Breaking Banks

Chapter 10Building Experiences Customers Love

The methods used to drive revenue and sales have recently started to lose effectiveness at the top of the funnel, and as we’ve explored in earlier chapters, the branch itself is no longer necessarily the most logical or the easiest way for customers to engage if they are seeking help from a bank or financial institution—it is certainly not the only channel to focus on when it comes to driving revenue, not anymore. Capturing future revenue opportunities takes a different mindset and a different skill set from what would usually be found in a marketing department within a typical financial institution. It takes the skill of building great experiences today, not just crafting great messages.

Recently, a subtle shift to consumer engagement has made itself evident, one that may fundamentally change the way we view marketing and the business of customer acquisition in the future.

Typical marketing and consumer buying behavior and psychology has dictated a fairly standardized approach to building a pipeline of business, namely targeting specific demographics or segments of customers, or raising brand awareness so as to generate interest in products or services. The most common method of doing this, in banking generally, has been through generating marketing and advertising efforts aimed at funneling customers into a branch to engage with a banker, or perhaps encouraging customers to call the bank. Broadly, brand marketing efforts have typically ...