Spring is in the air...and motivation is all around us!

I look around and see people going for walks, kids outside playing, plants and flowers starting to grow, birds chirping, the grass is starting to get green - It's that time of year to get active and motivated! It's time for rebirth, renewal and regrowth.
















There is no better time of year to get a fresh start, spawn fresh creative and ideas, refresh your mind and energy. Its amazing what some fresh spring air will do to clear the mind and dust off the cobwebs of winter. We all get the winter blues - get burnt out on the cold air, gray skies and the mucky mess outside. The change of seasons is a great motivator. Take the opportunity and extra spark that Spring brings to finish the lingering projects you have been putting off, tie up those loose ends, back-up files, update your systems and get things tidy and in order for a new quarter.

A quick list of simple things you can do to really get motivated and get an exciting fresh start for the season:

• Back up all of your files
• Clear your desk
• Open your windows and let some fresh air in
• Do any cleaning or equipment maintenance
  
• Get out, enjoy something active, feel the warmth of the sun
• Pack up your snow boots and winter coat
• Go out on the town, be social

Until next time,
Jeremy

What an 6 year old can teach us about customer motivation.

My 6 year old daughter took up Irish Dancing about 6 months ago (she's the redhead in the photo). For 6 months she's been practicing every day and learning new steps. Finally, last week, she had her fist recital and did great!

She loves her Irish Dancing, but since her recital, she can't stop talking about it.

Stay with me, there's a banking point here ... recognition!

Just a little recognition or reward can help to motivate a consumer.

• A congratulations notice when a customer hits savings milestones
• An "your almost there" notice when a loan is paid down to a limit
• Hand written thank you notes when someone opens a new account or makes a large deposit

Think about how you can do the little things to recognize your customers and reignite the spark of interest, excitement or fun that they felt when they first walked into your branch.

Have a blessed and safe St. Patty's day - a day when we're all Irish Dancers.

Take care,

Eric

Winners...and 2nd Place

March...

The beginning of spring, warmer weather, flowers and BASKETBALL!

As we noted with our March Madness blog, the college basketball phenomenon that is about to grip the country starts in t-minus 2 days...with the First Four being played in our hometown of Dayton!

This time of year reminds me of the Winners and 2nd place.  What is the difference?  Many times it is timing of good play, a lucky run, a hot shooter, or a coach that simply can elevate his team.

However, I recently read a Sports Illustrated article on predictions based on statistics.  In the Tourney run, the better the season strength of schedule, the more rebounds, the higher the turnover-generated margin, and the better the 3-point conversion rate...the better the proven chances of winning.  Each of these play an important role in the regular season, but collectively greatly impact the post season.

The lesson?

The regular routines are what will get you to the dance, but the focus on the little things are what will get you the "WIN!"

Routine service and strong operations get you to the dance....but the life stage focused solutions, extra service efforts, and value-added products are what get you the win.

Review your process today...score yourself:

• 1-point for having a service measurement program
• 1-point for measuring % of channel usage (branch, ATM, debit card, etc.)
• 2-points for having a marketing dashboard
• 2 points for having monthly "share and compare" meetings
• 3-points for having a Service Champion award
• 3-points for creating an internal "great idea" submission process
• 4-points for having a semi-annual product review process
• 10-points for monitoring 5 mission critical ratios that move your business

If you score 10 or more points, you are on your way to the Sweet 16!

Have fun with March...and let's look forward to a productive 2nd quarter!

Cheers!

Bruce

March Madness Baby!

Okay, it's that time of year again. You can watch basketball from about the time you roll out of bed until you turn out the lights...I LOVE IT!

Stay tuned, once the 2011 bracket comes out, fill yours in from 1st round to the finals, send it to me and whoever has the most wins (teams advancing on) will win with MarketMatch, if there is a tie the winning name will be drawn randomly. Up for grabs is a Dayton, Ohio goodies pack, this will include a bag of Mike Sell's potato chips, a box of Esther Price candy and jar of Fricker's hot wings sauce.

Enjoy your Friday. Make it a great weekend and until we talk again.

Debbi

Void where prohibited. This is not a lottery. Must be submitted by midnight, EST, Wednesday, March 16.

Increase Revenue with Increased Experience

A recent Forrester Research report looked at 13 different industries and came to the conclusion that as a customer's experience (CxPi) with your company increases, so does revenue, specifically in the areas of:

• Incremental purchases from existing customers
• Retention
• New sales from word-of-mouth

OK, not really rocket science, but it shows that there is ROI in employee engagement.

According to Forrester, the banking industry was more effected by positive customer experience than all others in the area of retention. In banking, an increase in positive customer experience yields a higher rate of change in attrition than all other industries. In a time when customers are changing institutions at a significantly higher level - this becomes an important finding.

Want to put some hard numbers to customer experience? According to Forrester's report, the banking industry can expect a total annual impact averaging $21.20 per customer by improving your customer experience - with more than half of the impact coming from reduced attrition.

So, increased customer experience equals increased revenue - you can't argue with the logic. But we have some work to do. Credit unions ranked in the Top 10 of Forrester's 2010 Customers Experience Rankings with only 3 banks in the top 50. How do we improve?

