Why Grumpy Cat Hates Your New Checking Account Line Up!
www.grumpycats.com/ – in case you don’t know who/what Grumpy Cat is. If you don’t, I feel bad for you.
Recently I participated in an excellent seminar by two serial entrepreneurs in Jonathan Fields and Charlie Gilkey. One of the exercises was designed to get into your customer’s head. “Everything starts from there when it comes to product creation,” they said. In their model (described below) you define your business/personal mission and then analyze your customer along five questions to create or validate your product offering.
Unfortunately, many tech companies get this wrong because they get excited about new technology without validating that this new tech/product satisfies a customer’s needs or pain points or, better yet, delights the customer. The same is true of many bankers.
The regulatory environment has many financial institutions reworking their checking account line ups in the hopes of recapturing lost revenue. Lost revenue is creating product changes, which is a lot like saying that our mission is to make lots of money so we’re going to revamp our products without regard to our customer’s needs. Actually, it’s just like saying that.
When we make product changes by only looking at lost revenue, we’re adding in obstacles that are designed solely to create fees. Or we interview vendors that are selling account packages that they say “consumers want and are willing to pay for.” Personally I’ve not seen these rewards accounts work long term, but do believe that they fall short of meeting a customer’s larger needs when your decision to employ them stems from your main desire to recoup lost revenue.
What does a customer first product revamp look like? Fields and Gilkey would argue it looks like this analysis process:
- What does your customer want?
- What are their felt needs? (what do they say they need)
- What are their actual needs? (what do they really need)
- What are their aspirations?
- What obstacles are in their way?
So what does Grumpy Cat have to do with this?
Think of your customers and prospects as Grumpy Cats. They know what they want. They know what they like. Grumpy Cat does not care about your lost revenue. Grumpy Cat cares about getting fed, having a warm bed, and a clean ass.
If you do not consider your end users needs, Grumpy Cat will not buy. More likely, you will also design a product that no customer wants.
I like eStatements as much as I like the dog…which is not very much.
Am I saying that your bank needs to bow to the whims of a customer like a cat owner? No, this is just a fun metaphor. The cat owners out there will know that it’s impossible to please a cat, even a happy one.
But, if your product redesign stemmed from anything but a customer-first needs assessment, then yes, you should fall victim to the Internet’s greatest meme.
Bankers Can’t Afford to Ignore LinkedIn
Almost every time I go to follow a new bank on LinkedIn, I’m disappointed at the lack of engagement and presence of their staff, especially their business development staff and investment folks.
It may be fun to believe that business still happens primarily on the golf course and at lunch but the numbers show that business is happening online…all the time…without you. Here’s why a lack of involvement on LinkedIn should scare a banker:
LinkedIn is still growing strong!
About 20 months ago the total number of LinkedIn users was 100 Million with 44 Million in the U.S. Now it’s up to 200 Million Users with 74 Million in the U.S. Despite being the largest LinkedIn user base, the U.S.’ user base continues to expand rapidly.
LinkedIn is populated with “professional” level users!
Bankers all over American are lamenting lost revenue due to regulations. They are also determined to recruit a more affluent new customer base. (side note: if everyone is trying to recruit this segment, you can’t all win!).
So banks are looking for this class of customer and yet not forcing – yes, it should come to forcing your staff onto LinkedIn in my opinion – their highest profiled and, most likely, highest pay staffers to use a tool that has the following demographics:
Income: LinkedIn users on average have an income of $109,000 compared to Facebook’s $25,000 according a study by Seeking Alpha in 2012. The average income on Twitter also towers over Facebook with more than double at $52,000 per user. Source.
Yes by all means let’s invest more money into tweeting trivia questions about U.S. currency instead of getting deeply involved in a proven tool that houses some of the area’s senior executives and highly paid business professionals.
Bankers are not a relevant source of funds for tomorrow’s entrepreneur!
Question: What do high growth entrepreneurs think of bankers?
Answer: They don’t.
I’ve had the chance to participate in several StartUp America and StartUp Weekend events in the last few months. Several of these events featured free advice from area CPAs, lawyers, entrepreneurs, venture capital groups, angel investors, and 1 very sad and lonely banker. I talked to this guy for awhile and he said, “No one wants to talk about traditional funding.” I almost took out a small line of credit for my LLC just to cheer him up.
