Insurance and Social Media

Social media marketing for insurance is experiencing major growth.

According to a report by consultancy firm ITDS:

• 100 percent of 20 major global insurers are active on Facebook.
• 100 percent are also active on LinkedIn and YouTube.
• 95 percent are active on Twitter and 75 percent are using Instagram.

But there are challenges. While providers recognize that insurance social media marketing is essential to future growth, many struggle to keep up with the pace and drive real results from their efforts.

Social Media Marketing for Insurance: The Challenge

People are not quick to trust insurance providers.

That’s one of the biggest obstacles to doing social media marketing for insurance.

• According to an IBM survey, only 43 percent of consumers trust the insurance industry.
• The lack of trust in insurance providers has remained above 50 percent since 2007.

One of the key goals of any insurance social media marketing strategy is to build meaningful and engaging connections with the audience. These connections are predicated on trust.

So how do you get to the point where your insurance brand or agency is able to inspire trust among customers?

Here are some dos and don’ts to help you craft a winning strategy for insurance social media marketing.

Social Media Marketing for Insurance Companies: Dos and Don’ts

DO: Deliver quality content

Your Facebook Page or Instagram account are not online billboards. The content you share on social media should be informative, helpful, or educational instead of exclusively self-promotional or salesy.

Consumers are looking for insurance providers not only to sell them a policy, but also to educate them on ways to protect their assets and most valuable possessions.

Here are some good insurance social media content ideas:

• A quick video to explain your policy coverage
• Detailed FAQs and step-by-step instructions on how to claim
• A link to interactive expense or investment calculators
• Educational posts like “things to consider before buying your first car” or “how to prepare for emergencies”

By sharing the kind of content that consumers are specifically looking for, you can drive higher engagement levels on social media. You can also foster trust more effectively and potentially gain more referrals.

DON’T: Ignore the power of LinkedIn

Many insurance agents sign up for professional networking site LinkedIn only to end up not using it. Or not using it the right way.

Here’s an example of the power of LinkedIn at work. Connecting with almost 8,000 followers, Bianca posts a message about the importance and practicality of having life insurance: a kind of food for thought that also serves as a subtle marketing message.

The post has generated 47 likes and 5 comments. Not super mind-blowing, but this kind of engagement is akin to Bianca walking into a networking event and getting 52 people (and their connections and friends) to take notice of and engage with what she is saying.

Again, the key to insurance and social media is to get people’s mindshare. Focus on delivering information that can foster trust. And offer options and resources that continually educate your audience.

DO: Embrace online reviews

It’s totally natural for insurance providers and agents — for almost all types of business owners, really — to be kind of wary of social media comment sections and online reviews.

According to research, only 20 percent of insurers show reviews on their website. And only 10 percent allow visitors to post or read Facebook recommendations and reviews, with the remaining 90 percent choosing to disable that option.

But reviews should be a crucial part of social media marketing for insurance agents and providers.

Whether it’s in the form of a Yelp review, an overall star rating on Credit Karma or Lending Tree, or a candid comment on Facebook or Google, reviews are an important trust factor that plays a crucial role in shaping consumer behavior.

Respond to reviews. Listen and respond to customer feedback. This helps you more effectively develop and sustain trust-based relationships with your customers and policyholders.

DON’T: Ignore feedback on social media

Social media has become a valuable platform for insurance consumers to ask questions. It’s where they usually try to get help with policy or claiming issues, air out complaints, and get customer service.

Don’t ignore them.

Here are some numbers that will make your jaw drop:

• The value dollar of the opportunities for insurance companies to drive results through social media is over $15 million a month.
• In one month, there were 3.7 million tweets about insurance and 23,401 social leads with purchase intent.
• Only 1 percent of these social leads received a response.

Simply put: if you’re not listening and responding to people on social media, you’re losing leads.

Of course, you can also use social media for customer service and responding quickly to questions, inquiries, feedback, and complaints. This helps demonstrate your commitment to customer experience, which in turn can build up your trustworthiness and online reputation.

Important note: When responding on social media, ensure that you’re meeting compliance requirements designed to protect your customers’ privacy. If and when in doubt, always consult with your compliance or public relations team.

DO: Use testimonials

As mentioned, trust is a powerful business currency in insurance.

This means that your client success stories, photos, and videos are a great way to humanize your insurance brand and incorporate user-generated content into your social media marketing.

Use review widgets to display testimonials on your website. Or share positive feedback on your insurance brand’s social media profiles.

If you’re not getting enough reviews, then ask for them. Send an email to your policyholders as part of your review generation. And make it part of an ongoing process to check in on new policyholders.

Again, in this situation, client privacy should be top priority. If you obtain testimonials from your happiest clients, make sure you already have their consent or permission to use the content.

DON’T: Make likes and follows your ultimate goal

Social media marketing for insurance companies involves so much more than getting a hundred or thousand “likes”, or growing a community of followers.

