The impact of different media channels on consumers and the wastage of potential advertising opportunities through existing customer communications

The first section of this paper investigates the impact of different media channels on the consumer, including television advertising, direct mail, direct Email and SMS advertising. It reveals that existing customer communications such as bills, statements and customer service letters top the survey commanding an average 38 seconds of consumer attention time. The second half of this report looks into the wastage of existing customer communications as an advertising tool. The research indicates that £365m of potential advertising opportunity is wasted by the financial services sector each year, which is the largest wastage of the industries surveyed. The retail banking sector wastes the highest proportion, with credit card issuers coming second. Direct insurance providers fare much better, although the number of customer interactions is far fewer than with credit card issuers or banks.     

Speaking my language?

The competitive nature of the financial services sector means that financial organisations have to work harder than many other sectors to communicate with customers, to retain their business and to cross-sell additional products or services. This paper addresses the current state of Customer Relationship Management in the sector and the public perception of how well it targets its customer communications. It suggests that an improvement in targeted marketing standards could lift the sector out of its worsening record on customer retention.     

On the potential for Twitter to add value in retail bank relationships

It is argued that research within financial services marketing has omitted to pay sufficient attention to social media in banking contexts generally and its potential impact on retail bank relationships in particular. At a general level, this research study explores the advent of social media and the manner of its deployment in financial services. Specifically, this article reports on the deployment of Twitter in bank–customer communications. Accordingly, a content analysis of 400 Tweets sent from a range of financial service providers to their customers was conducted. A literature-based model allowed for the classification of these Tweets as either customer acquisition, engagement or retention-oriented. Findings indicate that Twitter is mainly used for customer engagement, but scope is identified for their more meaningful deployment in relation to customer acquisition and retention.     

Improving the effectiveness of banks' service guarantees: The role of implementation

The negative impact of frequent service delays on customer loyalty and retention is widely recognised. To address this issue, many banks have initiated some form of service improvement programme and attempted to communicate the change to their existing and prospective customers. Often, however, this rightfully sceptical audience continues to doubt the provider's ability to resolve the problem and may not notice service improvement even when it is achieved. Service guarantees are a powerful mechanism for firms to express their commitment to satisfaction as well as their willingness to compensate customers in the event of service failure. This paper presents the results of a multi-stage study of a major bank's effort to provide a wait-time guarantee. The potential value of the guarantee to customers, the impact of the guarantee on customer dissatisfaction following a negative service experience, and customers' willingness to invoke the guarantee are examined. The implications of the findings highlight the role of implementation in a successful guarantee programme. Recommendations for improving banks' service guarantees are provided.     

Shareholders: An unexplored opportunity for Australian financial institutions

While Australian financial institutions have recognised for many years the need to segment their customer base and develop niche marketing strategies, those that are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange appear to have ignored a substantial and powerful pool of potential customers — their shareholders. This paper reviews the shareholder marketing strategies adopted by 12 listed Australian banks and building societies. It looks at the cost of customers, the value of converting shareholders to customers and reviews the shareholder loyalty programmes being offered. This paper argues that banks in Australia are ignoring this important pool of potential customers. The author develops the view that the banks and building societies have failed to maximise shareholder value as they have few processes in place to target this important sector.     

What is being exchanged? Framing the logic of value creation in financial services

Financial service providers are facing a major paradigm shift. The understanding of what eventually constitutes customer value is being extended; economic value as the sole core of exchange is a far too limited perspective in contemporary competition. To address this emerging shift, the purpose of this study is to reframe the logic of value creation in financial services. As a result, a tentative framework for value creation logic in financial services is developed and discussed. On the basis of the framework, financial service providers should not limit their attention and resources to the exchange process, but identify innovative value-creating mechanisms through which they could contribute to the customer value actualization process. Our tentative framework (i) offers financial service providers guidance on which innovative value-creating mechanisms would enable them to participate in their customers’ value actualization process; (ii) shows how a product becomes a channel for a service, specifically a solution possessing value in the customer’s routine processes; (iii) illustrates that researchers and service providers should develop their understanding of customers beyond the traditional loan, insurance and/or investment product orientation.     

Customer value analysis in financial services

This study investigates what creates value for customers and how providers can improve value for their customers. A comprehensive analytical model with a four-step approach is presented and applied in the field of financial services. In a first step, the main customer value drivers are identified and five value dimensions are derived, based on qualitative interviews with customers. These results are then compared to value assumptions made by customer-contact employees, and gaps between customer and employee perceptions are analysed. Based on these identified gaps, a multitude of implications for managing company customer value at the normative, strategic, and operational level of management are derived, and finally implications of findings for service marketing practice and research are discussed.     

