By Gavin James on November 9th, 2011
Co-author: Brandon Purcell
Social media analytics of Twitter comments provide answers
By now, you’ve probably heard of Bank Transfer Day, a grassroots movement launched on Facebook® by a disgruntled Bank of America customer. The event, which prompted people to move their accounts from “big banks” to com munity banks and credit unions, generated a groundswell of social media activity in the weeks leading up to the target date of November 5, 2011.
To capture insights on public sentiment around Bank Transfer Day, Beyond the Arc analyzed social media comments on Twitter® for the day of the event. Although the topic originated on Facebook, we focused on Twitter to analyze content from both event organizers and a wide spectrum of retail banking consumers.
Additionally, Twitter is a powerful channel for promoting viral messaging, where hot tips and links circulate rapidly via retweets, often in greater numbers than the “small talk” found on Facebook. In fact, social media analytics showed that nearly 8% of our sample set (over 137, 000 posts) of Twitter traffic on November 5 talked about Bank Transfer Day.
What does the social media data tell us about Bank Transfer Day?
In analyzing Twitter posts about Bank Transfer Day, we sought to answer a number of compelling questions, such as:
- What motivated people to participate?
- What key themes were discussed?
- Which banks were mentioned most?
With an in-depth look at the data, we uncovered some valuable insights about the impact of Bank Transfer Day on banks and credit unions.
Driving factors in participation
On its own, the idea of Bank Transfer Day (BTD) generated strong engagement amongst dissatisfied consumers, sparked by announcements from Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Chase that they would soon charge a fee for debit card transactions. However, the event got a major boost by coinciding with the nationwide momentum of Occupy Wall Street. As a result, nearly 20% of all Twitter posts on Bank Transfer Day also referenced Occupy Wall Street.
It’s also important to consider the power of community in the momentum behind Bank Transfer Day. People love to share their passions, and in social media, the sharing of simple concerns can quickly turn into a wave of influence across a community. Facebook was instrumental in powering that wave, and on event day:
- 15% of Twitter posts about Bank Transfer Day linked to the original Facebook page;
- 10% of tweets were from people expressing dissatisfaction about their current bank; and
- 15% of tweets included an RSVP to participate, pushing the total “attendees” of Bank Transfer Day to 82,000 on event day.
What were people saying? Key themes of discussion
In our analysis of Twitter data on Bank Transfer Day, we focused on what people were saying about banks vs. credit unions, and identified the following key themes:
Typical to the viral power of Twitter, much of the social traffic on Bank Transfer Day included retweets of popular links (over 4,900 or 45% of BTD posts that day). The most frequently retweeted post highlighted the sentiment of the day: “Happy Bank Transfer Day! If you haven’t moved your money, read our step-by-step guide to leaving a big predatory bank. <link>.”
Which banks were mentioned most?
Out of nearly 11,000 Twitter posts referencing Bank Transfer Day on November 5, Bank of America was the most mentioned bank, with 263 references, or 2% of the total. The second most cited was Wells Fargo, referenced 116 times (1%). These posts typically mentioned fees and bailouts.
Inevitably, the day prompted negative feedback about big banks, and while it’s the kind of social media commentary that can rapidly influence the public, it’s also an opportunity for the banks to engage effectively to preserve their brand. A key benefit of closely monitoring social media is that companies can quickly identify risks, address issues, and reassure customers.
What’s the impact of Bank Transfer Day?
Long before the day of the event, banks and credit unions were seeing a sweeping trend in consumer choices. Across the nation, in the four weeks leading to November 5, the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) reported signing up 650,000 new members (compared with the typical average of 80,000 per month), adding a total of $4.5 billion. On the event day alone, credit unions nationwide brought in 40,000 new members, according to a CUNA survey.
This event is evidence of the power of social media in raising awareness of consumer concerns. Public pressure from many fronts appears to have influenced Wells Fargo, Chase, and finally, Bank of America to rescind their debit card fee programs. Given the momentum of social media, banks should monitor and analyze consumer comments on social networks to ensure that their objectives are aligned with public sentiment.
Final analysis
Bank Transfer Day not only gave a voice to common concerns, it offered a structure for acting upon those concerns – both of which were greatly magnified by leveraging social media. Facebook provided the platform for building community around an emotionally charged topic, and Twitter made it seamless to disseminate key soundbites and viral links. By analyzing social media data, companies can gain a well-informed picture of what’s driving key issues and public persuasion, so they can effectively manage risks and take advantage of opportunities to increase brand loyalty.
