Just one question. Your top-of-mind response will show just how well you stand out from your banking competitors. Are you leveraging your strengths to differentiate your brand in the minds of your customers? Once you adopt a strategy, follow up with execution that delivers on your customers’ expectations.
Takeaways:
- As banking services become increasingly commoditized, financial institutions must leverage their unique difference to stand out from the competition.
- Members of an organization should be able to express what makes their business unique within 30 seconds of being asked.
- Once they define what differentiates them, financial institutions must ensure they deliver on that brand promise in order to live up to customer expectations.
A lot can happen in 30 seconds. One click or one swipe on a digital device and your customer is now engaged with the seemingly endless choices of financial services providers who are ready, willing and able to handle all of that customer’s banking needs. We are in an environment driven to “commoditization,” where all things are more similar than unique, and any provider with a better price becomes a viable next option.
To escape the trend toward commoditization there is but one option: Differentiation. And so, the question facing the entirety of the organization is this: What must we do to live a uniquely recognizable difference so that we’re not just another 30-second decision from a click or a swipe on a device – in the wrong direction?
I have a few questions to challenge you in this line of thought. Whatever your position or role in the organization, stop for just a moment and reflect on this simple but fundamental question:
What is our unique difference as a financial services provider?
What makes you unique in such a way that customers cannot easily find you duplicated among other options that are beckoning them? Is it your products? Is it your pricing? Is it your processes? Is it your channels of delivery? Is it your people?
Can you answer this question in 30 seconds or less? If you are struggling to formulate a quick and concise answer, chances are you’re not alone. Imagine for a moment how all the leaders across the organization would respond to this same question if they had only 30 seconds to do so. What about the front line, those who are the closest to the customer: In 30 seconds or less, how would they articulate what your unique difference is as a financial services provider? Don’t stop there – what about those who support the front office, i.e., the back office: what would they say, in 30 seconds or less? Once you’ve understood the reflex of this collective thinking (which, by the way, likely reveals and shapes what you’re actually doing), the next question is this:
Is how we instinctively think about our unique difference strategically enough to actually be different?
If the answer is no, the next step is building a unique and powerful brand experience and then living it out in a measurably recognizable form. We’re talking strategy and execution.
A strategy or brand promise not lived out in practice is of little to no value, no matter how insightful or well-intentioned. In fact, if the experience you deliver does not meet the promises you have made to customers, their satisfaction will be even lower than if you had not made the promises at all! Read that sentence again – it is a reality you must consider in your strategy, your brand promise, and how you live your difference.
Of all the things you have to tackle that generate urgency and demands on your time, why not take 30 seconds and just think on this? It’s the thinking about your difference that gives way to building your difference and, finally, to becoming or living out your difference.
In the words of one of our clients, there are two timeframes in which to figure out urgent matters: “Now, and right now.” “Now” is a good timeframe to begin thinking about this. “Right now” is better – because a lot can happen in 30 seconds.
If you’re ready to get started on strengthening what sets you apart as a financial services provider, reach out to our CX experts – right now!
