KQ Article

Consumer behavior continues to evolve in unexpected ways. Who could have guessed we’d one day be attending to a prevailing desire for openness and authenticity? Consumers today are well informed, unwavering and scrupulous. But they also vary widely in their expectations of authenticity. One size does not fit all.

This makes it critical that we clearly understand our own businesses and strategies, along with the experiences we hope to create. Such understanding will help us determine the correct approach to “staging” an experience that aligns with what our customers or members want most.

For Disney, separating onstage — the experience it wishes to provide customers — from backstage — the decisions and operations supporting the onstage experience — is appropriate. That’s because Disney’s offering is literally a stage production. People expect a curtain to be in place. It’s theater, after all.

Yet as the rest of us delve deeper into this new culture, we should realize the risk in adopting the onstage/backstage model. In today’s experience-driven economy, banks and credit unions that separate their consumer-facing presentation from their internal processes might find themselves struggling to shed a perception of being secretive and untrustworthy. Curtains only further the suspicion among already-skeptical financial services consumers.

LET THEM SEE BACKSTAGE
People want real, authentic experiences, and the processes behind making things happen are as real as it gets. So why not break down the barrier between onstage and offstage, to willingly show the reality behind what we do? Instead of baiting consumers to ask what we have to hide, we should welcome them to see the logic and thinking behind our operations. There’s no clearer way of conveying the values and culture that drive our mission as a business. And there’s no better way of being open and true.

Whenever you adopt a new policy or procedure, consider making it public by providing a clear explanation why. For example, each time call center representatives place customers on hold, they should offer a reason — even before the person on the other end of the line asks for one. Also train your staff to explain why they’re requesting a password for the second time during a call, after customers have already entered it into the automated phone system.

Many such policies are designed to protect consumers’ private information. But if you don’t communicate this, your customers and members might simply perceive that you’re being institutional and difficult for no reason. And perception equals reality from the consumer’s perspective.

OFFER WEB-LIKE TRANSPARENCY
The Internet has had a profound influence on today’s economy. We now have access to a startling quantity of information on demand, and the Web has reduced full disclosure to an assumption. Consumers transfer such expectations to corporations, including financial service providers. They expect Internet-like accessibility and immediacy to information — not only in our online banking applications, but in our brick-and-mortar branches and at every other touch point.

Not feeling this shifting expectation yet? You will. Wait until your customers’ and members’ children start banking with you. Or, worse yet, wait until they choose the no-secretsto- hide financial services option down the street.

The good news: meeting these new consumer demands is quite simple. If you can’t provide an answer, explain why. If you send someone to a third-party Web site, offer the reason for doing so. If you are keeping sensitive information about your customers and members, communicate how this benefits them. These and other subtle changes may sound insignificant individually, but they quickly add up to supporting an image of transparency and authenticity — precisely the image you want to convey.

_{© 2012 Deluxe Enterprise Operations, Inc.}