Positive Employee Experience… More Customers and Growth

Last week I attended the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston.  It got me to thinking about how these “new” tools can effect the way we do business.  My colleagues at nGenera, Don Tapscott and Tammy Erickson, have spent a great deal of time researching and talking about how the different generations (Boomer, Gen X, Gen Y, etc.) approach work and technology in general.  I’m not going to discuss that, directly, but I am going to discuss what can be learned about today’s technology and how we can make our bank and credit union institutions competitive and functional in the marketplace.  Because if we don’t innovate and evolve we will wither and die.  The key is to do this in a smart way.  Not to just throw the newest and greatest thing in the marketplace into your mix.  To spend time and energy on something to just sound cutting edge, if there is no business purpose to it, is a fools errand and you will actually be less efficient.

I believe that if smaller institutions start embracing Web 2.0 collaborative technology they can use this to grow their franchise with the younger generation and expand their market outside their geographic territory.  This is especially true with the asset side of the balance sheet.  Deposits, other than CDs, are more difficult to attract because larger banks have an advantage with their ATM network.  However, there are ways around this, too.  The more innovative institutions are reimbursing customers for foreign ATM fees now.  If this continues I believe that ATM fee income will evaporate over time and banks will need to look for another source of revenue anyways.  It is the smarter institutions that are planning for this possibility.   More than just about any industry “retail banking” tends to take a wait and see attitude to anything new.  Whether it is technology or new delivery methods no one wants to be first and everyone copies everyone else.  More and more we are seeing non traditional banks coming into the “banking” arena.  With companies like Merrill Lynch offering traditional banking products and retailers like Wal-Mart working to change Depression era banking laws to break into the market.  The key is to now capture the Facebook generation with the services and delivery channels, not necessarily different products, that will attract them.  If some of this collaborative technology is used in house so that your summer interns and recent college graduates can get their ideas shared and acted on this will should naturally flow into customer delivery.  Especially if these younger employees, through their Facebook and LinkedIn networks, start bringing in more younger customers.  The key is to listen to them and handle this the right way otherwise these networks will be used against the institution.   You won’t be able to attract these workers, or younger customers, to your institution.  This will in turn, lead to a contraction in your customer base over time as your older customers aren’t replaced with newer ones.  If we have learned nothing else today’s technology has sped up information flow to either our benefit or detriment.   I believe that even though larger institutions would seem to have a leg up with their financial resources and in house expertise.   Smaller institutions have opportunities to effectively compete and grow due to their flatter organizational structure and ease to move decisions through to market. 

 I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this topic.  Specifically, if you are currently going down this road and what the results have been.