KQ Article

Your acquisition strategies are working. You’re onboarding new accountholders. They’re opening checking or savings accounts and making deposits. Now what? How do you get customers or members more engaged with your entire suite of services?

Chances are, 50 percent or more of your accountholders are doing business with two or more of your competitors for add-ons such as loan services, insurance protection and e-banking. These services are profitable, create “stickiness,” and are well worth competing for. The obvious question remains: How can you onboard new customers more effectively — and keep more add-on service revenue in-house?

To find the answers, it helps to understand what you can control and what you can’t. The state of the financial industry, unfortunately, remains outside our sphere of influence. Although the economy seems to be making a slight upturn, the industry still has its work cut out to regain customer satisfaction levels that were common in the pre-9/11, pre-bailout era. Banks and credit unions also have to deal with tighter lending restrictions, ongoing consolidation and upcoming regulatory changes (such as the Durbin amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act) that will all likely affect your efforts.

On a positive note, there are many attributes you do control that can jump-start your onboarding initiatives. A solid reputation and stellar customer service are two great examples. The key is to build on these exceptional qualities, cultivating your account base while exposing new accountholders to all the supplementary services you offer.

It may sound corny, but many financial institutions often forget the fundamentals of onboarding — the so-called “little things” that set your brand apart:

• Maintain a positive, upbeat environment. Make sure your offices are warm, comfortable and inviting. Cold, stark surroundings add unnecessary tension.

• Answer your phone. Simple, right? Yet one of the biggest consumer complaints is not being able to reach anyone higher than a CSR. If custom-ers have concerns, take time out to listen and respond.

• Build a relationship beyond the application. Show genuine interest in every new customer or member. Tell them you appreciate their business and want to help them as many ways as possible.

• Always be friendly, helpful and courteous. Offer new customers or members something to drink before you sit down together. During calls, allow CSRs to engage in some small-talk. It will go a long way.

• Provide added value. Strike deals with your local symphony, service stations, zoos, restaurants, dry cleaners and other merchants to provide savings for new accountholders. This creates terrific good will.

Once you have a good person-to-person strategy in place, it’s time to return to another onboarding essential: analysis. Start scrubbing your client database and segmenting accountholders into specific groups. This will give you a snapshot of your account base and help create better onboarding strategies.

Here are some examples of important segments:

1. Idle accountholders

2. Checking/savings only

3. Credit card only

5. Checking plus bill pay

5. Checking plus credit card

6. Lending only

Now that you know who you’re dealing with, you can develop a plan to motivate account-holders in each segment to enroll in additional services. Try offering attractive incen-tives or rewards for targeted services, depending on the particular needs of the segment. For example, you could entice the “lending only” consumer to open a checking or savings account with $100 cash back or a grace period with no service fees.

Of course, there are other, time-tested ways to create deeper affinity and loyalty with all accountholders, too. One proven tactic is offering a daily deal on your website for in-house services or merchant partner services. Examples are abundant: Three months free leasing for a safety deposit box. Discounts on oil changes or other merchant partner services if consumers pay with an in-house credit or debit card.

Developing a more formal, structured customer loyalty strategy is another great way to address the challenges of acquisition, retention and cross-service promotion. As the industry continues to experience sporadic consumer switching from small institutions to large ones and back again, it’s difficult to predict individual trend lines. A structured loyalty scheme, however, provides a benchmark for continued success and can help limit dramatic churn rates. Consider measuring every aspect of your business and aiming to increase loyalty in each one.

Though there isn’t a fix-all solution to the challenge of onboarding, your institution’s good will, hard work and strategic thinking will pay long-term dividends — both for your bottom line and the relationships you build with customers and members.

_{© 2010 Roger Brooks}