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By Gavin James on October 17th, 2011
 As YouTube™ has gained overwhelming popularity as a video sharing platform for consumers, businesses have been quick to recognize the marketing potential. Reaching nearly 500 million users worldwide each month in 2011, YouTube now sees over 3 billion page views per day on their site alone; with hundreds of millions more videos watched on mobile devices and embedded in other websites. As the third most visited website in the world, YouTube offers banks and credit unions valuable exposure that can dramatically increase brand awareness.
Furthermore, financial services organizations can leverage YouTube’s social network of viewer comments and link sharing to track public perceptions of a bank’s video content, to ensure they are delivering the most relevant and compelling visual messages to attract new business and meet customer needs.
Using YouTube to achieve key business objectives
YouTube can be a highly effective business tool for financial services, providing an entertaining medium to demonstrate expertise, share knowledge, solve problems, and promote products. In addition to marketing, the viral nature of this video platform makes it a powerful channel for meeting important business goals, such as:
- Customer acquisition: Promoting the brand by showcasing benefits, products, and member testimonials.
- Community engagement: Generating buzz for local events and highlighting loyal customers.
- Customer service: Proactively supporting customers with how-to videos that address common concerns.
How to increase customer acquisition using YouTube 
YouTube enables your organization to increase market exposure with targeted content.
- Wells Fargo reposts TV ads such as their “Owning a Home” commercial to reach out to people needing a mortgage. YouTube enables the bank to maximize the value of marketing media to attract new customers.
- DATCU Credit Union posts news clips from reputable sites such as ABC News, which discuss rising bank fees and low interest rates as evidence to support a switch to their credit union.
How YouTube helps you build community engagement 
YouTube allows you to highlight local sponsorships and relevant news to motivate engagement.
- Bank of America posts stories about their charitable efforts in local communities, along with related news and interviews that can be shared across social networks.
- Michigan Credit Union League engages with members by posting clips of events such as their annual convention.
How to leverage YouTube to improve customer service 
YouTube delivers insights on customer concerns so you can react quickly to preserve your brand.
- Chase tracks complaints posted in video and engages customers to resolve the issues. The video stories, and related viewer comments, also provide valuable insight into areas for service improvement.
- California Coast Credit Union shares entertaining clips from members that help celebrate the brand and generate enthusiasm with young audiences.
Improving customer experience with YouTube
While YouTube offers a compelling and cost-effective channel for promoting your business, as a social media network, it’s also a critically important tool for tracking public sentiment about your customers’ experience. You can also take advantage of the wealth of content and comments on YouTube to gain insight on consumer perceptions and competing organizations, to strengthen your own customer experience strategy. With visual messaging targeted to meet a range of needs, you can enhance customer support and attract new business.
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By Shaw Taylor on October 17th, 2011
 With over 800 million users as of October 2011, Facebook® has become one of the most powerful business tools for reaching new customers and building relationships. More than two billion posts are “liked” and commented on each day, and the average user –strongest in the 18-44 age group– connects to up to 80 community pages, groups, and events. Facebook is rapidly growing into the preferred medium for online conversation, boosted largely by easy access on mobile devices, which has doubled activity in the past year to more than 350 million users. With such broad exposure, combined with the fast and flexible nature of this platform, Facebook is ideally suited to help financial services organizations build customer engagement and increase brand awareness.
Using Facebook to accelerate key business goals
Many financial services institutions are taking advantage of Facebook to increase direct interaction with customers to achieve a number of key business objectives, such as:
- Customer acquisition: Increasing awareness and driving new customer growth with engaging content.
- Community engagement: Generating buzz and participation to strengthen connections with customers.
- Service breaks: Identifying and addressing problems that impact customers.
- Customer service: Providing an additional channel for prompt, personal attention for questions or complaints.
How Facebook helps you drive new customer acquisition
Facebook enables your organization to increase awareness and customer growth.
- By mining the social graph for purchase intent, tracking relationships and published comments, you can target consumers based on affinity and conversation.
- Facebook is a huge referrer of traffic and online sales. By optimizing your business fan pages, and integrating paid, owned, and earned media, you can increase referral traffic.
- Social commerce drives return on investment by leveraging unique, engaging experiences that influence consumers toward purchase decisions.
How Facebook helps you build community
Facebook allows your organization to spotlight activities that motivate community engagement. 
- Providing fresh, engaging content is the key to building a strong community on Facebook.
- Limited time promotions, contests, and sweepstakes can be some of the most powerful tools in your Facebook strategy.
- Highlighting sponsorship activity on Facebook is rapidly growing in popularity. Generating enthusiasm with participants before, during, and after events helps drive brand affinity.
