Voices: the CMB Blog

When I moved to Boston in 1988 for college, I was very excited to receive my first “BayBank card.” For those of you from the area, you’ll recall with a smile that BayBank was the dominant area bank; it subsequently merged with Bank Boston which then merged with Fleet. However, through all those changes everyone (at least in my circle) called their ATM card their “BayBank card.” Getting a BayBank card was really your only option if you valued the convenience of an ATM on each and every corner of the three mile stretch from Kenmore Square to Packard’s Corner in Allston. Back then I needed to get cash in $10 increments as easily as I could grab a slice at Captain Nemo’s Pizzeria on Comm Ave. or talk my way into Father’s First Bar in Allston.

Over time, however, my needs as well as my definition of convenience changed. As time marched on, I started to think about buying a home, saving, and investing. Convenience was still the most important thing to me, but convenience now meant ubiquitous ATMs, a close branch to open new accounts, as well as a host of connected financial products. I liked being able to do all my business in one place. I was an established customer, and pretty pleased with the convenience of one-stop-shopping.

However, I feel like a new definition of convenience is on my horizon having more to do with useful, practical technology solutions. I want to view my investments, credit cards, savings accounts for my kids, and checking accounts all on one screen. I want to work with my bank virtually; I have two checks in my wallet, just sitting there waiting for me to make my way to an ATM machine. There is one up the street, about a half block diversion from my train, but without exception I leave work later than I should in order to collect my children from their babysitter, so I bypass that ATM. So there they sit, my sad paper checks, uncashed in my wallet and feeling very inconvenient.

The latest Consumer Pulse study from CMB uncovers some very interesting findings regarding convenience and perceptions of value among consumers. Nearly half (48%) of bank customers believe banks can differentiate themselves with good service. But they are like me—the definition of “good service” is evolving; convenience is no longer just about more branches and ATMs, but also about innovative technologies and remote banking options.

The study also found that while larger banks have a reputation for offering the most online and mobile services, credit union customers report online banking usage that is just as high as larger bank customers, and they give their institutions higher marks on performance than they’re larger peers. I would never have associated credit unions with convenience, but technology and their smaller customer bases are leveling the playing field. I wish that I had remote deposit capture, and I hear rumors that my big-bank provider has it, but I can’t find any information about it on my online banking portal. Not very convenient.  

My brother-in-law is a 26 years old gadget-guy, and a rabid fan of USAA for both insurance and banking. He was never in the military (his grandfather was), so when I learned about his fandom, I was curious because it didn’t add up. I thought of USAA as traditional player, the epitome of an old-school company.  He cited “great service” as the reason he’s loyal. When I asked what he meant by “great service,” he mentioned that he was first among his friends to have remote capture deposit. Definitions of service and convenience are changing; it will be fascinating to see which financial institutions keep up.

Learn more about how technology is changing the definition of good service:

 Download the full report: The New Banking Value Proposition.

 

 

 

Posted by Christine Gimber, Christine is an Account Executive with CMB’s Financial Services team. A few of the things keeping Christine from cashing those checks are her three little kids, and competing in triathlons.

Don't let your segmentation study languish on the shelf. CMB's Brant Cruz, shares the five C's of great segmentation socializers. Learn how to get your segmentation embraced and used by your organization:

Brant Cruz is our resident segmentation guru and the Vice President of CMB’s eCommerce and Retail Practice. Read more of Brant’s thoughts on segmentation here.

On a recent trip to Washington DC, I had a two hour delay on the flight out, and a broken Direct TV on the flight back, and yet when I got home I was delighted with my airline. I know this sounds unlikely, but as a result of the delay and the broken TV I racked up $75 in credits towards my next flight with JetBlue. Imagine that in the era of bag fees and paying for snacks!

Why is JetBlue, unlike many of its competitors, so willing to fork over credits for annoying, but still manageable service interruptions? To find out, I did what any curious market researcher without access to a ton of data would do, I Googled. Jet Blue’s Customer Bill of Rights was born after a series of storms in February of 2007. Thousands of vey unhappy customers were stranded on the East Coast for days.

