Comments on: The Bank as a “Friend” to your customer

By: Banks As Friends « Alternative marketing thinking

Banks As Friends « Alternative marketing thinking — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:58:39 +0000

[...] 16th, 2007 The ever pertinent Bankwatch has an interesting post on why banks need to become friends of their customers to stay relevant in an age of social [...]

By: Neil Robinson

Neil Robinson — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:15:12 +0000

Thanks Colin, wise and considered comments as usual. My apologies for the awful spelling and grammar in my response, I rushed it a bit as I was on my way out the door! [Ed; thanks and fixed]

By: Colin Henderson

Colin Henderson — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:58:08 +0000

@Neil … thanks for the thoughtful comments. At the root of the ‘friend’ idea is the basic belief that Banks’ strategies to develop ‘relationships’ is flawed. Generally, people do not want a relationship with their Bank as may have been the case 40 years ago. For those who do, there are Private Banking services available to those who qualify.
I thought the ‘friend’ model, or even ‘casual acquaintance’ might provide a viable platform for Banks to offer cost effective service that meets the needs of the non Private Banking segment.
As you rightly point out, Web 2.0 capabilities and some creativity, offer Banks a new opportunity here.

By: Neil Robinson

Neil Robinson — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:18:27 +0000

A lot of what you say here makes good sense. Unlike other streams of commerce, banking maintains a “distance” between it’s customers and maintains a relationship purely on the nature of transactions it undertakes with them.

Yet the information a bank holds should enable it to create an incredible relationship with its clients. Yet it fails to capitalise on that knowledge because its systems are too outdated, inflexible and isolated.

I feel that maybe the idea of a bank seen as a friend may be taking it too far, but there are lessons to be learned from the explosion of the social web networks. The direction banks have taken since the days when a bank branch acted as an autonomous entity is clearly the wrong one.

Consider this. Once upon a time, a business man knew his bank manager personally, maybe through the local Rotary club, golf club, through his kids attending the same school or church, even. The relationship was a mix of socio-vocational commonalities. In essence, perhaps the banker as a friend as you elude to.

Now a far more distant and clinical relationship has replaced it based on the level of funds within your account (richer=better).

The old adage a bank only wants to talk to you when you don’t need it (ie, have a healthy financial position) is very true and acts as a barrier to a close relationship. Yet when a customer is reaching out, to a bank, the opposite is usually true.

Banks need to use web 2 technology to mobilise and extend the reach of their relationships closer to their customers and connect their clients together, as a social network like FaceBook does. Make the relationship a mutual one.

For example, if a bank talks to a client who is growing his business and has another client who could help that client, connect them. If the client has a son or daughter about to finish their education, see if they want to join the bank. banks should form bonds!