The Lunch Pail

I was in New York City June 23 and 24 for the Forrester Research Financial Services Forum. This event brings together a stable of Forrester Research analysts and hundreds of administrators and marketers from some of the largest Financial Services providers in North America.

1. Improving the customer experience, enterprise-wide.
2. Implementing an intelligent, multi-channel communications approach.
3. Demystifying and leveraging Web 2.0 technologies such as social networks and online communities.

It’s no coincidence that points 2 and 3 really tie into, and support, the overall customer experience agenda.

As these themes unfolded it was clear the Financial Services industry shares some things in common with an industry Knotice is very familiar with: Cable and Telecom.

A short list of some of the traits and challenges the Financial Services industry and the Cable and Telecom industry share:

• Both providers typically index very low in overall customer satisfaction surveys. On average, customers just don’t like their providers.
• Both legal and regulatory compliance issues beyond those of most other industries.
• Both have a relatively limited portfolio of services and products (lines of business), with marketing success tied closely to cross-selling these services to all customers.
• Both industries widely recognize the need to break down silos between lines of business to enable a more cohesive and customer-centric communications approach.
• Both are taking a closer look at some key Web 2.0 technologies and wondering aloud, “Is there value in this for our customers and for our brand?”

Take a close look and ask yourself, “Is there value in this for our customers and for our brand?”

What we know from our legacy in Cable and Telecom is that relevant communications can drive effective marketing while at the same time improving the overall customer experience. There is a very simple litmus test. Simply ask, “Does this tactic add value for our customers?” If a marketer takes an unfocused or lazy approach to development of the message and targeting requirements the answer, with few exceptions, will be, “No, this is not valuable to our customers.” The communication is serving the marketer’s interests only.

When communication is carefully planned, business rules are clearly followed, there is a targeted execution to ensure relevancy – a well-timed cross-sell offer, for instance – the answer is usually, “Yes, this adds value for our customers.” We find that this approach, with a simple litmus test to validate, meets the marketer’s goals.

This is the first of three posts from Bryce Marshall highlighting some key insights from Forrester Research's Financial Services Forum Jun 23-24, 2008.