How Should Banks Approach Our New Reality?

Updated on

With customers being isolated, banks need to shift further to emphasize their digital options and utilize social media and omnichannel outlets to pro-actively engage with clients. It is the perfect time to capitalize on a captive audience. Taking a stronger marketing angle focused around social media and personalization will bode well for banks as people are spending more time than ever on mobile devices, laptops, and TV.

Banks need to take the lead in re-assuring the customer base and asking how they can help in an empathic and personalized way. Help the customers add value to their lives during this time of uncertainty, offering options that make them feel more secure.

Get Our Activist Investing Case Study!

Get The Full Activist Investing Study In PDF

Q4 2019 hedge fund letters, conferences and more

The Impact Of The Digital Shift

Customers need personalized messages, not bot-generated emails that are set to blast out to everyone. The bank should be highlighting what is available digitally: payment, mobile deposits, credit lines, and loans. This digital shift will not be a trend, there will be a significant workforce change that will evolve remote work to become permanent, which will, in turn, have a positive impact on the environment and traffic patterns.

Companies must accelerate their digital strategy. Stop the automated sales banners and reassure customers they are looking out for their well-being. Banks can use social media to set up Q&As and engage with people virtually. A banking concierge could offer individualized financial (and possibly even career) planning.

Banks should also look to have a voice from their C-suites, every day, talking about what is happening. Answering questions, giving tips around navigating travel insurance, how to send money to family and friends that are isolated or may be struggling financially, sharing news around what the bank is doing to stabilize, educating people on being aware of fraud and hackers capitalizing on this unprecedented time.

Overall, banks must be empathetic, reassuring, and personal during this uncertain time.


About David Donovan, EVP of Publicis Sapient:

David Donovan, Executive Vice President, oversees Publicis Sapient’s entire financial services portfolio for the Americas. He is responsible for setting operational and marketing strategies for the firm and managing relationships with top global investment banks.  Donovan brings 25 years of expertise working on Wall Street as an institutional equity trader, including 14 years as the sector leader of technology trading for Fidelity Management and Research, when working with investment banks and asset managers.

Leave a Comment