Mobile banking: A powerful new marketing and CRM tool for financial services companies all over Europe

In the last decade mobile handsets have become ubiquitous. There are three times as many mobile phone users as online PCs and they are becoming very sophisticated and demanding users. Increasingly they will expect real-time information and access 24 hours a day, seven days a week, wherever they are in the world — and they want very high levels of service. This paper looks at how and why financial organisations across Europe are beginning to take advantage of mobile services and in particular mobile banking as a powerful new marketing tool to build long-lasting and mutually rewarding relationships with new and existing customers. Examples show how European financial organisations are using mobile banking to improve their customer service and relationships, to reinforce their brand by literally placing it in their customer's pocket and to reduce their costs.     

Share of wallet's role in customer profitability

Understanding the financial contribution customers make to their organisations is an initial step in customer relationship management. Set in the banking industry, this paper examines the strength of ‘share of wallet’ as a proxy variable for measuring customer profitability. Data from a study of 1,100 personal retail banking customers of a New Zealand regional bank were used in combination with the bank's own customer contribution data for each of those respondents. Results indicate that although share of wallet might be used as a proxy for customer contribution at a macro level of customer classification, details of specific financial relationships customers have with their main bank are still necessary. Nevertheless, share of wallet ought to become a standard entry in a bank's customer database.     

Effects of perceived cost,service quality,and customer satisfaction on health insurance service continuance

This paper aims to contribute to the universal discourse on financial services continuance behavior by examining the impact of service cost on customers’ service-quality perception and service continuance intention. It presents the results of an empirical study that has explored the impacts of service cost, service quality, and customer satisfaction on health insurance customers’ behavioral intention toward continuing or discontinuing with their service providers. Very few studies had examined the impact of service cost on service-quality perception. Our study attempts to fill that gap. A sample of 820 customers was surveyed, and 624 usable responses were analyzed with ANOVA, standard multiple regression, and logistic regression. Our findings indicate that, although highly satisfied health insurance customers will most likely retain their current service providers, customer dissatisfaction does not necessarily lead to discontinuance. Our results also provide some operational implications for health insurance managers, with strategies for reducing attrition and improving customer retention.     

Customer retention and cross-buying in the banking industry: An integration of service attributes,satisfaction and trust

Most previous studies have focused on customer retention and have ignored the importance of customers’ cross-buying behaviour. Customer retention seems to be the result of a kind of repetitive decision by the customers, but their decision to cross-buy involves a more complicated process. In this study, the authors examine the effects of locational convenience, one-stop shopping convenience, firm reputation, firm expertise, and direct mailings on both customer retention and cross-buying. The mediating roles of satisfaction and trust in the relationships between service attributes, customer retention, and cross-buying are also examined. The results indicate that banks can use different service attributes to influence customer retention and cross-buying. Trust and satisfaction play different mediating roles in the relationships between service attributes, customer retention, and cross-buying.     

Customer service quality and financial performance among Australian retail financial institutions

This paper seeks to explore empirically the relationship between customer service quality and financial performance among a representative cross-section of Australian banks and credit unions by correlating customer service quality scores from a sample of retail customers with financial performance measures over a five-year period.Results show that all financial performance measures (interest margin, expense/income, return on assets and capital adequacy) are positively correlated with customer service quality scores. They also show that the credit unions strongly out-perform the banks in customer service quality and also for some measures of financial performance (interest margin and return on assets). The positive link between financial performance and customer service is thus supported in this study. Implications for the three groups of institutions are also discussed.     

Online banking in India: An approach to establish CRM

Technology is fast altering the business servicescape. Its role in improving customer service levels is being used strategically and increasingly by service organizations. The service attributes and quality can be enhanced by deployment of technology. The Internet has facilitated convenience in customer interactions and transactions with the banks. Online banking is currently emerging as a new approach in India for providing improved accessibility and expediency to customers. Most banks have their own websites for improving the customer interface and offering online services. The article studies the applicability of online banking in India and its role in fostering relationships with customers and giving them more value. The research was conducted on customers familiar with online banking in India, and their perceptions about online banking were studied. The findings reveal that customers are using the services but are skeptical about the financial transactions and service quality dimensions.     

The marketing cube

Today's business professional should consider three dimensions, or success drivers, when devising marketing programmes: profitability, profit potential and likelihood for retention — the ’marketing cube‘. Simply said, the margins on customers who fall into the ’right customer‘ group, as defined by this framework, are too great to ignore. Profit, widely confused with lifetime value, is a fact based on previous behaviour — and many financial service organisations are now calculating revenue minus costs for each customer to determine profit. Profit potential is an estimate of one individual customer's contribution to a company's bottom line. It emerges from a model. The modelled profit less actual is referred to as ’profit opportunity‘.Retention is the third component of the framework, and here there are ways to predict the loss of revenue from customers and implement preventive measures, before this loss even happens. A matrix of these three dimensions can help any financial service marketer build a next most logical product model and business rules that govern a successful customer relationship management (CRM) programme.     

