Money Management – It’s a Personality Thing
When I met my husband some years ago (before Quicken), I was surprised to discover that he balanced his checkbook by rounding. He would enter “$50” if he thought he had spent about that, and figured he would be safe from overdrafts if he always rounded up his entries. But I, being rule-bound, made a […]
Unpermissible Hype
Recently I learned that once a company has filed an S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicating that they may pursue an initial public offering of common stock, they enter into a “quiet period” during which they are not allowed any “unpermissible hype” that could be construed as an attempt to boost […]
Financial Services: Too Complex For Consumers?
For the last six months I’ve been focused on developing a thought leadership program for my new company, a payment processor. To be effective for content marketing, sales support and brand building, the thought leadership needs to be focused on meta-trends in the industry. So I’ve been drinking through the fire hose, trying to understand […]
Becoming a B2B Marketing Digital Native
Last week I participated in a B2B Marketing Summit in Colorado Springs. The VP’s of Marketing in attendance were from companies such as CA Technologies, Intel, Lenovo, Teredata and Texas Instruments. Although the travel ordeal getting home made me wonder, attending such events at least once a year is good practice. Conferences are a great […]
Scary Story: Social Media Spooks Financial Services
In honor of Halloween, I’ve written about something really scary – social media. It may not scare you, but it frightens the risk-adverse traditionalists who manage financial services companies! They know that (whether they personally tweet or not), the majority of Americans are using social media for everything from keeping in touch with friends to […]
Customer Experience in Financial Services – Part 2: Credit Card Issuers
Even with all the publicity surrounding last year’s Dodd-Frank financial-reform legislation and the pending Durbin Amendment fee controls, the public doesn’t generally differentiate between the major card networks (Visa, MasterCard), bank-issued cards, or the processing networks behind these. But the cumulative effect of the hype has been to make card holders generally suspicious. More than […]
Customer Experience in Financial Services – Part 1: Banks
What’s different about customer experience in the banking and credit card industries? Glad you asked. The customer experience research I directed last year (http://bit.ly/oDzXg8) showed that, in general, consumers place greater emphasis on “customer service” than on price when evaluating financial services providers compared to other industries. Banks appear to be rising to the demand […]
Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen
During Labor Day week , my husband and I enjoyed the Ritz Carlton’s strong service model. All guests, no matter how greasy and sandy from the beach, are treated as ladies and gentlemen. Associates, who are encouraged to think of themselves the same way, keep notes on guest preferences and transfer them to the next […]
Thoughts on Thought Leadership
Readers, allow me a few miscellaneous thoughts as I head out on a long-awaited vacation: Most of my posts have been rather lengthy and fact-filled. Earlier this year I had lots of time to write – probably more than most readers had time to digest. But, since I realize that blogs are meant to be “short […]
Plotting Your Way To Super Loyalty
Anyone who has ever taken a business or economics course will attest to the fondness of academics for a 2×2 matrix. Put one variable on the X axis, another on the Y, and presto – all manner of phenomenon can be explained. It’s a clarifying and therefore tempting tool – and can be applied to […]