The Business Case for Onboarding

SELLING STRATEGIES

Over the past several months, I have spoken to large and small groups of bankers from organizations of all sizes and have been surprised by the number of banks that still do not have a formal onboarding process for customers opening new accounts. 

Given the amount of trade press, webinars, white papers and research done on the value of onboarding, I would have thought that virtually every bank would be communicating with customers aggressively during the instrumental 90 days after account opening.

According to a J.D. Power and Associates study, 2011 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, one of the most powerful ways to unlock customer value is to build a multi-channel, multi-touch onboarding process that begins at the new account desk with needs identification and extends to a post-sale communication sequence that builds engagement and share of wallet.

7 Common Sense Ways to Increase Bank Cross-Selling

SELLING STRATEGIES

Every financial institution needs to generate a steady stream of new customers, yet one of the easiest and most steady sources of new businesses and related revenue is to reach out to current customers for additional business.

With the cost of acquiring new retail, small business or commercial customers being five to ten times the cost of retaining an existing one, and with the average spend of a repeat customer being 50- 100 percent more than a new one, bank marketers need to remember that the most efficient investment of marketing funds is to market to customers that already bank with you.

Here are 7 relatively easy techniques to do just that:

1. Start With the Lowest Hanging Fruit: The easiest sales that can be made to current customers are engagement services that help a customer use an account they already own. These 'sticky services' include a debit card, online banking, direct deposit, bill pay, automatic savings transfer, personal line of credit and security solutions such as privacy protection. These services help to ensure the customer will use the products they own more frequently, will significantly improve retention and will help to improve the overall customer experience.
   
   
2. Stay Connected: About a year ago I was talking to a friend who said, "I was very impressed with how much love my bank gave me when I opened some new accounts, but amazed that I never really heard from them again except to tell me about new fees". While some banks have very successful onboarding programs to help stay connected with new customers, a surprising number of banks still rely on the customer to onboard themselves. And unless the customer expands their relationship, their bank may never include them in a model-driven cross-sell program.
   
   
3. Continually Evaluate Upsell Opportunities: Rather than using product-driven programs that are done seasonally, consider funding more customer-focused programs that evaluate each customer's propensity to open one or more of the products and services you offer. With some of my clients, we evaluate each customer's transactional, product ownership and even behavioral characteristics to determine what would be the most likely next purchase and whether the propensity to purchase is high enough to make an offer. In some of most successful programs, this evaluation of opportunities is done monthly, with smaller mailing universes, but much higher response rates.
   
   

QR Codes Are Mobile Gateway for Bank Marketers

As the use of smartphones increases, more and more marketers are leveraging QR, or quick response, codes to drive prospects and customers to promotional content or to expand a conversation. While usually a black and white square, QR codes can also be colorful and can have patterns or logos embedded in them and around them, as long as the code itself works properly.

To access, the viewer only needs to download one of several free QR code reader apps on to their smartphones (some phone are already loaded with this application). When the viewer sees a QR code on a poster, billboard, print advertisement or even on a product itself, they focus their camera on the image and the application will recognize the code and automatically open up the link to an offer, video or other unique content in the phone's browser giving the marketer the ability to share information or offers immediately at a very low cost (marketers can generate QR codes for free).