- Become a go-to source for financial tips by posting links to helpful money management articles.
Improving customer experience with Facebook
Facebook offers financial services companies a fast, easy, and highly versatile platform for managing customer experience and marketing. By carefully listening to what customers are saying, responding promptly to concerns, offering proactive tips, and inviting conversation, you can drive customer engagement to win new business and earn loyalty.
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By Shaw Taylor on October 14th, 2011
Retail banking is now witnessing a change similar to when banks began embracing the Internet in the 1990s. Back then, banks actively pursued the opportunity but their efforts lagged that of other industries and consumer demand.
Fast-forward to 2011, where social media is providing retail banking with a similar opportunity; some 750 million consumers spend nearly 4 hours/week on Facebook. Many banks are embracing social media because this is where the customers are – especially the younger generations they covet so highly. Because more and more consumers expect businesses to listen, engage, and provide personal attention through social networks, banks have begun to adopt these practices to win new customers and deepen existing relationships.
Aligning social media with critical banking objectives
At Beyond the Arc, we’ve found that financial institutions that use social media effectively are aligning their efforts with three key business objectives:
- Customer acquisition: Engaging brand advocates to acquire new customers and increase loan portfolios.
- Community engagement: Building strong customer relationships through engaging member participation.
- Customer service: Providing prompt, personal attention for questions or complaints.
1. Customer acquisition – opportunities in social media
- Target Generation Y (e.g., providing the proper message, via the appropriate channel)
- Offer expert advice (e.g., get a will, plan for retirement, purchase a house)
- Showcase social responsibility (e.g., school fund raising, philanthropy)
- Issue cross-promotions (e.g., Partner with life insurance firms)
Example 1: TD Canada Trust Money Lounge on Facebook
TD Canada Trust goes where it’s customers are, Facebook! Not only do they provide expert services and tap into new-media used by Generation Y, but they also provide engaging content to keep their audience coming back for more.
2. Community engagement – opportunities in social media
- Target key demographics with sponsorships that align with their interests (e.g., Chase Corporate Challenge, Bank of the West Tennis Classic)
- Build engagement by aligning your brand with industry celebrity events (e.g., AmEx Rewards and Beyoncé, Eastern Bank and the Red Sox)
Example 2: Eastern Bank on Facebook
Eastern Bank set up a great Facebook fan page, aligning the bank with the Boston Red Sox. In August 2011, the bank announced their “Grand Slam Sweepstakes” on Facebook. To enter, participants are required to first “Like” Eastern Bank on Facebook, then enter basic information to win. As of August 31st they have over 7,100 Facebook “Likes”, a large number given the size of the bank and the short timeframe of the sponsorship.
3. Customer service – opportunities in social media
Bank of America (@BofA_Help) and Wells Fargo (@Ask_WellsFargo) are just two of the many banks using Twitter to help customers by providing quick responses to questions about their accounts, online banking, and more. Many credit unions are tweeting as well, including information about special rates, loans, and other information for customers.
Example 3: Bank of America manages customer service issues from Twitter
Bank of America monitors its Twitter platform and responds to customer complaints, offering solutions for service breaks:
Customer: @BofA_Help you guys won’t let me CLOSE this account!! I had a cashier’s check deposited Monday. I STILL can’t get my money. Lmao
BofA_Help: @[customer] I work for Bank of America. What happened? Anything I can do to help?
Driving business value with social media
Social media is quickly evolving past the novel and into mainstream usage for financial services institutions.
To align social media efforts with key business objectives, banks should conduct social media benchmarking to define key performance indicators that can guide a strategic approach to the channel. Not only will this kind of strategic engagement provide a wealth of insightful consumer data, it could help improve the customer experience, strengthen loyalty, and attract new business.
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By Gavin James on October 5th, 2011
When customers have a bad experience, they’re often more connected to how they FEEL about it, than the issue itself. That’s why you need to sharpen your focus on how people react to your business. Timely and effective communications can help you manage negative sentiment, rebuild trust, and promote loyalty.
If customers voice disgruntled opinions in public, the ripple-effect of social media could quickly turn the tide against your company –especially in financial services where consumer confidence is running low. Listen closely to what customers are saying about your business, both in direct feedback and across social networks —from key issues to trends in sentiment—so you can respond quickly to customer concerns, and tailor your communications to turn negative perceptions into positive customer experiences.
To effectively manage negative customer feedback, we recommend a three-tiered strategy:
- Consider the risks and missed opportunities of not responding to customers.
