The Bankwatch

While Wells intentions are likely valid and part of a larger strategy, to encourage elimination of paper statements this "agree or else" approach is not just un-necessary, its rude. Up to now Wells have generally got it right, with quality implementations, but somehow someone has made a mistake here.

Interruption marketing is very old-school. 

Orcmid's Lair: Wells Fargo Click-Through Thuggery

What I encountered instead were two EULA-like statements and a mandatory click-through before I could access my account on-line.The first statement was a single page E-Sign Consent document. It constituted my consent to receive all information in electronic form. The wording suggested to me that I would no longer receive paper statements.

Taking the option to decline resulted in a warning that I could be denied on-line services and reverted to whatever there was before. I have always had an on-line account, starting at the end of 1999, so I have no idea what would happen. I did not confirm that I was declining and chose to agree.

The second statement presented the Wells Fargo On-Line Access agreement. I could decline its provisions and be left in the same state as before, or I could claim that I’ve read and accepted the conditions of that agreement. The text of the agreement is 69k, has 11, 000 words, and occupies 22 pages when viewed in Microsoft Word. I obviously clicked through without reading the thing. I saved the text file to disk by pasting it into Windows Notepad.

Since I would apparently be denied access if I did not accept both agreements, I did so without any clue what the consequences of agreement are. My account appeared as normal and I was able to confirm that the expected funds transfer had been credited. I also saw that my use of an ATM machine in British Columbia during Northern Voices cost me $5.00 each time.

Technorati Tags: online_banking, wells_fargo, customer_communication

The subtitle to this blog "Which banks understand the web lifestyle?" was picked deliberately. I believe that the Banks that will prosper and thrive, are those that actively and positively lever the power of internet. A general theme is evolving that will make this very hard to banks' to deal with this issue, but at the same time essential for survival.

That theme has been called, networking, community, community of interest, but it is all of those and none of them. This is a new state that we are dealing with here, as we search for known metaphors.

Management Speak – Leadership and Management – Add Your Knowledge and Share in the Wisdom of Crowds

What do the stock market, Wikipedia, Google and James Surowiecki have in common? They all believe in the wisdom of crowds.

Author James Surowieki argues in The Wisdom of Crowds that "collective wisdom" is not an oxymoron. He cites numerous instances where many
discrete decisions and inputs can create a whole that is far more accurate or powerful than anything created by just a few decisions and
inputs. The stock market is an example, where the mind-boggling number of decisions and inputs intersect to create essentially a gigantic
repository of knowledge.

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I think the connection made here to Marx is interesting. Its obviously critical to put aside ones personal views on communism, Russia, KGB and all those memories, and consider here the theory. There is a revolution taking place in marketing, and Banks are not exempt. So lets review the consumer environment first.

Web 2.0 Is Reminiscent Of Marx – CBS News

Buzzwords from the old dot.com era — like "cool," "eyeballs," or "burn rate" — have been replaced in Web 2.0 by language that is simultaneously more militant and absurd: Empowering citizen media, radically democratize, smash elitism, content redistribution, authentic community … This sociological jargon, once the preserve of the hippie counterculture, has now become the lexicon of new media capitalism.

What got me going on this, is Tara Hunt and her coined phrase Pinko Marketing here, and here, and here (coming soon).

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Charlene talks here about applying the power of social networks and extrapolates that into the world of business.

My business, banking, is the very antithesis of these concepts today, yet I believe banks that consider them in the future, in their product & channel development, will win. Banks can no longer sit behind desks in big buildings and expect customers to flock inside. Banking was a captive market, but that is shifting rapidly, and internet is the driver.

Charlene Li’s Blog: Forrester’s Social Computing report

“Easy connections brought about by cheap devices, modular content, and shared computing resources are having a profound impact on our global economy and social structure. Individuals increasingly take cues from one another rather than from institutional sources like corporations, media outlets, religions, and political bodies.To thrive in an era of Social Computing, companies must abandon top-down management and communication tactics, weave communities into their products and services, use employees and partners as marketers, and become part of a living fabric of brand loyalists.”

Relevance to Bankwatch:
Customer loyalty was driven by customer service delivered across the counter. That has changed, and customer loyalty is being driven by new factors, such as convenience, quality of self service, access to relationship manager through electronic channels, alerts, and breadth of functionality.
Social networks serve to illustrate competitive differences, and highlight opportunities. In the future they will also be delivery channels for services, including banking.

Customer loyalty has been established by face to face relationship in the past.  With the advent of internet, and pervasiveness of electronic theft, and multiplicity of payment methods nowadays customers want greater attention paid to their spending patterns and many want control over unusual amounts, or significant changes in their accounts.

Enter automated alerts, customised to the their preferences, that provide the assurance of confirming customers activity, and importantly notifiying them immediately of anything that was not them.

Banks set up text, email fraud alerts for customers – Financial Services – Breaking Business and Technology News at silicon.com

The threat of electronic thievery has prompted a security strategy rethink at several US banks.

As part of a broader security initiative, Bank of America is offering to alert customers of any suspicious charges or changes to their account via email or text messages almost as soon as they occur.

Sanjay Gupta, the bank’s ecommerce executive, said in a statement: “We’re giving customers more ways to detect fraud and keep an eye on their accounts. They can decide what they want to hear about and where they want to be told.”

This post on the surface, suggests that Citibank is indicating to their customer that compomises on all Canadian ATM's requires them to cut off access to their customers.

Aside from how well Citi handled this, I think this it is more plausible that this customer used a machine at a specific ATM location that had some fraud perpetrated. I am not aware of any situation where an entire country is under suspicion as the article seems to suggest. I know the customer is frustrated, but the issue here is actually broader in many respects – its a worldwide issue and everyone should go to great lengths to protect their PIN every single time they use it at a merchant, or at an ATM.

The post links also to this related story, which resulted in cards being cancelled after fraud was perpetrated on US machines.

Boing Boing: Citibank under fraud attack, customers locked out of accounts

ake called Citibank's international customer support number, and soon learned that the lockout was part of a much larger fraud crisis — by no means the only data security issue at Citibank in recent months.and ….

Rather, she informed me that the ATM networks of
Canada, Russia and the United Kingdom have been compromised. I used the
term class break as a question and she repeated that there has been a
class break of the ATM networks in those countries.

Relevance to Bankwatch:

How Banks handle customer fraud is a determinant in customer loyalty, and strategic differentiation.

More on the JD Power survey on banking customer loyalty.

Banking Strategies Blog : Why Can’t Some People Commit?

BY JEFF TAYLOR AND GINA PINGITORE, PH.D. J.D. POWER AND ASSOCIATESFace it. Runaway customers are just not that into your bank. What more can be done to nurture customers who will stay in good times and in bad? This exclusive report on the just-released J.D. Power and Associates Retail Banking Satisfaction StudySM ranks 33 of the largest banks’ success in maximizing customer commitment.

| SYNOPSIS | The inaugural J.D. Power and Associates Retail Banking Satisfaction StudySM ranks 33 of the country’s largest banks on the basis of customer satisfaction and customer commitment. Banks vary within a narrow band on customer satisfaction; the survey found more bank-to-bank variance in customer commitment although banking enjoys a much higher level of committed customers than JDPA finds in other industries. Satisfaction and commitment insights are offered as a means of driving bottom-line results, by employing customer service, product development and operations strategies aimed at retaining and attracting highly committed customers.

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