Some news here at The Bank Channel.

I’ve decided after 3+ years to make a move. And its not just down the road to another Aussie bank.

My current role here at NAB is Customer Experience Manager in Direct Channels. And its been a great job, working with some fantastic people. Especially recently, where some new management has given the department some incredible energy and credibility. I know the future looks bright. Look for big things later this year.

To all my colleagues and friends at NAB, I say thank you for the most formative years of my career to date.

But I could simply not resist the call of an opportunity thats recently come along.

I’ve been approached to lead the Customer Experience Strategy & Innovation at Singaporean bank, OCBC. Brand, Customer Experience, Culture Change, Innovation are all part of my new role.

Its incredibly exciting.

Working with some global leaders in CX who I respect enormously, and for a CEO who is truly committed to creating truly customer centric experiences and service, in an amazing city state in the heart of Asia is for me (and the family of course!) an opportunity to good to refuse.

This will take place within the next 2 months.

The Bank Channel will of course evolve, improve and gain strength, and with the support of my new leaders and peers. I hope you can remain with me during this time. A new look TheBankChannel.com will be live by this time too.

Onward!

PS If you’re ever in Singapore from June onward, please contact me and catchup.

I’m sure everyone has their favourites, but here are mine – these are the guys and gals who understand CX as well as design, technology, branding, business the best and have a great blog presence.

For those below on Twitter, keep track of them all here – Top10FSCX 

There are many more, but here we go in alpha order:

Bankervision – @bankervision
James Gardner, formerly Lloyds TSB and now UK government (still banking then?), writes excellent, insightful posts on the challenges of technology and people and cultures that build it. A disruptor in the industry who is also now a published author of the excellent “Innovation and the Future Proof Bank“ 

Better Banking – @bankingreview
Charis Palmer, founder of Banking Review Media, runs a great blog on local and international banking issues and innovation, with some recent focus on the future of payments. Look out for upcoming events too.

Customer Experience Matters – @btemkin
If there is an authorative voice in the field of Customer Experience theory, academia and indeed practice, then there is none so more than Bruce Temkin, Forresters most senior CX advisor. Years of experience, and yet so much cut through insight, that Bruces rules, laws, strategies and case studies towards CX success are always reliable.

Netbanker – @netbanker
Jim Bruene is someone clearly on top of every bank innovation and idea. His ‘day job’ at Online Banking Report sees him pump out large quantities of high quality reports, plans and strategy. I recommend both reading his blog – up to the minute updates on banks all over the globe, recently strong in mobile – and subscribing to his reports.

Muse & Maven – @hermione1
Yes a large organisation like IBM can harbour great minds like Christene Gonzalez-Wertz. A world traveller in her role leading part of IBMs global CRM and marketing research, she is a shot in the arm of any business content to sit still. Her shrewd yet very human observations stick in your mind. Get her to talk to your C-Suite today!

The Bankwatch
In some ways, reading Colins blog intimidates me a little. Such is his grasp of (to me) complex financial things, I struggle to keep up. But he is just as knowledgable on all things 2.0, social media and innovation. Another, like Jim, who pumps out high quality. 

The Experience Design Scout – @tvtongeren
Tim Van Tongeren, with experience at Sapient and Forrester, has a great multi-channel view across CX. He’s an expert on service design, now runs his own business advising businesses in Europe on strategy and channels, and like beer and Tour De France often when combined, which autmatically makes him a mate.

The Financial Brand – @financialbrand
A true marketer, Jeff Pilcher has spent more time than most of us creating a great looking site. But more than that, he’ll take you on a whimsical and engaging journey across data, campaigns, ideas, blogs, social media. A great writer, a great thinker, and someone I admire.

The Finanser – @Chris_Skinner
Chris Skinner, now a global jetsetter as part of the Swift community, cuts with wit through the recent ridiculousness of the impacts and behaviours of the GFC. Every day, Chris has something new and funny, yet reminds us of the pitfalls and opportunities. Like Christene, Chris is someone who observes humans in action and tells a story well.

Visible Banking – @Visible_Banking
Last but not least, the irrepresible Christophe Langlois. A clearly passionate advocate and devotee of social media and new business models, Christophe travels the world attending and speaking at conferences, so you dont have to. His video interviews with the worlds leading 2.0 finance businesses are unique alone, let alone his great mind and insight. Not just blogging, now Christophe offers associated services and consulting, which you should use.

