I am attending MESH07 conference in Toronto. Today is Media and Social day, so less business focus, which comes tomorrow. Highlight this morning was Michael Arrington from Techcrunch. He was quite entertaining, and quite clear in his views about old media and new media. His speciality is startups, and the main take away for success and differentiation that he looks for are twofold: – Technology innnovation – network effect – ability to attract large numbers of users, interested in partipating The other keynote included Tom Williams from givemeaning.org. When asked a similar question about drivers of success, his answer is … Continue reading MESH07 | Michael Arrington

There are times when I think Banks act with incredible stupidity, then somehow one manages to leap out of the pack and really display a fundamental lack of any grasp of how consumers think. Hat tip Javelin. Barclaycard customers could soon be hit with an annual fee of up to £20 if they fail to use their cards “enough”. The UK’s largest credit card provider says it is considering an annual charge for its one million customers who rarely or never use their credit cards. Source: The Guardian I can just picture the salivation in the conference room, as the … Continue reading Barclaycard

Japan is a highly consumer oriented society, with advertising everywhere. There is also a very high expectation for corporate loyalty, and service to customers. No surpirse about these figures that indicate 40% of lack is in time and energy ( 2 – 4). While I have written before about the exceptional service customers get in Japan, this suggests the pressures this creates are not sustainable. Its not humanly possible to sustain this level of service. A new model is required. “What do you lack [most] now?” 1 Money 30% 2 Sense of drive, desire to act 15% 3 Time 13% … Continue reading Japan as an early warning signal for customer service

This has been bothering me for a while. I think it took me getting out of a large organisation, to begin to see the futility in the customer centric, 360 degree view, mentality. Everything about 360 degree view, as defined, is company centric. For the uninitiated, “360 degree view of the customer” is about creating and providing access to a comprehensive collection of information about individual customers. It’s the corporate memory for customer interactions. The Marketing Consortium: I say futility, because while it sounds like the right approach, its impossible to be customer centric from the viewpoint of any one … Continue reading Some thoughts on customer centric, 360 degree view, and Social Networks.

Paul at Finextra notes the updated Wells Fargo web site, which takes a highly customer focused approach to ease access to most wanted features. The results have been spectacular with a 50% increase in online applications. The team collated the 100 most-popular search terms to determine what customers most wanted to find and couldn’t. Topping the list were mortgage rates, security information, and ATM/branch locations – which subsequently were handed premium positions on the new home page. Finextra: A new report from Forrester is cited the efforts, after Brad Strothkamp sat down with Stephanie Smith, Senior Vice President and Head … Continue reading Successful Wells Fargo site redesign levers analytics, not opinions

This post amazed me, and when I followed some of the suggestions, I was successful. It is essential that Banks, and credit card companies follow through with enhancements such as “Verified by Visa “. But more so, this article points to the need for online vigilance for card numbers that are available online. This will result in the usual, ‘is it Visa’s job our [the Bank’s] job’, but the need is so clear, surely that can be sorted out. It would be simple for companies like Visa, MasterCard, and Discover to take a list of the most common 8-digit prefixes, … Continue reading Credit cards are still very vulnerable online

Robert asks some provocative questions here (nice to see him back on his game). A lot of money moves from my wallet to somewhere else. Now, I know how to use Google, right? Google monetizes the last click in a complex chain. But how am I, or Maryam, going to be influenced on our choices? Say, for instance, diapers? I just did a search for diapers on Google and found only one brand name I recognize: Huggies. How did that damn name get hammered into my brain? Advertising. Source: Scobleizer This synopsises (huh!) the perennial argument. Big bang advertising or … Continue reading Huggies or ….? How will Robert know ….

WordPress, the service I use, has gone over 1 million blogs. When I set up with them, in Jan 2006, there were about 300K if I recall. 1,002,584 blogs on WordPress.com. WordPress does everything well, but the main thing I like is the constant iterative improvement. Yes they have the best comment spam filter system of anyone, bar none, but the improvements are continuous ( I have had 11K spams in that 17 month interval). A few months ago they operationalised domain mapping, which allowed me to use thebankwatch.com for this WP hosted blog, even though the real underlying address … Continue reading WordPress grows beyond 1 million blogs

This article is about Google, but the underlying thread is intersting, and relevant for Banks. Just when you thought it would be great when customers could locate your bank/service/product using search, after your mammoth efforts at sucessful Search Engine Optimization (SEO) up pops a little helper to suggest your offer might not be the best.

Thats the promise of new technology from Autonomy, and inferred by Google.

Autonomy, the UK-based search company is also developing technology for “transaction hijacking”, which monitors when internet surfers are about to make a purchase online, and can suggest cheaper alternatives. Although such monitoring could raise privacy issues, Google stresses that the iGoogle and personalisation services are optional.

This just reminds me, that one approach, such as SEO, is never enough. Constant innovation within the internet space, and improvements to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to incorporate online and especially email, is essential to ensure your customers want to think of you. I am not talking about spamming here. I am thinking of being proactive and appropriately re-active with customers at those moments of truth, to turn them into yourBank advocates. Continue reading Transaction hijacking – cheaper alternatives, at point of purchase