- Prioritize negative feedback to focus your communications appropriately.
- Transform negative situations into positive engagement.
Consider the risks & missed opportunities of not responding to customers.
Social media now wields a strong influence over public perceptions of customer experience and brands. Whether it’s a few complaints or a sweeping trend of concern, when negative sentiment hits the airwaves, it introduces both risks and opportunities for a business. If you’re wondering whether to respond, consider this: for customers, zero response looks like zero concern, and that can be costly for your company.
Let’s look at a few examples in which banks remained silent amid serious customer experience issues. Their lack of communication fueled a rising tide of negative sentiment that could’ve been avoided:
- Managing an emotionally-charged event – When Chase Bank erroneously had an innocent customer jailed for suspected check fraud, the bank merely issued a brief statement about changing their policies. Reports noted the man received no apology and lost his job due to missing work while in jail, and across social media the public seemed to react more strongly to those sentimental facts than to the banking event itself. If Chase had offered reassuring messaging before the issue spun out of control, they might have reversed negative perceptions of being insensitive and avoiding unaccountability.
- Managing broad-scale concerns – Amid the mortgage crisis, lenders such as Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and others were caught in the controversy over “robo” signing documents to expedite foreclosures. This practice left millions of customers and potential homebuyers confused and angry, yet the banks avoided communication about it, which has bred a public sentiment that banks are ignoring their concerns. By reaching out with supportive communications, lenders could demonstrate they’re paying attention to how customers feel, which goes a long way toward winning back their trust.
- Managing corporate strategy for negative feedback - Some financial institutions in the U.S. and overseas have taken an aggressive approach to managing negative customer feedback that’s coming back to haunt them. As an example, Commonwealth Bank in Australia damaged their own reputation when word leaked out that they ordered employees to remove negative reviews they found online or risk getting fired. It’s ironic when you consider reports like the 2011 Retail Consumer Report, which found that addressing negative feedback often works in a company’s favor: of customers who received a response after posting negative feedback, 33% replied with a positive review, and 34% deleted the original negative review.
Prioritize negative feedback to focus your communications appropriately.
- Get in the game to reduce the risk of negative perceptions.
Even if regulatory issues make your company leery of social media, it’s becoming more risky not to have a readily-available, reassuring presence online because your customers expect you to be there. As customers often voice concerns online, you may receive double the negative feedback if you don’t respond. Even a few thoughtful communications can show customers you’re listening and ready to help, and that’s a good start.
- First, fix what’s broken.
When you see serious complaints, engage those customers quickly. Listen to their concerns, admit any mistakes, and be clear about how you’ll improve their experience. For good measure, reach out again down the road to make sure they’re happy. By giving customers prompt, personal attention, they may express their appreciation with a positive review, which can improve the perception about your brand to hundreds of other customers.
- Don’t randomize, prioritize.
In dealing with negative sentiment, don’t try to respond to everything. Focus on helping customers with legitimate concerns to create the greatest positive impact. To prioritize negative feedback, it helps to understand the severity of key issues and customer sentiment across multiple channels, but that can be daunting. A great way to accelerate these efforts is using social media analytics, which allows communication teams to tap into insights that make it easier to prioritize how and when to respond to customers.
Transform negative situations into positive engagement.
- Strengthen community with customers.
In responding to negative feedback, let customers drive the conversation. Listen to what would please them and share solutions that may benefit other customers as well. Engaging their ideas can help build a sense of community with your company, make you appear open and approachable, and inspire others to join the conversation.
- Enhance perceptions of customer service.
Take advantage of negative feedback to spark innovative ways to communicate with your customers. Think beyond a simple apology or refund to what customers will not expect; what might delight them – perhaps a bonus gift or new benefit. By going the extra mile, you may win the customer’s loyalty and motivate them to praise your brand to others.
- Identify brand advocates to rally support.
Even when negative sentiment looms in social media, you can often find loyal customers who will defend your brand. Engage them directly to express appreciation, learn what they like about your company and how you might delight them. Your personal attention might motivate more business and prompt them to help influence positive sentiment online.
Think of negative customer feedback as part of doing business, and use it to innovate your communications. To reach both individuals and the public at large, social media is a powerful channel to quickly address key concerns, clarify misconceptions, and offer reassurance. Showing customers you’re listening and that you care about how they feel can help transform negative sentiment into a winning customer experience.
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By Brandon Purcell on October 3rd, 2011
For the past 35 years, JP Morgan Chase has hosted the Corporate Challenge, a series of 3.5 mile footraces in cities across the globe. JP Morgan describes the event on its website as “a global celebration of corporate teamwork, camaraderie, and community giving.” So far this year, over 225,000 people have participated in the event, which is being held in 12 cities in 6 countries around the world.