• Create written Customer Service Standards for the entire company to follow.
• Relook at your sales process - do you speak "to" the customer or "at" them. Create a process that facilitates a CONVERSATION with the customer - then addresses their needs.
• Relook at your sales materials. Are they benefit oriented.
• Follow-up is key. Call it on-boarding, re-boarding or just doing your job. But the best experience a customer has with you can be out of your branch and in their home. Set standards and create a process to add value-based communication with your customers.
• Consistent training. Customer engagement is a culture, not a program. It starts with a new hire and continues every-day. Your staff must be engaged and understand that we are dealing with people's money. And when it comes to money, a little empathy, understanding and advise can go a long way!
• Talk to them. Before you make changes to your organization, talk to your customers and determine their needs.
• Let them have it their way. Whenever possible, let the customer create their own product. More and more institutions are turning to a build-your-own checking product. If not that, then package your products in a way that looks tailored to them.
• Measure your success. Start with baselines in: Attrition, services per household and average balances. Then track your progress regularly.

A positive customer experience can differentiate you in a competitive market place and generate incremental revenue. It can grow your institution organically and reduce attrition.

Want to chat about your customer experience culture? Call us.

Take care,

Eric

egagliano@MarketMatch.com

866-501-2233, ext. 106

MarketMatch wins at Award Show

MarketMatch wins a Gold ADDY at the 2011 Hermes Awards Show. Every year AAF (American Advertising Federation) holds a competition for advertising/creative firms to submit work completed in the prior year and they are judged in various categories.

In the Southwest Ohio region, Dayton and surrounding, there were nearly 500 entries submitted by advertising firms and agencies covering a wide variety of products and industries.

On Saturday, February 26, 2011 MarketMatch was presented with a Gold ADDY and was named one of only four special Judge's Awards! The judge who awarded his selection was quoted as saying...

"clever and simple, but monstrously ambitious"

"your effort, as big as it was, was expended for all the right reasons"

The next step is our Gold winning entry will now compete at the District level through AAF.

How cool is that? I told you I had a good feeling about the entries a month or so ago...our hard work and efforts definitely paid off!

Enjoy your Friday! Make it a great weekend and until we talk again.

Debbi

What they want you to find...

Logos can tell us lots of things about a business - you just have to see the signs.

The task of every designer, then, is to create a design that will effectively convey this message. Some designers convey a company’s message in very obvious ways, typefaces, imagery, etc. Other designers prefer to be slightly more subtle. This is often achieved by embedding hidden elements or messages within a logo. These hidden elements and messages can be in the form of words, numbers, icons, depictions, or some other markings.

We’ve all seen the designs below millions of times. But how many of us notice the subtle messages they deliver as well? Take a look now. You may be surprised you didn’t notice these before:





The Big Ten collegiate conference has eleven schools but they didn’t want to change their name. However, they used their logo to hide the numerical “11” in the name.

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This famous logo is extremely clean and simple but this arrow might not look like more than a smile to you. Before, coming to any conclusions I would like you to know the concept behind this…it says that amazon.com has everything from a to z and it also represents the smile brought to the customer’s face.

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You would say you have seen it thousand times but just to make you notice an arrow formed between the letters “E” and “X” conveying speed, direction and reliability of this amazing courier service.

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At first glance, it looks like your basic lettered mark, but if you observe this hidden logo, the letters ‘My’ shows a human hand.

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Most people don’t realize that the smiley face at the top of the logo is also a lowercase ‘g.’ Known as the “Smiling G”, it is used to represent both the company name and the smiles that come from helping people help themselves.

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If you look at the two ‘Ts’ and the ‘i’ in between, you can clearly see two people enjoying a Tostitos chip and bowl of salsa.

Until next time,
Jeremy

QR codes add flexibility and access to your direct mail and traditional advertising message delivery.

Want to justify your Marketing budget?

A new J.D. Powers & Associates report on shopping and switching rates can not only justify your Marketing budget, but it should also put you on the offense ... and defense.

Here are the highlights:

• 8.7% of customers said that they switched their primary financial institution in the last year (up from 7.7% the previous year)
• Shoppers consider 1.9 banks while shopping (up from 1.6)
• The most common reason to switch is life circumstances
• Advertising/awareness & convenience drives their decision
• Less than half (43%) of customers who purchased an additional banking product did so with their PFI

So what does all this mean?

Go on the Offense

We've been saying it for about 2 years ... their is money in motion! People are switching financial institutions. You need to be in the 1.9 institutions that they consider.

Life Stages: You can differentiate your institution and speak directly to your customers needs through life stage messaging. Click here for more life stage information.

Get them to know you: Awareness drives consumer's decision ... and you're in the awareness business. Use your budget wisely and be on the radar of those folks most likely to be your best customers. Use segmentation and mirror modeling to locate your best opportunities - then focus your budget on them. You likely can't battle Chase, PNC, Wells Fargo and Bank of America dollar-for-dollar. It's not about getting EVERYONE to know you, it's about getting the right people to know you.

Go on the Defense

We can no longer assume that our PFI customers are safe or loyal. Assume that less than half of them will come to you for their next product and more than 8% of all your customers are looking to leave. Pretty scary stuff huh?

Focus on cross sells, strategically bundle your products and focus on your team's training - are they prepared to facilitate the customer conversation?

Not to be a fear-monger, but this report should both scare you, energize you and justify the importance of marketing now, more than ever. Share this with your management team and show up prepared with a plan based on ROI.

Good luck and take care,

Eric