Why can’t banks communicate this way?
Video is an easy, quick, cheap way to effectively communicate complex products. If the Khan Academy can do it in 1000′s of videos across dozens of freaky complex issues, why can’t banks?
We can’t because creating simplicity, clarity and understanding may just be too hard to take.
P.S. Favourite quote from this video – “It (the bank buidling) looks like an old greek or roman temple … I think that’s not an accidental appearance”
Photo – Incase, Flickr
If you work in the microcosm of a bank, or the slightly larger ecosystem of the financial services industry, you are a unique and special individual.
I don’t mean in the ‘you can do anything if you put your mind to it, son’ kind of way (although you should believe that if you can). I mean that we work and breathe inside a unique cultural and mechanical context.
We know banking, we know financial services, we build products.
We speak the language. And this can sometimes be the problem.
I had an interesting meeting today about small business customers using business internet banking tools, and how one size does not fit all.
A small business person can be the individual who runs the business after hours, by themselves, from say 10pm to midnight. They’re not an accountant, they’re not business qualified. But they know their subject matter, and how to sell to people who want it.
Another small business person could work deep inside a successful family run business, managing accounts, invoices, receivables etc. They’ve been hired because they do have accounting and business skills. They get it.
A single approach to these customers will not work. Their needs are different, their experience and capabilities are different.
Importantly, they speak different languages. To each other and to us.
Language is critical. The way we in banks talk about money is in the context of banking – products and services, jargon etc. A bank rationalizes a customers behavior by putting it in banking terms – ‘attrition’; ‘acquisition’;’ cross-sell’. Often bankers are trying to find ways to make the customer more intertwined, even permanently attached to the organisation, even if its not in the customers best interest (banks call these ‘relationships’)
The way consumers and even many small business owners talk about money is in the context of life – pay for this, buy that, earn this, save that. A customer rationalizes their banking behavior by putting it in life terms – ‘I changed banks because of the service’; ‘I got this great new reward points credit card’; ‘the bank gave me a discount to buy a new car’. Often customers are trying to find ways to simplify their banking setup, at the same diversify their spread across the banks (custoemrs call this ‘keeping the bastards honest’ and ‘not putting eggs in one basket’)
These 2 positions are often at conflict.
People in banks wonder why consumers, commentators, innovators and even other bankers aren’t interested in the future of banking.
They should be analysing the future role of money in our lives instead.
“How I now graphically represent my incomings and outgoings”
Photo – Incase, Flickr
Wow there’s a lot of excitement out there in bank land about Personal Financial Management tools, or PFM as they’re shortened to. The interactive, visual tools you can use to see your financial situation in internet or mobile banking.
Pioneered by software companies since the 80s, executed beautifully as we know by Mint.com and others, now there is a wave of banks that are all clamoring to create the best user interface for their customers and their data.
And if the banks are keen on this, there are as many non-banks and 3rd parties that offer similar services and more – everything from sorting a shoebox of receipts, to running your small business, to comparing you to rest of the country and their own spending habits.
You’ll soon be able to gaze deeply into the drowning sea of debt in which you paddle, in vibrant, pretty colours.
It’s a great development, because for the majority of consumers, they’d spend the past 2000 years living within the banking construct of the ledger – a matrix showing a list of inputs and outgoings, that makes sense when tallying information, rather than interpreting it.
Now they’ll have pie charts, bar graphs, line charts and other mathematical diagrams that will really cut through their financial situation to reveal the reality. It will enable them to understand their position better and then importantly make better decisions (regardless of whether they’re cross sell related or not).
It seems by the end of 2011 every bank worth its salt, IT environment providing, will have a PFM solution for its customers to play with.
What happens after that? What will be the key development following PFM?
I’m not sure many banks have looked into it. Perhaps they don’t need to, or want to.
Lets take a look at what a PFM maturity road-map might look like.
What are the pitfalls of creating PFM tools?
As for what’s beyond PFM, well some customers would say not much more.
But the next thing may involve the way you interact personally with this data, the way it integrates into the other parts of your life (home, work, car, mobile), the way companies use this data (don’t do a Facebook and sell that CRM gold!).
Either way, it will change the way we look at and understand money forever.
The power of good UX is always used for good, not evil.
Photo – Incase, Flickr
What does it take to be really customer focused as a large organisation? How do you ensure that your business is listening to customers, driving your people to think about customers, and create great customer experiences?
Focus on the following 3 core competencies:
These 3 things are the most common things great customer focused companies have in common – and they do it explicitly and wholly. If you can say your CX team or bank has these capabilities in spades, you’ll be ahead in no time.
Photo – Incase, Flickr
Last week, I sat in a Hilton hotel room, probably like you, glued to the stream of news coming from North Africa and the Middle East. The images of people in the street were intertwined with economic data and business headlines. Delicate diplomatic, cross-border and political manoeuvres were dancing hand in hand with the rough, ass grabbing groove of desperate citizens taking control, with love and passion pouring from their hearts, ideas and direction from their minds, hope and urgency from their mouths. As someone sitting in the comfort of a plush king single in multi-national chain, it may for compelling and contemplative viewing (as opposed to understandable and scary reality). I hope you felt the same.
Given what’s happening in the world, on so many dimensions, we all should be putting something forward right now. We should all be making some sort of commentary on what we think is happening, what we need to do, and how we think it might end, or simply segway into the next monumental moment in history. It’s our obligation to add to the debate. You can’t say you don’t have the means – the tools, the outlet, the opportunity – to do so.
What’s coming together here? I don’t want to say the words ‘perfect storm’ (guess I just did) – that implies some sort of catastrophic, uncontrollable act of god, where in reality, its mankind that is making these dramatic movements in history.
This is a blog about banking. About banking customer experience. But the world, in 2011, is changing rapidly, more than in the previous 10 years. Perhaps more than banks can handle.
Banks and organisations like it are the irresistible object; the large, solid thing slowly ploughing through the sand towards the future. The things above, and other trends and movements like it, are the unstoppable force, battering against convention, and demanding a better way.
Will banks understand that they are part of this tension, this change? Will they understand they at once are crucial players, as well as barriers? They are pillars of the economic community, yet have been somewhat responsible for recent turmoil. They are continuing with dependable stoicism, yet won’t put their head up to see the wave coming. They fight with each other for dominance, yet can’t see new models will most likely superseed some of them. They ‘understand customers’ yet do they really?
So now you need to ask yourself…
Are you working inside the irresistable object, or riding the wave of the unstoppable force?
I’m a bit of a hard marker when it comes to customer service in retail environments – a bad attitude or capability can really stand out. And given todays competitive marketplace and increasing customer power, there’s no room for error, otherwise a business may not survive.
With this new found customer power comes a changing attitude in customers too (like me!). A sense of entitlement to the best deal, the best service, first service or preferential treatment when none is warranted is commonplace. Social media sites like twitter, where customers are and too often companies aren’t, means customers talk to each other and increasingly believe their own gripes and whines. I’m guilty here again. So don’t write in on that one!
But customers must learn that a transaction, purchase, or service rendered is still 2 human beings (or 1 human and one website!) exchanging conversation and information.
A customer in the coffee shop this morning gave a classic example of todays petulant consumer, all with a wry passive aggressive smile. He walked in and simply asked for ‘service please’, then proceeded to tap on the glass at various items, asking for a discount at the same time. This continued for a while, with the shop staff and other customers all looking at each other, knowing we’d all give him a slap if we had the chance.
Companies deserve to be kept honest, and deliver efficiently and effectively. But customers must keep them honest whilst being patient and respectful.
Let’s be nice to each other shall we?
