Is your bank’s board room ‘customer-sound’ proof?
It’s really not so difficult to understand why banks investing so much in otherwise strengthening customer relationships will still not achieve desired customer-loyalty, if they do not take customer management and related issues straight into the board room. Would you commit to a deeper relationship with a person or organization, if you didn’t feel truly ‘heard’ and valued? Why should your banking customers think otherwise?
And this raises more questions. Who actually owns the entire gamut of customer-centricity at the bank? Does someone need to have cross-functional responsibility, one not limited by line of business, channel of distribution or other delineation within the bank? At a time when operations, marketing, technology, information and every other functions is headed by a CXO, has the time indeed come for banks to vest all customer-related responsibility in a Chief Customer Officer (CCO), acting as the CEO’s ‘inner circle’? And just what would this do for the bank?
It would help banks cut out the noise of generic attempts and cater to the needs of individual customers. A significant step towards this would be to segment customers; not just by age, location, lifestyle, or size of portfolio, but a complex mix of these characteristics developed through insight from the customer herself. This means that there will eventually be a difference, however minute and subtle, in the way the bank tailors its offerings, communicates with each customer and outlines its value proposition, clearly need-based for that particular customer. And that can make all the difference.
And needless to state, the CCO will recognize the role that technology has to play in all of this, but also fully understand that technology in itself is not the be-all and end-all of customer-centricity; that there is an equally important aspect pertaining to creating and constantly reinforcing a strong and powerful culture of customer-orientation, and of processes that are meaningful.
Surely, progressive banks will want to capitalize on key initiatives leading to robust customer strategies and effective management of shifting customer demographics. And if this means getting the voice-of-customer to blend with the board room buzz…why not?