Understandably, as part of their investment in the Corporate Challenge, JP Morgan Chase hopes to achieve some key business objectives, such as:
- Increase brand awareness - Position events for B2B and B2C marketing.
- Build community outreach - Establish the bank as a socially responsible leader.
To help the bank meet these objectives, they leveraged the growing enthusiasm for these events by engaging in a strategic social media campaign, creating Facebook fan pages for each race location to raise awareness and build community groundswell.
Measuring the bank’s success
To capture insights into the success of the bank’s social media efforts, Beyond the Arc used text analysis to track volume and trends across thousands of Facebook comments, using linguistic models and industry expertise to answer the following questions:
- Did JP Morgan Chase build community by promoting an interactive environment?
- Did participants express enthusiasm for the bank as a sponsor?
- What were the bank’s best practices, and what are the opportunities for the future?
On your mark, get set…
Timing is everything. A runner who shows up late for a race has little chance of winning. Similarly, a sponsor that begins engaging participants only after the event may have missed the boat. Such was the case with JP Morgan Chase’s Corporate Challenge in Johannesburg, which was run on March 3, but the bank didn’t post their first comment on Facebook until April 4. At that point, the only comments were from JP Morgan Chase – so they lost a chance to engage the race community. After April 4, when all the global Facebook fan pages got rolling, it appears the bank enhanced their communications strategy to maximize efficiency. In this case, however, the company missed a key opportunity to build a buzz in South Africa, a new and growing market.
Go!
As expected, across the Corporate Challenge fan pages for most cities, the number of comments increased dramatically on race day, representing an average of 22% of all comments. In Chicago, almost 35% of comments were on race day; in Buffalo 28%. These percentages represent a double-edged sword: while the large proportion of comments on race days reflects a high level of excitement, JP Morgan should engage participants over a longer period of time to strengthen relationships, so runners don’t simply forget about the bank after the race is over.
One way to measure the success of JP Morgan Chase’s social media campaign is to look at the level of interactivity on the fan pages. Are people engaged enough to post comments, or is the fan page largely dominated by the company itself? Buffalo, Chicago, London, and New York all had the most interactive fan pages, with about 80% of content coming from participants. Singapore and of course Johannesburg fared the worst in the interactivity measure with 27% and 0% of comments coming from participants.
Buffalo, Chicago, London, and New York’s fan pages fared better than others because of content. Good content drives engagement, while poor (or nonexistent) content encourages little or no activity from participants.
This graph shows the volume of comments over time across all cities’ fan pages. There are three large peaks, which coincide with race dates in Chicago (5/26), Buffalo (6/9), and New York (6/16). The 3 smaller peaks align with race dates in Boston (6/2), Syracuse (6/21), and London (7/7). The reason for the differences between these two types of peaks highlights a social media best practice. 
Driving a surge in Facebook activity, on Chicago’s race day, JP Morgan Chase posted: “Chicago, on your mark, get set and go….its race day! Who are you running with today?” They posted similar comments for Buffalo and New York on race days. However, there were no new posts from the bank on race days for Boston, Syracuse, and London. Best practice: Sure, runners may post comments on race day out of sheer excitement; but you’ll amp up engagement if you prompt people with a question or thought-provoking comment.
The Chicago post is a good example of how to leverage social media. This post took advantage of the excitement of race day, and also targeted one of the strongest features of the Corporate Challenge: team building and company pride. Companies often sponsor their employees to race, and many coworkers wear T-shirts representing their companies. Given the success of this post, it is surprising JP Morgan Chase didn’t emulate it on the other cities’ pages.
Their social media campaign also helped the bank respond quickly to concerns, such as when a thunderstorm threatened race day in Buffalo. When runners worried the event might be canceled, JP Morgan was quick to reassure people with a post on the fan page that the race was on.
Watch your speed
While it’s necessary to post questions and comments to drive interaction, you need to keep an eye on local events to be sensitive to the community. For example, on August 9, JP Morgan posted on its London page: “What’s your best moment from this year’s race? Do you have photos?” However, as August 9 marked the height of the violence and looting during the London riots, one runner replied, “Sorry, but surely not the most appropriate time to ask such a question?” What was meant as an innocuous effort to encourage interaction was taken as a sign of insensitivity because the bank failed to take current events into account.
