Kristin Moyer

Last week was the worst ever for the history of Dow Jones Industrial Average, with a 22% drop over a period of eight trading days. Markets around the world are reeling, with both established and emerging economies experiencing dramatic three-month stock index changes:  US (-24.7%), Japan (-36.7%), UK (-27.3%), Brazil (-40.9%), Russia (-61.4%), India (-24.4%) and China (-30.4%).

People are panicked.  What are banks doing to help?  Not much so far.

Banks are largely focusing internally on their own problems.  Clearly, banks with liquidity problems must do this, but that accounts for a relatively small percentage compared to the overall number of banks.  And in the new and de-leveraged era, deposits and other lower risk retail focused business will put new importance on satisfying the needs of the average customer.

I looked at the Websites of the top 10 banks in the world to see who is talking about the market crisis and who is not.  Here is what I found:  0 of the top 10 banks provide information on the market crisis or an invitation to talk in any kind of obvious way.  One of the banks has an announcement of their merger with another bank, but it does not address the impact of the market situation on customers (only the specifics of the merger).  Banks are internally focused.

Customers are seeking, and will reward, leadership and advice right now.  It is time for banks to stop focusing all of their efforts internally, and start focusing externally.

CIOs should be prepared to support the ability to provide leadership and advice to their customers as banks do the following:

• Staff up on customer-facing positions, particularly at branches and call centers.  This will require a standardized process approach as well as remote worker support, as some staff will be moved from an office location to a branch or other customer-facing location.  Computer-based training can help employees learn processes and skills that are new to them.
• Provide an invitation for customers to have one-on-one discussions with them about their personal finances through all channels (branch, Internet (IM, push to talk), call center, voice response unit (VRU), direct mail, etc.)
• Enhance their Web sites to provide more information, education and support to current clients, above and beyond account based activities.
• Don’t wait for customers to find you.  Communicate with them according to their preferences and channel usage.  Communicate with them through your blog, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr…

If banks don’t meet customer needs for leadership and advice, someone else will.