90%: That’s the percentage of the over 30 banks who took our recent social media survey that said they have a presence on social media. As banks move toward a fuller embrace of social media, it is imperative to understand the customer’s experience through the medium and the role its increasing role in financial decision making. CFC’s global survey of social media users shows that social media plays a big role in addressing and confirming life and purchasing decisions around financial services.

In short, the decisions that were once taking place in branch lobbies are now being made through personal social network conversations.

Our series of surveys on social media in financial services are designed to help banks answer essential strategic questions about customer experience: What type of people use social media? What are the behavior patterns and personality segments that emerge through the medium? What are the key questions–and resulting actions–that social media plays a part in?

For our members, we now release country-level data on customer social media use for financial services:

• Australia
• Canada
• Singapore and Malaysia
• United Kingdom
• United States

As members refine their strategies and seek to understand trends in banks’ social media initiatives, we can also offer a glimpse into the social media strategies at 4 leading firms in “From Innovation to Launch: Social Media Experts Speak about their Ongoing Initiatives“–featuring insights from RBS, Fulton Financial, SmartyPig, and Umpqua.

We estimate that consumers’ lack of confidence in financial services providers left as many as 63 million financial products unsold across Europe and North America in 2010.  When asked to rate providers on dimensions critical to trust in financial providers, respondents, who included 18,500 consumers across 24 countries, expressed low confidence in financial providers.  They believe institutions lack shared values, have an inability to provide helpful guidance and advice, and offer overly complex product suites.  Unfortunately, our findings indicate that low consumer confidence in these attributes suppresses product purchases.  Customers with higher confidence, in turn, are more likely to purchase.  (CFC members can access the global survey findings).

If there is one clear theme running through recent bank earnings releases it is that most financial institutions have a revenue problem.  While some of the revenue pressure sits outside of direct industry control, financial institutions can influence sales by helping customers feel confident about their money management decisions.

Repairing the Relationship

We suggest that institutions wanting to capitalize on product sales—and revenue—left on the table in 2010 begin working to rebuild trust with consumers in 2011 by:

1. Becoming a money coach: Put a personal budgeting tool in consumers’ hands that will automatically plug in transaction and balance information.  View examples of money management tools.
2. Being courageous: Be transparent about pricing and tout the value of products.  Institutions need to remind customers of the value and convenience of core products and provide a rationale for the fees associated with them.  Read CFC documented pricing and activation strategies
3. Listening to customers: Equip staff with simplified sales processes that incorporate the lost art of listening to customer concerns and needs.  Review examples of frontline execution support

What makes a sales force productive? CFC surveyed 20,000 bankers to find the key differentiators between top performers and core staff. The results provide our members with a picture of what a top performer looks like:

• Top performers gain greater leverage from reactive selling
• Top performers spend more time with customers
• Top performers spend less time preparing for calls, but are still more effective than their counterparts

If core performers are given strong guidelines around time allocation for call preparation and actual customer outreach, they can begin to replicate top sales staff. The key: it’s about working smarter, not harder. As our study shows, through small, habitual changes, core performers can deliver dramatic lift toward sales goals.

To understand all the characteristics of top performers, our members can read our profile of ”High Performing Branch Bankers.”

My favorite topic, after banking that is, is relationships. This secret (or now not-so-secret) interest of mine is probably driven by the fact that I have become the “go-to” girl for relationship advice among my friends.

After years of counseling friends on their romantic relationships, I’m now turning to banks. Yesterday, I asked myself, “If close to half of serious relationships end in divorce, do banks stand a chance of growing lifetime relationships with customers?” How many millions has your bank spent on CRM, technology, or consulting to achieve lifetime relationship profitability?

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