Can traditional bankers and insurers make up with consumers?

How many breakups do you get before your relationship is over – for good? That’s what some bankers and insurers have been asking themselves since the last crisis and the media exposure of insider trading and other scandals.

How far from grace can we fall and still regain the public’s trust?

What can we do to regain their trust?

At a recent financial services conference in SAS’ Cary, North Carolina headquarters, leaders from firms throughout North America met to brainstorm answers for these questions and more.

After James Stewart’s keynote presentation on the merits of cultivating a culture of governance and truth telling in financial services organizations, the attendees split into Power Session groups led by facilitators from Matter Solutions. During the Power Sessions, discussion facilitators push the group conversation to explore ideas more creatively than ever before while graphic facilitators capture the session content on whiteboards. (You can get a better idea of what these kinds of sessions look like in this YouTube video.) Wednesday’s attendees were urged to answer this question: What actions from a Financial Institution would signal to the public that we are serious about elevating trust?

The group that I observed had obviously been listening to their customers already, and they had also been mulling what their organizations needed to do with regards to all bank stakeholders. Here were their ideas:

• Truth in advertising – NO fine print.
• No fees – really.
• Teach financial literacy.
• Simplified statements.
• Monitor the brand across social media and approach the customer issues proactively.
• Continue to bolster fraud detection processes.
• Market what you do well so that the customer knows what he or she is getting.
• Executive pay and bonuses structure in greater transparency.
• Transparency into charges and how they benefit the customer.
• Explain banking regulations and practices.
• Implement all banking regulations proactively – market this to the customer.
• Demystify banking products.
• Relationships with customers start at the top – Sprint is a good example.
• Take ownership of mistakes.

These smaller groups reconvened in the large auditorium to discuss their ideas. The two groups had several ideas in common. During the discussion, these ideas were fleshed out a bit to look more like this:

• Solve customer’s problems – one customer at a time.
• Get an integrated, holistic view of the customer.
• Show the customers what we are doing to protect them from fraud.
• There is a risk of mistrust when there is a scarcity of information. Give customers the information they need to make decisions, in a format they can use and understand.
• Provide a consistency of information when we share information across channels – including Facebook, Twitter, teller interactions, online sites and pamphlets and direct mailings.
• Use the customer’s channel of choice when trying to rebuild customer relationships. One bank executive said, “Twitter is our most satisfied channel, but it is our smallest channel. Understand which channel your customer wants and then meet them in that channel.”
• Don’t just mollify complainers; use customer complaint data to correct what is broken. “One of the richest sources of data is customer complaints, but we often look at it too wholesomely thinking that it is easier to complain than praise,” said one exec. “We often simply pay them off rather than changing our processes or products.”

These ideas are not new. Many don’t require a wholesale revamp of processes or product lines. What is required is a cultural shift toward the customer relationship. Many firms represented in these sessions have already begun the process.

What ideas are percolating in your firm? Tell us about the changes that you have implemented that are already sparking a change in your customer relationships?