Just met with the folks from ClairMail at the technology showcase.  They have an implementation at Wells Fargo, that lets customers SMS or email to Wells, and get back their account balance for their credit card or deposit account.  This is in response to the number of telephone calls they get while customers are out shopping, and need to know their spend availability.  So a $12 phone call is replaced by a cheaper email. Their model is subscription based, but not sure how sustainable that will be, because many are going for the subscription model now, and each of these … Continue reading ClairMail reduces call centre calls for account balance

Just watched Tara do her thing.  It would not do it justice to call it a presentation – it was a fabulous example of creating interaction, and discussion, and it hit the right level of powerpoint, video, and conversation.  Her piece is well covered here at random thoughts. Some key points she made, and spoke eloquently and passionately about were inbound, rather than outbound messages making tools available for a community, then getting out of the way being part of the community, not a tourist being 100% authentic advocating FOR your community to your company rather than the other way … Continue reading New Marketing 2 – MESH

Reflecting what is presumably a customer requirement for the area, Wells have added online banking terminals into their branches in Oregon, and SW Washington, to promote online services. Despite online surge, branches are alive and well – Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle): the Internet is Wells Fargo’s most popular service channel. The number of online sessions logged by its customers each month is now greater than the number of transactions customers make each month — collectively — at branches, ATMs and over the phone. Technorati Tags: bank_branch Continue reading Wells Fargo adds online banking to its branches in Oregon

Despite the positive comments here, I believe account aggregation as a stand-alone concept is dead. Customers didn't get it, saw no incremental value, and in fact were scared of it, because of having to share online sign in credentials. However, and perhaps thats where Robert is going with his post, it will be a valid component in development of other services in the future, and it will be bank changing in its significance. WebCPA | Tools and Resources for the Electronic Accountant – An Investcorp and SourceMedia Publication Since a search of the Intuit Web site yields no hits for … Continue reading Account aggregation is dead, long live account aggregation

Slightly off topic for me, but this post from Andrew McAfee defines precisely why I choose to blog, and it may be of interest to other professionals, in any sphere. There is just so much information to assimilate, supplemented by rapidity of change, that tools are required to maintain information currency and be able to innovate.

Andrew McAfee

It’s very reasonable to believe that most busy professionals are only going to blog if it helps them get their job done. But it’s also pretty reasonable to conclude that blogging will do exactly that.

Continue reading “Reasons to blog”

Courtesy of the “church“, Chevrolet announce remarkably positive results from the Tahoe campaign.  Earlier predictions of doom and despair for this ‘campaign‘ prove to be incorrect.  In fact the positive  outcomes, with 400K visitors may prove the value in pinko marketing (wiki) that the wisdom of crowds will outfox the otherwise inadvertant tactics of companies.  Those 400K probably comprise a core group of Tahoe interested people. Church of the Customer Blog: Chevy shares statistics about the Tahoe campaign # About 84% have been straight product-pieces favorable to the Tahoe # Of the remaining 16% of submissions, the majority are either … Continue reading Chevy shares statistics about the Tahoe campaign