Banking on the Relationship

Ability to predict what customers would like, but do not currently demand, is a great trait. This has hitherto been the sole preserve of Apple and a few other companies (apart from Wells Fargo, I'm not able to think of any other bank that I can place in that list). However, with bank customers expressing their fully- and partially-formed thoughts on Twitter and other social media, even dowdy old banks can access a fount of information about what their customers would like. Agreed that there's so much noise that it's a very hard task to spot the real nuggets. However, social media sentiment analysis applications make it easy to find the needle in the haystack. Using one such app, I was able to spot the following longings of bank customers:

xoKiana_: I wish my bank would notify me saying "unable to process my order." I'd be highly upset -__-

BritishSayWhat: I wish my bank followed me on twitter so I didn't have to update them on every time I leave the country. #getittogether 

DaMFNLO: ??RT @imfancyhuh54: I wish my ATM would give me a cupcake ??

All of these tweets can qualify as inputs for new product development by banks.

Great points Ketharaman and thanks for starting the discussion.

Banks have a long way to go, certainly. While we're on the topic - have you heard of Backbase? I've attended a few of their webinars and they have what looks like a fantastic product for improving the front end experience for bank customers. Their big thing is 'engagement banking' which I find compelling as a way of moving from a product centric to a customer centric experience - at least in the online channel.

Your examples are compelling as well, particularly for idea generation, though I would add that banks need strong data analysis tools in order to validate and test these insights against existing data sets. Having a system to test and speed product development is key.

@Darren N:

Yes, I'm familiar with BackBase. A couple of years ago, I was involved in a joint GTM with BackBase in the area of Rich Internet Applications for Retail Banking.

Spotting customer needs before customers express them is admittedly a slightly fuzzy endeavor. I'm afraid that subjecting it to the rigors of a formal evaluation process of the type that banks normally use might nip it in the bud. Having said that, banks don't have to fly blind. They can use semi-formal - and arguably more reliable - methods of prioritizing ideas gathered via social media sentiment analysis applications. One such method is Digg-style voting by the community. I remember reading about one direct bank in the UK / Europe already using this method. In the US, Challenge.gov is currently running the MyMoneyAppUp Challenge IdeaBank on a similar basis to solicit and select ideas for financial apps from the community, one of which I happen to have submitted myself. As a matter of fact, today happens to be the last day for voting - let me rush to cast my vote before the deadline passes...