If there’s one industry that could really use a little introspection, it’s finance. On the surface, you might wonder, what’s there to change? Isn’t it all just numbers and accounting? Well, partly, but you have to remember that those numbers are connected to real people.
It’s too easy to forget the importance of authenticity and personal connection when you’re in finance. In fact, one study showed that trust plays a major role in financial inclusion, which refers to the access and use of formal financial services. When trust was high, financial inclusion managed to increase by 34.3%.
Thus, it’s clearly in the best interest of institutions to let go of the impersonal approach for a more authentic and human one. In that context, what steps can you take to build real connections with your customers? That’s exactly what we’ll be looking at today, so let’s jump right in.
#1. Operate with the Actionable Empathy Principle
It’s unfortunate, but financial institutions have created a system that makes empathy, particularly actionable empathy, almost impossible. Tom Mouhsian, principal analyst at Forrester, recounts one incident where a bank’s representative expressed sympathy but refused to help with refinancing the customer’s debt or provide alternative solutions.
Moushsian notes that real empathy requires banks not just to understand and care, but also to act. Essentially, your customer must walk away satisfied with the interaction or at least leave without feeling frustrated.
However, most banks do not follow this model. Their priorities on targets and goals for their workers effectively shut down any chance of flexibility. Even if a bank teller is a kind and empathetic soul, that doesn’t change much for a family about to become homeless because they’re struggling with mortgage debt.
#2. Start Engaging in Community Outreach
If you’re a bank, it’s natural that most of your customer interactions are going to happen in a banking context. Unfortunately, this can effectively lock down your identity and presence in the community. This is why it’s so important, especially in smaller cities and towns, to consciously engage in non-banking, community activities.
The most common way to do this is via funding and donating to local causes. The best part is that every kind of business in any field can do this. For instance, one natural gas company recently donated $75,000 in grants to 41 nonprofits across Arkansas, with many of them being in the Northwest Arkansas Region.
Institutions with good leadership understand the importance of budgeting for community involvement wherever they have a presence. After all, what better way than to entrench yourself in a community than through acts of service? In the above case, if the donor were a bank, the act would serve as effective PR to present the institution as a bank NWA residents can trust.
This applies just as much to any other part of the country or world as it does to this region in Arkansas. According to Today’s Bank, it’s all about community relationships, whether that means helping customers through personal, holistic service or helping them choose wise banking solutions.
#3. Take a Look at Your Internal Culture
Yet another critical factor that somewhat relates to our first point is the internal culture of your institution. Some banks are known to be particularly stressful and demanding when it comes to their employees. Often, expecting work-life balance is rare in this field, and many workers feel trapped in a toxic working culture.
Many banks feel this is the only way to keep things productive in terms of revenue and profits. However, as Grace Keith Rodriguez, CEO of a marketing and PR firm for finance, notes, the ROI for a good culture is worth it. This is despite ‘culture’ being harder to measure than traditional metrics.
Likewise, Rachel Shaw, a workplace consultant, also echoes that customers notice when employees seem stressed out and disengaged. This then ends up chipping away at the confidence they have in your products. Thus, it’s critical to take a 10,000-foot view of the internal culture of your bank.
You have to recognize that blindly following metrics and treating your team like a spreadsheet will have a similar impact on customers. You cannot have a culture of stack ranking, compensation tied to performance reviews, and gaslighting, and expect workers to give customers the Disney World treatment. The change has to start at the top with the culture you set.
All things considered, creating a more authentic connection with customers in a financial setting isn’t that tough, actually. The reason it seems so is the often long-standing culture that’s hard to change. However, if you are willing to turn things around in your institution, it’s very much possible.
In fact, you might be surprised at how much of a difference even a single step we discussed above can have. It just takes a little outreach and empowerment, and treating your team in the way you want them to treat your customers.
