Bankers and advisors will almost always tell whomever asks that their business is founded on solid customer relations. They’ll tell you emphatically that financial services is a customer relationship business. It’s founded on trust and the only way to truly trust someone is to know them personally. But the reality of the matter is that [...]
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I got another customer satisfaction survey from my bank the other day. Once again a request for me to take my time to tell them how they are doing. Once again a perfectly framed poll asking closed ended questions so that someone, somewhere can report their score delta and check off an item on their [...]
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We’ve all heard the old saying, “Home is where the heart is.” We often love our homes. Some of us swell with hometown pride. I think it’s part of our tribal notion of identity - a coping mechanism that lets us say, “I’m alright.” Underneath it all is our ego. Yes, [...]
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Posted in banking, branding, community, consumer behavior, consumer engagement, customer engagement, customer interaction, financial services, marketing, network, social network on Jun 1st, 2011
I moved 11 years of account history with Bank of America to a local Overland Park, Kansas bank with one branch location.
When I say local, I mean 20.69 miles from my home. Pretty big inconvenience for me, wouldn’t you say? Yes and no.
I’m a loyal customer to my new bank for a few different reasons. [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized, branding, consumer behavior, consumer perception, customer interaction, donor engagement, marketing, marketing innovation, social marketing, social media on Mar 28th, 2011
The quest for ROI is distorting how we conduct marketing. In a desperate attempt to appear relevant to the C suite, there is a mad rush to test and measure. We gather and process quantitative data with the fervor of a 49er mining gold. Hey, I am all for marketing analytics [...]
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Posted in banking, branding, consumer behavior, consumer engagement, consumer perception, customer engagement, financial services, follower, imitation, individualized marketing, investment, leader, marketing, marketing budget, marketing innovation, personalized marketing, social marketing, social media, social network on Oct 18th, 2010
I talk to a lot of community bankers. They’re fascinating people. Just like anywhere else, no two are alike. Everyone has a unique story. The same is true of the banks they run. They’re all different with their own unique culture. Yet, they all seem to share a common problem with marketing differentiation. How can [...]
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Posted in branding, community, consumer behavior, consumer perception, kansas city, marketing, network, personalized marketing, social branding, social marketing, social media, social network, twitter, web on Aug 24th, 2010
The concept of promoting a personal brand has gained a lot of traction as social media have grown. In many respects it’s good for everyone involved. But it’s something I’ve never been comfortable with adopting. I’ve given it a lot of thought and now I think I understand my reluctance.
My friend Autom Tagsa wrote a [...]
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Posted in banking, branding, community, consumer engagement, consumer perception, customer engagement, customer interaction, donor engagement, follower, fundraising, leader, marketing, network, social marketing, social network, spur communications on Jul 29th, 2010
I used to skydive. If you haven’t tried it, I recommend it. It’s fun. So when my son told me he and his friends were going skydiving I was O.K. with it. I checked out the airport and club behind his back just to make sure it was fine. After all I am his dad. [...]
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Quite often Spur Communications is asked to develop brand standards for our clients. The rest of the time we work with the brand standards that the client provides. Either way it’s great. It’s important to clearly define your brand and make sure everyone involved in the brand expression is on the same page. But every [...]
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Posted in branding, community, consumer engagement, consumer generated content, consumer perception, customer engagement, customer interaction, follower, marketing, network, social branding, social marketing, social media, social network, twitter, web on Jul 19th, 2010
I spend a lot of time negotiating between two camps of clients — those who want to embrace social media and those who don’t. A lot has been written about the pros and cons for every business sector. The bottom line is it has been around longer than you think and isn’t going away any [...]
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