But he’s right! When entrepreneurs think about funding and talk about startup challenges, they think of Lean Startup Methodologies, VCs, Angel Investors, and bootstrapping. They don’t think of a bank. Mainly because they don’t see bankers at most of these functions. Nor do they don’t see them online. They don’t see them as part of their world. And your absence on tools they may be using – like LinkedIn – will continue to reinforce this.
Social Selling and thought leadership should be the goals of any effective business development person…in any industry. What are your business development officers engaging in to stay relevant in the changing world of sales? Country club memberships?
2012 ABA Bank Marketing Conference Twitter List
So the conference hashtag for the American Bankers Association Bank Marketing Conference is officially here: #ABAMKTG. A quick Twitter search shows a good amount of activity already surfacing as well as this partial list of registered attendees with their corresponding handles. Can’t wait to reconnect or meet with many of you! Sincerely, @BankMarketing – aka Mark Zmarzly
@ABAMarketing
@kristinsb
@jkincy
@mattwilcoxpro
@extracobanks
@firstniagara
@fms4banks
@AmberFarley
@ucbankmn
@SandraWaldon
@MountainOneFP
@ForchtBank
@EddieWoodruff
@WestEndBank
@SusanKHaskett
@BitStatement
@loyaltydriver
@NewGround
@sjvandenheuvel
@BelmontBank
@hawaiinational
@SunnyDaysHawaii
@gbltd
@WellsFargo
@ExperianMkt
@blondboarder32
@BotW_Careers
@twendhausen
@davidkreiman
@GonzoBanker
@MeridianBankAZ
@beccboot
@MY100BANK
@ArvestBank
@cbsbank
@northrimbank
@BlytheCampbell
@BridgewaterBank
@GinaRossiONFC
@MattAndresen
@SciencePlusSoul
@brynabutler
@GateCityBank
@JanessRS
@johnheeden
@CarolJanssen
If I missed you, please add your handle into a comment and I’ll get you added. Thanks!
Everyone Likes Over-the-Top Customer Service…and Soup!
In the last two days I’ve encountered two stories that couldn’t be more different. The first was about the uncaring staffers at United Airlines who lost a 10-year-old unaccompanied minor. The second was about a New Hampshire Panera Bread employee who went out of her way to make soup for a customer who was passing soon from cancer.
Over-the-top customer service stories aren’t told much in the banking industry and they certainly aren’t often told publicly. Every week I hear conversations from bankers and bank marketers about social media strategies – or more accurately put “gimmicks” – for increasing engagement – or more accurately put “likes” – and I swear I can hear the Internet weep a bit. Giving away $1 to a charity in exchange for a like isn’t exactly at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. And where does pushing this factoid out to your 233 fans fit into the grand scheme of things?
Whatever happened to engaging people in person with extreme service and kindness instead of with random questions or contests?
Think about the last time you had an extreme customer service experience in any environment? I have worked in the hotel, restaurant, and retail industries and used to pride myself on delivering consistently good experience most of the time and in looking for an extreme way to deliver when I could. From the other side of the counter, it’s not as easy as it seems but it can make an amazing difference to a customer. And, as we’ve seen, it can give someone a reason to talk about you and your brand:
If you know of any publically discussed over-the-top banking service stories, please let me know. If you don’t, think about what your retail and branch admin departments can do to assist in making moments like these – moments that people share publicly online and in person – an everyday occurrence!
It’s Time to Change Your Social Media Story (Part Two)
In my previous post, I made a brilliant argument for the end of the Internet. Actually, I wrote about how Facebook’s timeline changes should give all financial institutions reason to reconsider their social media strategies, but I think you could read between the lines. The time for reinvention is here, as is the road map below.
If you have the guts (and resources) to reinvent your narrative, here are the things to think about as you redesign and redefine your story:
- You are not the main character in your story…your story (updates, cover photos, apps, etc) needs to reflect your customers, not your bank. People identify with those like them (more accurately: with people slightly better than themselves), not with their bank.
Who are the main characters in the stories below? Which story would you rather read?
- Your voice needs to be authentic. Every time I see a scripted wall post that’s repeated over and over “Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Please contact us at customerservice@anybank.com so we can look into your issue and work with you to resolve it.” I want to jump right into my laptop screen onto the Information Super Highway and drive down to a town I like to call Shoot Myself. Yes, discussions about personal account