After the finish line
One of the most important goals of a sponsorship event is to maximize “afterglow” – the feeling of identification with the event after the event has passed. In this case, JP Morgan adopted an excellent strategy to keep people buzzing about the race. Teams were encouraged to participate in a T-shirt contest by designing a shirt with the Challenge’s logo to be worn on race day by the entire team. After the race, participants could go to the JP Morgan website to vote on their favorite shirt. The 2 winning teams each won $1,000 for their charities of choice.
The T-shirt contest was a huge success. Not only did it drive people to the JP Morgan website, but it also dominated the conversation on the fan pages after the race day. In fact, the most popular topic after the race itself on each page was T-shirts. Participants urged others to vote for their shirts or applauded the other teams’ creative designs. This type of interaction, begun by the bank but propagated by participants, is the ideal goal of any social media campaign since participants necessarily feel a strong sense of community and association with the brand.
Worth noting is that text analytics uncovered comments about confusion on how to vote in the contest, which indicates that JP Morgan needs to improve its voting process in the future.
Happy feet
Overall, participants’ sentiment of the Corporate Challenge is overwhelmingly positive. Many people commented on how “well-run” the event was (pun intended). There were very few complaints, with the exception of the usual runner’s gripe about being stuck behind walkers.
Social media metrics can also help to provide insight into which locations fared better than others on their fan pages. The table below shows the number of likes on each page, the number of participants, and the number of likes per participant.
Clearly, the participants in Syracuse and Buffalo felt more engaged on their respective Facebook fan pages. A further qualitative analysis of content on these pages could provide insight into best practices for optimizing participant engagement.
Cool down
With the proliferation of social media, a sponsorship event is much larger than the event itself. In most cases, JP Morgan Chase realized the window of engagement with participants began well before each race, and extended until well after everyone’s calf muscles recovered. The bank connected with its audience through engaging content that leveraged the excitement around the event. In doing so, the bank was able to advance its key objectives. Not only did the JP Morgan Chase build community at the event itself, but it fashioned an online community on its Facebook fan pages. Through engagement with the bank and one another, this community helped to boost brand recognition well after the race was over. Other banks looking to optimize their sponsorships can make similar use of social media, and text analytics can always provide insight into the effectiveness of these efforts.
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By Dana Roytenberg on September 29th, 2011
Customer segmentation enables companies to get more bang for their buck by directing marketing efforts to the most likely targets.
Segmentation is a widely used technique in marketing, a way of dividing customers into groups based on their demographics, attitudes, buying behaviors, and other attributes. Using predictive analytics makes it an even more powerful tool – by identifying precise and nuanced target groups for campaigns.
The result is a win-win scenario – customers are offered more relevant products and services in ways that resonate with them, leading to more profitable relationships for the company.
Predictive analytics lets the data do the talking
Segmentation separates customers into distinct groups with distinct needs.
Most often, marketers use available data on customers’ demographics and behavior, as well as value (revenue they generate, and costs of the relationship) to manually divide them into segments for campaigns.
In contrast, predictive analytics automates this process, letting the data generate the segments. This is done by building a predictive model with sophisticated software like IBM SPSS Modeler, which finds patterns in the data that are too complex or too subtle to come up with manually.
As an example, the following case study shows how customer segments generated in this way can be leveraged to more effectively cross-sell to customers.
DekaBank – Marketing mutual funds more effectively with predictive analytics
On their website, IBM shares a compelling case study …
DekaBank is one of Germany’s leading financial services providers, operating in the wholesale banking and mutual fund segments. The bank launched a new guarantee fund (similar to a certificate of deposit) and wanted to determine which customers would be most likely to purchase their new product.
To select customers who would most likely be interested in guarantee funds, the CRM and Database Marketing team relied on statistical procedures to develop a scoring model with ten appraisal classes. The model used current and past customer data, along with socio-demographic, product-related and geographic variables already stored in DekaBank’s system. All “candidates” were appraised on the basis of the model and ranked accordingly. The customers best suited for a targeted approach were in the first class, and those least suited landed in the tenth class.
DekaBank put together a service package containing a list of the customers most likely to be interested in the new guarantee funds, as well as sales and promotional materials customized to appeal to these customers. This enabled the bank’s sales partners – the local savings banks – to make the right offers to the right customers.
The campaign was a great success. The number of transactions of the 160 participating savings banks rose on average by a factor of 3.3 (the highest by a factor of 8.8) compared with the savings banks that didn’t participate.
