All brands – especially heavily regulated financial institutions – should state their social customer service protocols clearly, and the path to assistance should be fast and easy. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. For those who need to update their profiles to contain information about customer service, here are some examples from banks and credit unions.
EMV chip technology – the standard payment technology in many countries worldwide – has come to U.S. credit card issuers slowly, primarily beginning with high-end travel and entertainment cards that attract international travelers. But now that chip is gaining awareness among U.S. consumers, domestic issuers are beginning to offer it more broadly. Because this payment technology can be confusing to consumers, it is imperative that communications about the technology and its benefits are clear.
Retailers want consumers to visit their stores. They especially want likely buyers to come in and browse. A “Gift Underwriting Engine” from FreeMonee, in partnership with credit and debit card issuers, helps merchants identify individuals who regularly make purchases in categories related to the merchants’ products. FreeMonee then develops campaigns to use small cash gifts to entice these potential buyers into stores.
In an article for AdWeek, journalist Christopher Heine referred to the digital landscape as a “harshly competitive climate,” noting that “hundreds of daily deals upstarts have fallen by the wayside.” He attributes the difficulty not only to the sheer quantity of players attempting to get a piece of deals but also to the nature of who’s getting involved. Financial institutions are seasoned competitors... adept at vying for transaction volume, skilled at wooing both consumers and merchants.
Prepaid cards have long been the product of choice for the unbanked and underbanked. The low barrier to entry has made them ideal for this segment – consumers just pick them up off a shelf, load them with cash and use them like debit cards. GPR cards, once the domain of display racks at retail and check cashing stores, seem to be moving into the mainstream of the financial service industry.
Many banks are providing details via social networks not only about branch location openings/closings but also about mobile ATM deployments and fee waivers for those in the affected areas. But what stood out to me today were the messages coming from Bank of America’s Facebook page and Twitter stream.
Talk to a bank about social media, and you may see it shift or squirm in its chair a bit. But talk to a bank about customer data? Likely, it will lean in and listen carefully. So what happens when banks realize they can access customer feedback and observe consumer behavior via social media?
From a recent social media campaign, UK bank First Direct has enough happiness to last it a long, long while. Its promotion “Pictures of Happiness” utilized a Facebook app to crowd-source “photos of happiness” from fans. The contest not only awarded great prizes for the best submissions, but it also fed the user content into an ad campaign for the bank.
Recognizing the potential value of loyalty programs to long-term customer relationships, new credit card offers are emerging that lure consumers away from competitors and tap the consumer bases of major retailers.
Over the past 18 months, businesses across industries have watched social media swiftly migrate to the center of marketing and business strategy. Organizations large and small are not only embracing social media, but are discovering innovative ways to use social media as a business tool, by moving “the conversation” to the center of their decision-making processes. However, businesses in the financial services sector have been slower than their consumer brand cousins to embrace social media. Media Logic’s latest whitepaper, Fear not! How financial service institutions can put the ‘Big 6’ social marketing strategies to work, suggests strategies, platforms, and control protocols for how financial service institutions and other regulated businesses can begin to step into social marketing without fear. DOWNLOAD THE WHITEPAPER