Keep it up, all – I enjoy and admire your work and look forward to sharing more ideas and conversation. And to the others who are not prominent bloggers (David McQuillen, Simon Terry, Cyrus Allen, Louise Long, Xavier Rizos, Veronique Whitaker and others), many thanks for your advice, guidance and passion for the customer.

So, who’s your favourite blogger? Tell me who I’ve left out!

Make sure you can make it to Sydney for

Customer Experience in Financial Services conference on Thursday June 25
BarCampBank on the afternoon of Friday June 26 (register here)

Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to this.

We are presently not at the stage where unbridled comment on sensitive matters would be seen as a positive contribution to the debate, and I doubt very many bank employees anywhere are in such a position.

That’s why you don’t see much comment from the few bankers who have blogs and can be traced back to their institutions.

Now, there is nothing much wrong with this.

I think, in the end, that banks will get to complete transparency in the medium term. The current crisis may even speed that along. But in the meantime, I’m quite certain that small, careful, baby steps towards that goal are much, much better than an all out race to the finish line.

About the closest I’ve seen anyone associated with a bank come close to commentary on this stuff is Rob Findlay at NAB in his BankChannel blog. But even he is reserved? Any comments Rob?

My response:

I’ve run The Bank Channel for about 2 years now, and in that time NAB has known about it for about half of that time. And when they did find out, there was barely a shrug about the conflict here, as it was clearly me expressing my opinions and not that of the bank.

If however I said that I was making comments for NAB, Corp Comms would have used a fairly heavy hand and stopped me in my tracks, and fair enough in the current climate.

As I say in my disclaimer (I hate the fact that I need one, and James, I think I copied yours and altered it anyway) these are my ideas, given I work at NAB, but I’m happy to promote other banks new ideas and innovations if submitted to me.

I agree with James that the world does not need me, someone who is not a banker nor qualified to discuss things financial and economical, to speak on behalf of the learned folk in our bank (altho you see I attempt to comment on economic policy etc, more for my own development than as an authority). Cameron et al are the best to discuss this. But I too am patient, and think this sitiation will change.

I like the BofA blog, and the Wells/Wachovia blogs – they’re excellent communication mechanisms that corporations under estimate and more particularly under resource. But in the end I really like good ideas, new ways of doing business, excellent customer experience, regardless of where it is. This is what I’ll report on for now.

Of course the beauty of the iphone means I’m always on top of the news, open to connections and email, even happy to chat. But don’t ask me to write much on the blog.

There are nappies to change, beers to drink and cricket to watch. It’s been a long year, which means a lean time for the blog.

Speak soon.

PS as written earlier, look out for a fresher site in 09.

Any help or comments welcome. In return you can of course get a range of publicity on this site and prob a little $. Please email me your interest at link in the left hand column. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Many thanks
Rob

• The imminent arrival of another person in our current family of 2 means much preparation and time away from the world of banking customer experience. Expect to not hear from me again quite soon.

• I’ve now got an iPhone. And it’s great.

You would think the second point would make me potentially more productive, more across the news, more ready to blog. I’m too busy playing with this new toy to care. Even this post was written on it.

This is for me a substantial leap in hand held devices. Coming from a crackberry pearl, even the new interface of a touchscreen was big enough. But I’ve since learnt that true customer experience differentiation isn’t in the hardware, it’s in the software. Apple have truly shown deep thought for the customer here.

Against Forresters 3 customer experience principles – usable, useful, enjoyable – it easily achieves all 3. The phone predicts when you want and let’s you control when you want. It’s easy to setup, even fun. A good friend saw my new phone and wanted to know how thick the instruction manual was. It was only then I remembered that it didn’t come with one. There is nothing to really ‘learn’ here.

There are a couple of well publicized limitations – no cut and paste at all, some issues with email setup creating 100′s of contacts you don’t want, and safari is a little flaky. There are some quite obvious improvements to make. But again, this is why software – an updatable and malleable thing – is the key (I hope the hardware stands up to it long term – Apple have for now simply taken it out of the equation).

But I’ve even questioned the old ways already – despite obvious technical differences, what really is the difference in email vs chat vs SMS? On this phone they all feel the same. Why am I waiting for the PC to fire up when this ready to go? Why isn’t everything an app rather than a website?

The irony is I’ve yet to really test the actual phone call capability (Optus currently have some variable performances in coverage). Like many new smart phones, it’s the phone you use the least.

An incredible device, no matter how much you hate the hype.