season.
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“Thanks for calling our solar hotline. Our call centres are currently experiencing overwhelming demand due to the recent changes by the NSW government. For a faster response you may want to send an email to customer service@……”

Such was the response from our solar provider before my call was abruptly terminated. This Customer experience is typical of those suffered by many others in NSW recently and is the same as that “enjoyed” by travellers inconvenienced by the volcanic eruption in Iceland earlier in the year or car owners during any of the current recalls. Read More…