A content analysis of financial services magazine print ads: Are they reaching women?

The financial services industry has undergone what can only be called a ‘transformation’ over the last 25 years. Deregulation has increased competition in all sectors. Thus, firms must understand the needs of their customers. The number of women as financial services decision makers has been rapidly growing, and it is estimated that within 15 years women will represent over 65 per cent of top wealth-holders. This study looks at how the financial services industry communicates with potential women customers through print advertising. The most frequently used appeals when advertising in women's magazines are similar to those used in men's magazines, but they differ from those used in general magazines. Surprisingly, advertisers, however, do not seem to tailor their ads differently to women than to men, despite evidence that women respond to different approaches.     

Satisfaction drivers for Internet service technology among stock brokerage customers in Thailand

Many financial services firms are offering the Internet as a self-service technology (SST), for online stock trading, in an effort to increase effciency and give customers greater access. It is important to understand how this technology will influence customer satisfaction. This paper reports results of exploratory research to identify sources of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the service encounter in Thai stockbrokerage firms. Results show that customers and service providers determine sources of customer dis/satisfaction differently, depending on whether the service encounter is technology-based or interpersonal. Different customer profiles give rise to segmentation in response to the use of Internet technology in this industry.     

Business marketing: understand what customers value

How do you define the value of your market offering? Can you measure it? Few suppliers in business markets are able to answer those questions, and yet the ability to pinpoint the value of a product or service for one's customers has never been more important. By creating and using what the authors call customer value models, suppliers are able to figure out exactly what their offerings are worth to customers. Field value assessments--the most commonly used method for building customer value models--call for suppliers to gather data about their customers firsthand whenever possible. Through these assessments, a supplier can build a value model for an individual customer or for a market segment, drawing on data gathered form several customers in that segment. Suppliers can use customer value models to create competitive advantage in several ways. First, they can capitalize on the inevitable variation in customers' requirements by providing flexible market offerings. Second, they can use value models to demonstrate how a new product or service they are offering will provide greater value. Third, they can use their knowledge of how their market offerings specifically deliver value to craft persuasive value propositions. And fourth, they can use value models to provide evidence to customers of their accomplishments. Doing business based on value delivered gives companies the means to get an equitable return for their efforts. Once suppliers truly understand value, they will be able to realize the benefits of measuring and monitoring it for their customers.     

Kundenbindung in der Versicherungswirtschaft: Ergebnisse einer theoretischen und empirischen Analyse

In this article customer retention is analysed both theoretically and empirically, especially the retention of customer to insurance intermediaries. After the construct of customer retention has been conceptualised, the determinants of customer retention in the insurance business are derived. The empirical analysis is based on interviews of German customers of an internationaly operating financial services company. A total of 1,003 interviews were conducted. The analysis of customer retention through the usage of structural equation modelling forms the main part of this article. A comparison of three methods — structural equation modelling, neural networks and decision trees — shows that they are complementary and a combined application of these methods brings additional insights. On the basis of the determinants of customer retention, a typology of customers is built through hierarchical cluster analysis. The management of customer retention can be realised either by manipulating the determinants of customer retention or by ad dressing the identified customer types with a segment specific marketing mix.     

The effect of automated service quality on bank financial performance and the mediating role of customer retention

The impact of automated service quality on bank financial performance and the mediating role of customer retention have received little attention, as scholars have focused on issues of usability and measurement. This study begins by showing the impact of technology on the way banks conduct business and proceeds to discuss automated service quality definitions and the potential influence of automated service quality on retention and financial performance. A mediating model that links service quality to bank financial performance through customer retention in the automated service context is proposed. The results of this empirical study confirm the role of customer retention as a mediator in the effect of automated service quality on financial performance. Implications of the findings are discussed and the limitations of the study and the potential for future research are considered.     

物流企业COSE及其驱动因子解析

孜孜以求顾客价值与竞争力的提升,不可停留在临渊羡鱼的层面,而应根植于顾客价值之驱动因素的剖析与培育。本文基于服务企业的特征,把服务员工顾客导向意识作为提升顾客价值的重要驱动因素,并在综合考虑工作意义、组织认同、报酬满意度、工作动机、心理受权、顾客导向技能等多阶因子的基础上,构建了服务员工顾客导向意识驱动模型。