Susan Faulkner, SVP at Bank of America speaks very clearly about the advantage of their integrated operating model.  Integrated product and distribution thinks about the consumer needs.  They have a Sales and Service organisation that runs the integrated model.

Provocative stats quoted, for sales and service activity

%                      2004   2005   2006
Online                7.7      11.9      14.1
Direct mail      14.3      8.9       4.7
Branch             68.4     69.7      67.8
Other                  9.6      13.6     13.4

Two things struck me:

• direct mail is disappearing
• other & online is growing rapidly

Great quote from a BofA sales associate in response to product development. 
“You may think this is a great product, but its just too difficult to sell, and customers don’t understand it”
Sales and Service integrates the product and the distribution (people) so that the results are customer centric.

Innovation:
Affinity cards, evolving to affinity banking.  Red Sox mortgage, Red Sox insurance.

Relevance to Bankwatch:

1. Customers decisions & needs mean we must make all sales and service choices available in all channels as customer behaviours evolve.
2. The voice of the customer has to be represented in product development to make it simple to sell (and buy)

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