"Badge Value" (or brand value) is a primary focus of all good Marketers. It is the combination of real and perceived value that often increases our adrenaline when examining a product or service.
Badge value is difficult and expensive to create through advertising alone. Generally, your existing customers are your best path to achieve badge value. If you have an offering that meets their needs, deliver it with an exceptional and consistent level of service, and ensure that your image resonates with every interaction, you will generate Badge Value.
Laura Pasternak writes, in her article Brand Beyond Marketing;
"Despite what many believe, brand isn't about your logo, tagline and glossy brochure. Instead, a strong brand integrates multiple components, all of them necessary, including customer interactions, employee communications, corporate philosophy and advertising/marketing efforts." Customer interactions with financial institutions are achieved through many touch points: face-to-face conversations in the branch, phone calls in and out of the call center, at the ATM, over your website, your Internet Banking solution, and through periodic correspondence.
There are a variety of approaches and tools that can assist in enhancing the face-to-face and phone call customer interactions. Some ATM solutions allow for enhanced customer interaction, although this is often limited unless the ATM processing is being serviced in an in-house environment.
Your periodic correspondence is one of the most frequent ways you communicate with your customer. It is important to present the same level of of interaction through this channel as you do through the others. With a well presented brand image, targeted value add marketing promotions, community activities and involvement, and customer and employee recognitions, your badge value will grow through your customers.
If your organization is providing a high level of service and a consistent message through every customer interaction, you will achieve a strong Badge Value.
Going Green for a bank or credit union can mean many things. Green construction, green funding, and green processes are just a few of these.
With only occasional references to green construction by banks and credit unions in the daily and weekly financial trades, the number of articles referencing eco-friendly building practices has increased over time. With a goal towards environmental consciousness and a long term energy cost savings, green construction is an investment in future savings.
Green funding and green investment, like many affinity based marketing programs, provide growth opportunities by attracting additional account relationships as well as imparting environmental responsibility.
For most institutions, green processes are where the initial emphasis is and has been. Whether this is in the establishment of internal recycle programs, creation of intranet based reporting and forms, promotion and resulting adoption of multi-channel product offerings, or simply implementing a lights-out policies for rooms that are not in use. Of all these, the biggest financial return is from multi-channel products; Internet and mobile banking, eBilling and ePayments, electronic statements, etc.
All of the green opportunities referenced here have the potential for financial reward, but in every case should be approached with open eyes. The cost of implementing green initiatives can be costly. As with any initiative, it is important to understand the ROI. Be sure that your investment does not exceed planned savings. With many green related services, costs can be underestimated, whether it is from incremental costs, on-going management of the solutions or services, or increased operational cost. These costs can weaken or eliminate any potential return on investment. Determine your adoption and growth potential, factor in all ancillary costs, and proceed with eyes wide open before implementing your green initiatives
Green practices are important for all of our futures. Do everything you can, but do it wisely.
Many financial institutions are looking to achieve significant cost savings with the rollout of eStatement and iStatement solutions. However, many organizations are not achieving the desired enrollment rates. We have worked with many organizations to successfully increase their adoption rates and have the following observations...
ROLLOUT Technology is only half the equation. Organizations need to develop detailed rollout strategies to ensure they achieve their desired adoption rates.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMER BASE Take a look at the demographics of your customer base; what percentage are over 50? What percentage of your customers uses online banking and how does this compare to industry averages? Understanding your base is critical to developing effective rollout campaigns.
ONLINE: TARGET EARLY ADOPTERS Where is your biggest bang for the buck??? Existing online banking customers are the easiest target market. Go after them with a vengeance again and again! Don't stop with the first campaign; you will be surprised at how this will impact your overall adoption rate.
Have a low online banking adoption rate??? Offer electronic statements with effective campaigns and get double the return!
EXISTING PRINT The most effective way to target people getting is to imbed graphical marketing within your statements.This is very cost effective and has great results.
BRANCH An employee/customer rewards program for signing up for electronic bank statements is a great way to get results.A few banners, posters, and employee buttons are all it takes to make this a great success.
PRODUCTS The most simple of them all; all free accounts require iStatements!!!
METRICS The most boring component but absolutely essential to success.Institutions must periodically monitor the results from the various campaigns.Do not overcomplicate this but make sure you do it.Over a period of six months, it will become apparent what campaigns are working and which ones aren’t.
Hello Everyone! My name is Pete Stoughton and I am the CTO and co-founder of Optria. This blog will cover many areas but the primary focus will be on what organizations can do to achieve GREAT customer communications.
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