Personal finance resource, MoneyRates.com, researched what makes bank customers most satisfied and allows some institutions to grow more rapidly than others. Experts at fast-growing banks consider seven ways banks can succeed by serving their customers well. Two banks that have achieved excellent deposit growth were explored in-depth: Flagstar Bank and Ally Bank.
Richard Barrington, MoneyRates’ spokesperson, gathered opinions from successful bank representatives to understand their perspective on ways that banks should approach customer service. He concludes that successful banks focus on seven important factors:
1. Offer good value
2. Attract millennial customers
3. Determine a profitable niche
4. Adopt a strong customer-service mindset
5. Humanize technology
6. Make banking easy for consumers
7. Share advantages with customers
“It is clear that these successful banks have a strong customer focus,” observes the report’s author, Richard Barrington. “Consumers should assess how their bank incorporates these seven pillars of customer service and consider shopping for a new bank if their existing one falls short.”
The full report is available here: www.money-rates.com/banks/how-
I had a chance to interview MoneyRates’ spokesperson, Richard Barrington.
Why is it important for banks to attract millennial clients?
It’s hard to believe, but if we define millennials as people who came of age during the 21st century, some of those folks are now approaching middle age – which means they are entering their peak earning years. That makes them ideal customers for financial services.
On top of that, millennials represent a major break from how banking has been done traditionally. For them, the bank branch is now their mobile phone, and digital payments have taken the place of writing and cashing checks. Banks that can’t appeal to a market that does their banking that way will find themselves largely obsolete within an generation.
What does it mean for a bank to humanize technology, and why does that contribute to success?
The challenge for banks will be to use data mining and activity monitoring to engineer customer contacts that are timely and relevant. You can stay in touch with your customer base and cross-sell to them, but in a way that is helpful rather than by simply bombarding them with e-mails and texts.
How can consumers find banks that are providing good value?
Two measurable things are savings account interest rates and checking account fees. MoneyRates has found that the best savings account fees are nearly 2% higher than the average. Also, while most banks charge monthly fees on checking accounts you can still find free checking if you look for it. Below are links to our latest rate and fee studies:
Website: www.MoneyRates.com
Twitter: @MoneyRates
Facebook: www.facebook.com/
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