Confidence in financial institutions has been shaken, and the rules for regaining confidence are not clear. Part of the reason that the road ahead is unclear, is because the rules have changed. Its not uncommon for people to suggest that banks don’t ‘get it’, however in fairness to all concerned the new rules are not always clear.
One side outcome from the financial headlines has been to isolate some clear rules that anyone can follow, including Banks. These posts deal with some of the issues for banks, and any company to consider. Incidentally, this is the heart of step 1 of Web 2.0 for banks.
5 Steps: How Banks Must Regain Trust (hint: Not Via Advertising)
But some serious trust has been lost. Managing our own personal finance is one of those things that the average American feels less and less confident about. Most of us have no choice but to surrender our trust to financial experts and institutions.
And this from my own contribution over at thebankwatch.com.
The main page is running their (AIG) latest ad here, and it speaks about ‘what we see’, has photo’s of football players, and is generally a typical wealth management type ad. … If I had an AIG policy, what are you doing for me – is my policy still working? Simple basic comments addressing what people are actually thinking. This is what people expect and what social media mean. Talk to people and listen to people.
In the ‘5 steps post’ John speaks about 5 rules, and here are three of them with a similar theme.
- Stop your traditional advertising with your old campaign now
- Whoever said corporate blogging is dead is an idiot – start a blog for godsakes
- Listen and react to your customers publicly
The theme here is simple. Get personal with your customers, and get real with your customers. Ask yourself and ask your friends. Does the sight of football players jumping around, and other typical corporate branding exercises engender trust in a time of confidence crisis? If a friend is have a crisis is the first thing that you would do is suggest a new paint job, or buy a new car?
In a time of confidence crisis, the first thing to do is match the communication method, and media to the times. In times of confidence crisis, people want to be spoken to. They want to have a conversation, ask questions get answers. In fact as you follow this theme along you will see that this is not just in a time of confidence. This is something to expressly do at all times – because at any given time someone is having a financial confidence crisis and needs re-assurance. This football player ad don’t help those people at that moment. They want … a conversation.
Something to try Mr financial services executive:
Adopt the persona of a customer – read a few headlines in the business section …. close your eyes … now go to your web site – how does it feel?
Bankwatch 
I agree that open, two-way channels of communication are more important now than ever. So many banks claim to be open and transparent – I don’t think customers are going to believe that anymore unless banks really come out and support their words with actions (such as starting a blog).
Even if negative things get said on a bank’s blog, they shouldn’t be censored. Dialogue with customers can help restore trust and shows that the bank is willing to discuss issues.