Checking Changes Make Onboarding and Cross-Selling More Important

Over the past several weeks, many of the larger banks across the country have announced significant changes to their checking account continuum, including elimination of traditional Free Checking, discontinuation of rewards programs, ceasing reimbursement of foreign ATM fees, as well as potential fees and transaction limits on debit cards.

While each of these strategies are intended to reduce costs or generate revenue in response to Reg E and the Durbin Amendment, these changes could also present a challenge to banks as they seek to increase engagement and gain share of wallet. This is because debit card use and rewards program enrollment were two of the more important account engagement criteria and basis for a broader relationship growth.

According to an economic analysis on the effects of the Durbin interchange amendment presented to the Federal Reserve Board on February 22, between $33.4-$38.6 billion of debit card interchange will be lost during the first two years the new rules are in effect. This reduces the revenue on a personal checking account by $56-$64 and by $79-$92 on a small business checking account according to the study. These impacts make it more important than ever to optimize onboarding and cross-sell efforts for retail and small business customers thereby reducing costly attrition, improving engagement and providing a stronger foundation for ongoing relationship expansion.

Here are several of the steps financial institutions should consider as they begin to implement changes to their deposit accounts and debit products.

• Double Down on Onboarding Initiatives: While most banks currently have an onboarding process for new retail customers, many have yet to build an onboarding process for small businesses. In addition, many programs only reach out to the customer once or twice and don't leverage a robust mix of communication channels. The impact of recent legislation makes the opportunity cost of attrition more expensive than ever. Banks need to increase the number of 'touches' a customer receives by email, phone and direct mail with the message centered on maximizing the benefits of using the account the customer just opened. When the account becomes active, then begin to expand the relationship.
• Don't Walk Away From Debit: While the economics of the debit card have definitely changed, the use of this payment vehicle remains better than many of the alternatives and provides the consumer with constant brand reinforcement each time they open their wallet. David Stewart from McKinsey & Company wrote in a recent BAI Banking Strategies article entitled, "Keeping Debit in Focus Post-Durbin" that debit cards remain an important component of the anchor DDA. As a result, getting new customers to activate and use their debit card as part of the onboarding process should continue to be a primary objective.
• Expand The Definition of Engagement: In the past, most banks focused on debit card utilization, enrollment in online banking (with bill pay) and the sign up for direct deposit in their onboarding messaging. While you don't want to cover too much in the onboarding communication, there are some households you may want to encourage to apply for a credit card and/or activate an autosave transfer as part of welcome process.
• Encourage Channel Migration: Another way to stem attrition, potentially reduce cost and build share of wallet is to increase alternative payments channel use. As part of the onboarding process, some of my clients are building messages around the use of mobile banking early in the relationship lifecycle. This makes sense based on recent trend research done by Javelin Strategy and the potential for offline customer mobile adoption found in research done by Fiserv. While there may only be minimal channel shift from a payments perspective initially, there could be significant savings if call center inquiries are reduced.
• Focus on Share of Wallet Early: While I totally agree with Ron Shevlin in his Marketing Tea Party blogs (Honeymooning and Why Engagement Matters) that a new customer must be courted and engaged before they can be cross-sold, customers define the pace of this trust building as opposed to the bank. This level of engagement/trust is usually found by looking at transaction volumes and whether engagement services are active. Once actively engaged, the customer should be offered additional services that may improve their overall banking experience. This is where product propensity models and behavioral segmentation can be effective.
• Leverage the New Account Desk: Many of my clients have found that the new account desk can  be an effective cross-selling environment for the customer, especially if credit services such as credit cards, personal or small business lines of credit and even equity credit are pre-approved at the point of sale. The point of sale is also the best place to discuss the correct account to open in the first place and the benefits of engagement services and rewards alternatives.

The effective communication of your checking account changes to existing customers has been discussed in my recent blog (Minimizing the Impact of 'Unintended Consequences'). It is just as important to communicate well with new customers at the new account desk in the days, weeks and months immediately following the new account opening. Without an aggressive communication process, leveraging multiple channels and customized to the customer's stage in the engagement process, the investment in acquiring the customer will be lost or the value of the relationship will not be optimized.

How are you going to ramp up your new customer communications to maximize your marketing ROI? Are you considering new ways of onboarding your customer in the first 30, 60 or 90 days? Have you found a way to leverage any social media in your onboarding process? I would love to hear your ideas.