We Want to Bank With You – Part 2

 

We established in Part 1 that the results of the BancVue study shed some light on the problem of awareness and perception when it comes to the products and services that community financial institutions have to offer.

 

Taking an honest look at what community financials have to offer versus the big banks, there

In the BancVue Consumer Banking Insights Study, BancVue’s CEO Gabe Krajicek was quoted as saying “The study’s results make it clear that, for community financial institutions, stronger marketing efforts and better products are key to growth.”

 

My take on this statement: I’m giving it a 25% rating for accuracy and a passing grade of D, mainly for the effort.

 

Keeping in mind that Krajicek’s job is to sell more of BancVue’s products, such as the Kasasa checking account, I can’t fault him too much for the utterly false (in my humble opinion) second half of his statement. Community financial institutions do not need better products to secure growth. They already have those.

 

And I wouldn’t go so far as to say that community financial institutions need stronger marketing efforts. Many financials have excellent plans and budgets to put behind their efforts.

 

I would argue that the game changer is the way in which community financials engage consumers with their marketing and add value to their lives.

 

To put it another way: when you take a step back to ask yourself the question “What does it take to get a potential customer off the bench and switch to your financial?”, is the answer coming back “We need a better checking account.”? Or home equity loan?

 

 

A whopping 66% of consumers surveyed said they would rather bank at a community financial institution, with 33% of those being big bank customers.

 

The reason these folks aren’t getting off the bench and moving their money is not because of the lack (or abundance) of products and services. I would argue that they simply have not been presented with a compelling case to do so.

 

The reason consumers are willing to switch financial institutions has more to do with how easy you make the process of obtaining that home equity loan, or the resources you provide to guide during various stages on their financial journey, or even the way your financial gives back to the community. All of these being done in ways that the big banks cannot logistically handle.

 

It’s time to stop trying to win consumers over to community financial institutions based on features alone. Let’s engage our audience with the benefits.