Winter storms are typical and plague airlines around the globe, but JetBlue got itself into icy waters because they failed to react appropriately. Hesitant to cancel flights and tarnish their industry leading record for the fewest cancellations, executives waited too long to take action. By the time they did, passengers had been stranded on planes and at gates for upwards of 10 hours. Aircraft were literally frozen to the ground, customers were unable to rebook flights because gate agents were overloaded and the website did not allow for re-bookings. And compounding the problem, JetBlue did not have robust enough information systems to record and track the many bags lost in the chaos.

According to Texas A&M marketing professor Leonard Berry, JetBlue violated two core customer service codes during this storm – it did not provide customers with reliable service nor did it seem to resolve problems fairly. Clearly JetBlue had some work to do to regain the trust of its customers, and its Customer Bill of Rights was implemented shortly after the storms of 2007. JetBlue now offers vouchers or refunds for many frequently occurring flight snafus, including a free flight for a plane unable to reach a gate within two hours of landing, or $50 for two to three hour delays.

As a delighted customer, despite the inconveniences, I thought this was a great example of a company putting its money where its problems are. It should be a model for other companies as they try to provide customers with the highest level of service despite circumstances that are sometimes out of their control.

For more on Customer Experience and Loyalty, you might like: Do you care about your customers? Really care?

Amy Leathe is a Project Manager in CMB's Financial Services practice. She wrote this entry during a ground halt of an already serious delayed Virgin America flight. Here’s hoping they follow JetBlue’s lead!

Chadwick Martin Bailey's Andrew Wilson talks about the role of customer experience in helping organizations innovate, and why getting and understanding the answers to what your customers want and need is critical for successful innovation.

Andrew Wilson is an Account Director at CMB. He's a skier and long-distance runner, he also has a delightful 3 year old lab who deserves his own video.

We hear a lot about Big Data—from Target using predictive analytics to tell which of its customers are pregnant, to MIT and Intel putting millions behind their bigdata@CSAIL initiative. Yet, I’m struck by the fact that most of what I read, and hear at conferences, is about  the wealth of data technology can provide researchers, managers and analysts. There is very little about how these folks can avoid drowning in it, and most importantly make the decisions that address business challenges.

For the uninitiated, the Big Data revolution is characterized by three traits:

• Volume - Technology has led to an exponential increase in data we have available

• Diversity - We can aggregate data from a wide range of disparate sources, like customer relationship management (CRM) systems, social media, voice of the customer, and even neuro-scientific measurement.

• Speed – We are able to field and compile quantitative studies within days; before online, IVR, and mobile data collection methods were available this took weeks

While there may be other definitions of Big Data, it is clear that technology is making data, larger, wider, and faster. What we need to think about is how technology can make our response to and analysis of data larger, wider and faster as well, and avoid drowning in it.

The water metaphor is often used to describe Big Data, and the folks at the GreenBook Consulting Group use the term “oceans of data.”  They describe three business models driven by data: The Traditional (based on Data Ponds), Transitional (based on Data Rivers), and Future (based on Data Oceans).

Traditional market research based on small discrete amounts of data has its place – but as the folks at GreenBook point out, market researchers must face the fact that progression from these Data Ponds to Data Oceans is inevitable.  The Traditional mindset is faced with inertia and will decline in relevance in the next five to ten years.

Those who are in the Transitional phase are moving forward, folks here are in a “reactive” position.  They are seeing these changes around them and applying some big data solutions in their word.  They might have tried one or two tools or are even using them now on a regular basis. But when faced with large amounts of data, they think about technology only in terms of how to collect more data – not in how to manage and apply it quickly and in big ways.  In contrast, the Future mindset takes a proactive approach; these are the people who think about how technology will be the fundamental basis for applying the ideas and solutions to lead companies.

In the coming weeks I’ll be discussing specific examples of technologies that are helping push market researchers towards this future. I’d love to hear from you about things you’re doing to respond to Big Data and the challenges and opportunities you are facing as we confront these Data Oceans.

Watch our webinar Using Technology to Help your Entire Company Understand and Act on Customer Needs here

Posted by Jeff McKenna, Jeff is a senior consultant at CMB and team leader for Pinpoint Suite-our innovative Customer Experience Management software. Want to learn more about how Pinpoint Suite can help you make sense of your "Big Data," schedule a demo here.