Customer Engagement with Financial Services Companies

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Woodbridge on November 27, 2008 at 11:03am

Hi Mark,

For me the difficulty is getting people to engage with financial services firms is a question of trust and impartiallity. I think it is much more likely people will engage with the financial comparison sites who they see as more Impartial. I don't think it's impossible for a major financial institution to do it but they will need hold back from just promoting their own products and provider a broader, less product focussed solution.

Have you seen the Bank of America community? http://smallbusinessonlinecommunity.bankofamerica.com/index.jspa
They have positioned it as sponsored by Bank of America.

If you are not tied to one Financial Service provider I would say now is going to be a good time to get this type of thing of the ground. In times of uncertainty everyone wants clear information and advice.

You might be interested in this article too
http://www.contentmanagement365.com/Online_Collaboration/Article413...

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Permalink Reply by Mark Nicholson on November 27, 2008 at 11:05pm

Sarah

Thanks a lot for the links. Being independant is what we all want, the best solution for our needs. Will take some work to sell this idea at work. But it makes sense and I am confident we have an overall position that stacks up well against the competition.

Cheers

Mark

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Permalink Reply by Ron Shevlin on May 22, 2009 at 2:09pm

Mark --

I work for a research and advisory firm in the US (Boston) that serves the financial services industry and I'm currently working on a report that will be titled "Customer Engagement: Making The Metric Matter."

The core premise of the report is that engagement is about the series of interactions that customers have that increase their emotional connection to a firm, product, or brand.

In a banking context, we conducted research that asked consumers the extent to which they: 1) were involved in managing their financial lives (e.g., how often did they move money between accounts, check interest rates, use PFM tools, etc) and 2) interact with their bank across a range of activities like asking for advice, researching products, banking or paying bills online.

What we found from the research was the most highly engaged customers were 5 times more likely to intend to expand their relationship with their bank in the next 12-24 months, and twice as likely to refer their bank to their family and friends (not INTEND to refer like that hokey net promoter score captures, but ACTUALLY provide references).

So.... there's my long-winded explanation to support my answer that "YES", it is possible to be engaged with a financial firm.

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