Similarly, Beyond the Arc’s experience working with Fortune 500 companies in the U.S., including banks, has shown how powerful predictive analytics can be in increasing marketing effectiveness. Clients also want to understand if there is an underlying logic beyond “the algorithms indicate…” This may mean that an analyst has to spend more time trying to identify and understand the key implications that the model raises. We’ve found that data mining models are only tools – the bigger wins come from using the findings strategically, for example to shape the messaging, timing, and flights of ad campaigns.
Applying predictive analytics in social media
DekaBank’s guarantee fund campaign offers a persuasive use case for predictive analytics. Can this technique be applied to the new frontier of customer engagement – social media?
It certainly can for social media-specific campaigns, as we’ve written about recently. However, it’s difficult to connect existing customer data to online comments, so using text data from social networks to help generate customer segments is challenging. One way companies can leverage these insights is to extend marketing campaigns to the social media channel through their communications strategy.
For example, DekaBank determined that the typical purchaser of their new financial product would be an older and often long-term, particularly intensive fund user – and adapted their communications to appeal to this customer, from mailing and flyer text and layouts to phone script guidelines. Had they decided to promote the product in social media, they would have needed to adapt their messaging, design, and medium choices accordingly.
Benefiting your customers and your business
Ultimately, companies want to maximize the value of their customer relationships without alienating customers. One way to achieve this balance is applying predictive analytics techniques to improve customer segmentation – ensuring that the right customers get the right offer, and minimizing the perception of ‘spam.’
The more a company demonstrates it knows it customers and understands their needs, the better their experience – which in turn can reap significant rewards for the business.
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By Shaw Taylor on August 19th, 2011
As Twitter has taken the social media sphere by storm –over 300 million users and 1 billion pieces of content per day, as of May 2011— it’s no wonder that businesses around the globe are relying on this venue to communicate with customers. Despite strict regulations, even financial services organizations are jumping into the game, finding effective ways to engage customers to meet key business objectives.
Using Twitter to achieve retail banking objectives 
Twitter provides valuable customer insights and growth opportunities that align well with business objectives. As an example, banks and credit unions can leverage social media in four key ways:
- Customer acquisition: Engaging a wide range of demographics to acquire new customers and increase loan portfolios.
- Community engagement: Building strong customer relationships and increasing member participation.
- Service breaks: Identifying and addressing problems that impact customers.
- Customer service: Providing prompt, personal attention for questions or complaints.
How Twitter helps you quickly address service breaks
Twitter feeds are updated in real-time, which help your organization sort and solve customer problems fast.
- By closely monitoring Twitter, you can catch customer comments about service breaks early on and respond quickly.
- Communicating with customers and influencers via Twitter can help you manage a crisis.
- One-to-one communication via Twitter can provide customers with service options.
Example 1: Bank of America
Bank of America monitors its Twitter platform and responds to customer complaints, offering solutions for any service breaks:
Customer: @BofA_Help the ATM @ 1401 S. Harbor Blvd, Fullerton, CA is still broken. Touch screen doesn’t work.
BofA_Help: @[customer] I apologize for your experience. Thank you for letting us know. We will inform our ATM support team right away.
How you can leverage Twitter to improve customer service
Twitter enables organizations to understand customer problems and react to them quickly.
- Fast responses via Twitter reduce problem solving time.
- Personal attention to customers can turn a negative experience into a positive one.
- Twitter offers a convenient online and mobile channel for customer service.
Example 2: Bellco Credit Union
Bellco’s Twitter channel makes it easy for customers to get help with problems.
Customer: Please return the $.99 that was taken from my account for a “descriptive [withdrawal]” Transf of my own money does not req a fee.
Bellco_CU: Hi Tyler-plz give us a call tomorrow & someone can look into that for you. Or you can login to Online Banking & send a request with the Answer Center feature.
Improving customer experience with Twitter
By using Twitter effectively, financial services organizations can improve customer experience by addressing problems quickly and offering personalized attention that helps strengthen brand loyalty. And with a 70% increase in users since 2010, Twitter offers banks and credit unions expanded potential to reach customers and members, and deliver an exceptional experience that gets people talking.
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*Co-author: Beyond the Arc intern Justine Li
By Gavin James on July 13th, 2011
When your company takes on a merger or acquisition, you may see great opportunities, but you should also keep a sharp eye on how the transition affects your customer experience. With all the challenges of change–how do you retain customers and strengthen brand loyalty so you can capture the full value of the deal? In our experience, effective communications play a key role in a successful integration.
In a world where 2 out of 3 merger integrations fail (Gartner report), it’s important to remember that the right messaging and communication strategy can help you positively influence customer perceptions and behaviors, and build alignment internally to ensure teams stay focused on delivering a great customer experience.
