How Banks Can Improve Customized Customer Service

A finance executive with 20 years of experience, Griffin McGahey is the CEO of the Birmingham, AL companies, Pay.claims, and High Cotton. As the leader of companies operating digital payments platforms, Griffin McGahey is interested in how financial institutions can form genuine relationships with customers by creating tailoring experiences for each individual.

Community banks, serving specific cities or regions within a state, possess unique challenges when communicating with customers. To send federally-mandated communications and market new products, they must choose appropriate channels and a consistent brand voice. At the same time, they cannot inundate customers with emails or paper mail because customers will ignore the information.

Banks can utilize customer data to balance these competing priorities and train their branch employees to possess more in-depth information on salient product offers. Banks can tailor the financial literacy information it sends to a customer based on age, income, and more to increase customers’ likelihood of acting on what they learn.

To retain consistency, train branch employees to respond to customer questions deriving from their specific communications rather than general questions alone. This way, customers receive assistance tailored to their specific needs and demographic niche.

Building Authentic Relationships between Community Banks and Clients

From a customer perspective, one of the key appeals of community banking is the personalized service and long-term relationship between customer and bank. In order to effectively communicate information about products and services to their customers, regional banks must take full advantage of the tools available to them, tailoring their message to the specific age, financial situation, and banking needs of each customer.

Effective communication requires a balance. Community financial institutions must find a way to maintain contact with customers without overwhelming them with marketing materials and junk mail. Above all, banking executives should prioritize authentic, transparent relationships built on genuine connection.

To accomplish this, they can focus on treating customers as individuals rather than transactions. This entails asking open-ended questions and listening carefully to better understand clients’ financial goals. Once banking professionals understand what the client is looking for, they can create targeted strategies and increase the client’s trust in the institution.

Additionally, a community bank should look for the sweet spot between too much and not enough information. After communicating with the client, bankers must provide space for customers to make decisions. Digital banking makes this easier, as banks can provide important information about accounts and offers via email, without relying exclusively on expensive and intrusive mail promotions. Along with sending targeted marketing on customers’ personal statements, banks can utilize print campaigns sparingly in order to reach clients who respond better to paper communications.

Cultivating authentic relationships requires effort not just during specific transactions, but through a client’s entire banking journey. Checking in to create a positive post-interaction experience makes customers feel valued. Not only will they be more likely to utilize the bank’s services themselves, they will recommend the bank to family members and friends.

Just as in personal relationships, authentic business relationships depend on honesty and integrity. Rather than approaching “being genuine” as a marketing strategy, banking institutions can create a culture of transparency and honesty, where employees are encouraged to converse with customers as they would with friends. This friendly approach should be backed up by clear, accurate information about the bank’s products and services. Rather than focusing on “selling,” community bank employees should prioritize educating clients on how products and services can meet their unique needs.

Regional banks must implement specific measures to optimize their communication and create personal relationships. Local branches are expensive to maintain, which contributes to many large institutions closing branches and operating fully digitally. To maintain a presence in local communities, financial institutions should look for ways to leverage their digital presence to drive customers back to physical locations.

Instead of emphasizing one-time services such as depositing a check, community banks should highlight the ways personal banking can serve their long-term needs. For example, banks can educate customers on high-level services such as wealth management, which require ongoing communication between banker and client.

Community banks should prioritize the convenience of their services through digital and online banking tools, while maintaining the personal level of service that distinguishes them from larger institutions. Face-to-face interactions create a lasting impression in clients, and contribute to long-term trust in a way that emails and text messages do not. Additionally, community banks can emphasize how they serve the community beyond the branch walls by participating in local events.

Regional Banks Should Set up Uniform Customer Communications

With an MBA from Vanderbilt University, Griffin McGahey is the CEO of HC3, an innovative data management and marketing communications firm. From his office in Birmingham, AL, Griffin McGahey regularly works with clients to enhance customer communications.

Customers today prefer to have access to their bank using multiple channels. However, many banks have an inconsistent voice across their channels. A bank can market a new offering in their standard communications, such as mail and text, but fail to update this on their website. Even worse, one channel can have an outdated product that is not aligned with a recent offering. Unifying these creates a seamless experience for customers, strengthening their trust in the bank and enhancing their brand loyalty.

This is true even with offline communication. Banks have to ensure that frontline staff is well aware of the bank’s latest products and promotional campaigns. When a customer asks about these at a branch, the frontline staff member should give him or her helpful information regarding the service, its terms and requirements. Even a simple inquiry by a teller to a customer about their interest in a new product may open up an opportunity to cross-sell or upsell the customer.