Importance to banks of customer retention on the up for 2012
Munich, November 23, 2011. Thanks to its experts poll at this year’s BankingClub event for the customer management industry – CRMforBanks 2011 – Business and IT solution-provider SHS VIVEON has ascertained which trends will shape customer management in 2012 in the banking and financial services sector. The survey was targeted at functional CRM and marketing managers within German banks and financial service providers.
The retention of existing clients was cited by the experts as the most important goal for next year. This came in significantly ahead of the other objectives, with 27 per cent of the respondents mentioning it. Attracting new customers was in second place with 15 per cent, just above optimizing customer advice and boosting customer orientation – which came third with 14 per cent.
“In our experience, customer managers have been focused on winning new customers in recent years. However, as well as being expensive, this also only has a short-term impact in many cases”, remarked Thomas Hamele, head of Banking at SHS VIVEON AG. “The results of our survey show that banks have recognized the advantages of retaining existing clients as well as acquiring new ones, and are now intensifying their efforts in this respect. This tendency is all the more apparent, in my opinion, given the other goals mentioned, namely: optimizing customer advice and boosting customer orientation.”
The optimal basis for a customer-centric approach to banking is a deep understanding of customers’ needs and preferences. As a result, measures for getting to know customers better and database optimization are both high up on most banks’ list of priorities. But the CRM experts also have a range of innovative methods on their agenda for 2012, including extending their social media activities and using referral marketing strategies.
“This very much corresponds with our experience from projects and discussions” said Hamele. “After we saw the first banks successfully dipping their toes into social media marketing last year, there is now a need for the broad spectrum of other institutions to catch up. Demand is growing in the field of social media analysis, in particular. For even if an institution does not yet have an active presence on the various social media platforms, it can’t stop its customers discussing the firm and its products on these sites.”
SHS VIVEON also asked the experts how the importance of specific issues would change in 2012. The respondents were of the view that there would be a clear increase in the expansion of CRM systems. They also thought that the quality of advice offered would continue on its upwards trajectory, as would the development of social media strategies. Next year would see less focus on attracting new customers and developing new revenue-generating products, on the other hand.
“The major challenge facing the banks is to implement these targets that they have set themselves”, commented Hamele on the results. “Many firms first need to create the right conditions for operating a customer-centric banking strategy. This includes having an individually customized CRM system that can produce meaningful results, as well as firmly defined measures for operational customer management. In our experience, firms often lack a clearly defined strategy for a customer-centric approach and fail to implement this rigorously. Banks still have plenty of room for improvement in this respect.”