 How do you retain customers and strengthen brand loyalty through a complex merger? 4 keys to effective merger communications
Sure, you need to retain customers, but it’s even more important to strengthen those relationships, especially with acquired customers who may be new to your company. Consider these best practices for your merger communications:
1. Deliver consistent messaging – During times of change, both your customers and employees will want to understand the big picture, and most importantly, how they’ll be affected. That’s why it’s mission critical to define key messages that provide a clear, cohesive, and reassuring story about what’s happening and what to expect, and communicate that story consistently across all channels. This helps you build alignment and momentum for a successful transition.
2. Identify and address stakeholder concerns – It’s not enough to simply issue statements about the merger. You need to understand stakeholder concerns so your communications convey what’s most meaningful and generate positive perceptions about the changes. Do your homework early with readiness assessments that identify customer and employee concerns, and then craft merger communications that resonate well and build buy-in.
3. Engage early and often – You want to make sure your customers (and employees) feel like you’re paying attention to their needs during times of change. In addition to servicing letters, engage directly through social media channels like Twitter and Facebook, which allow you to respond promptly to customer feedback about the merger and promote positive impressions that help strengthen brand loyalty.
Internally, provide regular updates through email broadcasts, newsletters, intranets, or other channels to keep teams well prepared to help customers with any questions or issues. And make sure you regularly communicate your appreciation to employees for all their efforts during a merger; when they feel valued and engaged, they’re more likely to go the extra mile for customers.
4. Equip internal teams with communication best practices – To help drive that all-important consistency in merger communications, it’s a good idea to provide tools that help customer-facing employees understand how to talk about the merger and best support customers through the changes. For example, a writing guide for merger communications can include recommended terminology, best practice examples for customer letters, links to helpful resources, and even legal tips for talking about the merger.
Ultimately, successful merger integration means you retain and grow your customer base, strengthen brand loyalty, and build stronger internal teams to lead the company forward. Well-planned, effective communications are a powerful tool to get you there –enabling you to overcome many common challenges and help ensure a profitable outcome for the merger.
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Image from: blog.whitestratus.com
By Brandon Purcell on June 28th, 2011
Companies across the world are beginning to establish Voice of the Customer (VOC) programs – using text analysis and other tools to listen to their customers on a large scale. They are monitoring feedback in a way that was previously impossible, and are changing their businesses based on what they hear.
Meanwhile, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives have expanded the traditional economic bottom line for many companies to include environmental, social, and governance factors – the “triple bottom line.” And it makes sense. Often, investing in sustainability cuts costs and mitigates risk (think Walmart and Nike, respectively).
But how are these two seemingly disparate trends inextricably linked? How could a VOC program be an essential part of a CSR platform?
Listening to all your stakeholders
The answer lies in stakeholder engagement, a cornerstone of Corporate Social Responsibility. Stakeholder engagement is the process companies use to communicate with and gain feedback from their shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, and overall communities. Through these dialogues, businesses are able to set goals and establish metrics for success.
Most of the best corporate citizens engage through focus groups with representatives from their various stakeholder groups in an attempt to give them a voice. But what about the voices of those not in attendance – how can they be better represented?
A Voice of the Customer program provides a way to listen not only to select representatives, but to every one of your stakeholders democratically. Traditionally, VOC programs used text analytics to uncover customer insights from internal data sources such as call centers and surveys. However, in the age of social media, a comprehensive VOC program listens to both customers and anyone who’s talking about your company in public forums. By combining data from customer feedback, employee surveys, tweets, Facebook comments, and other sources, you gain a clear picture of what your stakeholders are saying, and how to prioritize your social responsibility efforts.
Voice of the Customer & social responsibility in action
As an example of effectively linking a VOC program and CSR agenda, Voice of the Customer analysts at a retail bank recently noticed a trend after new PIN pads had been installed. Visually impaired customers were experiencing difficulty entering their PINs because there were no longer push-buttons with Braille characters. The bank reacted quickly to find a solution to support their visually impaired customers. In addition to being more socially responsible, they avoided the risk of being found non-compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
A single human – or even a group of analysts – manually reading customer feedback comments could not possibly have sifted through the sea of comments to pick up on this trend. And a machine could not have understood the nuances or gravity of the situation. A Voice of the Customer program leverages text analytics tools and human expertise to find emerging issues before they spiral out of control.
Next-generation Corporate Social Responsibility is about continuously engaging with stakeholders and addressing their concerns as they arise. Pioneering corporate citizens can get ahead of the game by leveraging their Voice of the Customer programs to enhance their CSR efforts.
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