We aim to help marketers offer the best customer experience they can and continue to build their brand equity during this time of crisis.This week's themes are: Empower and Inform – Spark Enthusiasm – Control the Narrative
Empower and Inform
In a week characterized by protests against racial injustice, concern about the pandemic increased from 71% being very or fairly concerned last week to 76% this week. Banks can help customers to take charge of their own situations by giving clear guidance which is tailored to individual needs, whether this is about pensions, scams or branch opening hours.
Whilst people are still responding to paid advertising positively, we are seeing a decline in persuasiveness and relevance. Only 34% of paid communications were relevant this week, versus a benchmark of 46%. Not everyone needs the help being offered, although it provides reassurance that those who do can get it.
Spark Enthusiasm
Now is a good time to spark enthusiasm, not just from customers, but prospects as well, for innovative products and services. “Various ordinary people who seemed to be Barclays staff, talking about the covid outbreak and what Barclays were doing to help, which involved using their website including being able to pay in cheques without visiting a branch. A tabby cat appeared at the end when the woman who spoke first was on again, and meowed. Intrigued - I want to know how to pay a cheque in without visiting a branch.” Barclays | TV | Fairly Positive | Slightly more likely to choose | Fairly Relevant.
Control the Narrative
We have seen an increase in negative news. 34% of all earned experiences, such as news items or conversations, were negative in the last 4 weeks versus 23% in the previous 4 weeks. The alleged £100 million hit that Nationwide has recently taken is one of the dominating headlines. This inevitable reality check could create a new wave of worry amongst customers, so it is important for banks to control the narrative.
In summary
- Empower customers through tailoring information to them
- Spark enthusiasm through innovative products and services
- Control the narrative to avoid reputational damage
Contributor:
Mark Thompson, Experience Director & Kaat Defreyne, Senior Experience Executive