In an online selling world, as a financial service provider, your overall digital reputation and digital customer engagement strategy are your biggest assets, especially now during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Every fintech provider or financial institution needs to continuously show prospects and clients what sets them apart from their competition. With interactions between banks, fintechs and customers taking place mostly via digital mediums today, it is now becoming more crucial for banks and FIs to properly track their online reputation including finding creative ways to improve their online presence and grow their digital reputation.
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A Growing Need for Better Online Reputation Management Processes For Financial Institutions and Banks
Rapid digitization within the financial industry is leading to big changes when it comes to online customer engagement plans and bank loyalty programs already.
A recent survey revealed that only 20% of customers would rather visit a bank with most opting to use digital platforms to take care of their transactions. According to other reports – The total number of customers using digital banking tools is set to exceed 3.6 billion by 2024.
Knowing that a solid online reputation is now key to a financial institutions’ growth trajectory, a few key industry best practices might help:
Creating The Right Digital Reputation Management Strategy With The Support Of The Right Tools, Plans And Tech To Make A Difference:
It’s not just the banking industry that has gone digital today, most industries are working on a digital-friendly format; in part due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, as several finance and fintech leaders have often shared, contactless payments and digital banking solutions have become more popular during the Covid-19 pandemic but there was always a rising need and growing adoption of these platforms even during pre-Covid-19 times, the pandemic only accelerated the pace of adoption.
When customers want their providers to meet them where they are – on online platforms, across multiple channels; this changing preference requires financial institutions, traditional banks and other related service providers to create a more impactful online messaging strategy that allows prospects and customers to interact in multiple ways with the brand.
Online QnAs via social media, custom campaigns delivered direct to their inbox, not just via email but via other online platforms including LinkedIN and others, personalized product purchase and update assistance when transacting via the app; to create a seamless buying experience and customer journey online, financial institutions have to pick strategies that they can scale and execute those plans with the right marketing / sales tools. Understanding what steps you want to take as a solution provider, to impact your online presence is key to the next steps which involves identifying the right tools to help support those experiences.
Read More: Two Keys for Evolving from Transactional to Interactional Banking
Staying Atop of What Customers Are Saying About You And Your Competition:
With every company jostling for the same prospect’s attention online, understanding key online trends on the basis of what prospects and customers are saying about not only your own brand but also a competitor’s banking services for example, will help understand what the marketplace values more of in terms of customer experiences when it comes to their financial transactions and it will help understand how prospects prefer to interact or be served by their banks.
It pays to keep a tab on not only negative but also positive trends and social updates, keeping a tab on users praising an update to your banking app or that of your competitor’s for example, paying attention to the kind of reviews your service or that of your competitor’s are all crucial in today’s day and age.
By keeping a close tab on competition, it is easier to make your institution stand out even more.
When customers and prospects are sharing their experiences and preferences online all the time it is easier for Financial Institutions to understand what their user base and target audience cares about and what their priorities are. The above tactics serve as a starting step in the process to creating a balanced online reputation.
Conclusion
A bank’s or financial provider’s online reputation is everything today and it is important to not only take care of it but to also cultivate it to boost revenue growth and not just overall brand image. Today’s prospects are found online, they transact online and expect their providers to cater to their needs seamlessly, with digital-friendly services. Which is why, as the fintech and finance marketplace, especially the banking niche evolves further, it is important for institutions to control how their products and services are consumed and perceived online.