Have tracking systems in place so that you can measure the ROI of your efforts. Track how many leads have been generated via social, check out your cross-sell and referral stats, monitor your engagement rates and sentiment data, etc.

The data you collect will help you refine your future social media initiatives and efforts. It will also help you adjust your investment priorities, so you can reach out to and engage with the right audience.

List of Banking Review Sites to Track

Online reviews are one of the most accurate indicators of customer experience for banks, insurance providers, and financial services organizations.

Not only do reviews have the potential to either attract or drive away customers. They are also a major reputation factor and a key source of information for consumers.

Building consumer trust in banking and financial services

• According to an IBM survey, only 43 percent of consumers trust the insurance industry. In fact, the lack of trust in insurance providers has remained above 50 percent since 2007.
• In 2012, Edelman Insights found that financial services and banking was the industry consumers trusted the least — even less than they did the media sector.
• While the fallout from the big banking scandals and corporate collapses of previous years has since slowly faded away, an FIS report indicates that 75 percent of consumers agree there is still a gap between their expectations and bank performance across a range of factors essential to creating trust. “The trust factor continues to be a concern for consumers,” the report reads, highlighting the need “to reset the foundation for consumer relationships.”

Harnessing online reviews

One of the most effective ways to inspire trust among potential and existing customers is to monitor and manage online reviews.

• According to a ReviewTrackers survey, 68 percent are unlikely to decide on an insurance agent with zero reviews.
• In an Ernst & Young survey, respondents said reputation was a “very important” factor in deciding whether or not to trust a financial services provider.
• When choosing where to open a checking account, 63 percent of Millennials and 54 percent of Boomers cite personal experience, reviews or recommendations as being the most influential factors.

In the face of a one-star rating on Google or Facebook, your organization’s knee-jerk reaction may be to want to reject reviews altogether.

But user-generated content and customer reviews actually serve as a great tool for building consumer trust. Successful brands and marketers have learned to use customer feedback from review sites in ways that drive their search engine performance, social media strategy, and consumer engagement levels.

“Most leading companies are tracking brand sentiment and social media conversation,” says Troy Janisch, Director of Social Intelligence for U.S. Bank.

“What they are overlooking are review sites such as Yelp, mobile app stores, and social media review pages.

“People write reviews most often because they have a really bad or a really good experience. Companies often approach review sites solely as a customer service channel, but that’s only half of the opportunity.”

Banking & Financial Services: 11 Review Sites to Track

Credit Karma

Founded in 2006, Credit Karma is a website that publishes free credit scores, reports, member reviews, and insights to help consumers take control of their credit.

It gives members access to their credit scores and reports from TransUnion and Equifax, with weekly updates, as well as analyzes members’ credit profile and makes product recommendations to help them save money.

For more information, check out this guide to Credit Karma reviews.

Lending Tree

LendingTree is an online lending exchange that connects consumers with multiple lenders, banks, and credit partners who compete for business.

By creating a My LendingTree account, consumers can track their credit score and review all loan and credit card accounts. The website also also offers a variety of informational resources and tools for borrowers to help manage their finances and have an informed experience. These include: financial calculators, interactive loan coaching tools, monthly newsletters, and lender ratings and reviews.

Not yet registered? Click here to join the Lending Tree network.

SuperMoney

SuperMoney is an online financial resource that helps consumers save money. It compares real personalized rates from multiple lenders within minutes, as well as collects online reviews of a wide range of financial services.

These reviews of services range from banking, insurance, credit card, and debt help to investment, loans, mortgage, and taxes. SuperMoney’s rating is based on a proprietary scoring algorithm that takes into account multiple variables such as price, consumer ratings, quality, and availability.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is a consumer finance marketplace responsible for consumer protection in the financial services sector.

CFPB jurisdiction includes banks, credit unions, securities firms, payday lenders, mortgage-servicing operations, foreclosure relief services, debt collectors, and other financial companies operating in the U.S.

Part of CFPB’s work includes taking consumer complaints and researching the consumer experience of using financial products.

According to its website, the agency has provided $11.9 billion in relief to consumers from its enforcement actions, as well as taken and handled more than 1.2 million complaints from customers.

Yelp

If you thought Yelp was just a review site for restaurants and doctors, well — think again. The popular online review site also collects reviews of financial services companies (ranging from banks, credit unions, insurance, and mortgage brokers to financial advising and investing).

Read the complete guide to using Yelp for business.

Google

Google is the world’s biggest search engine — as well as a leading platform for local search and online reviews. Simply put: customers use Google in order to find great local businesses.

Organizations in banking and finance can build their visibility on Google by using Google My Business. Google My Business is an online dashboard designed to streamline the management of business information across multiple Google services. This is used to create and manage your Google business listings.

Read our complete guide to using Google My Business.

CardPaymentOptions

Based in Austin, Texas, CardPaymentOptions.com is website dedicated to organizing a coalition of merchants and industry professionals who want to enact change in the merchant credit card processing industry.

It has a collection of merchant account reviews and ratings to help small businesses find ethical merchant services providers. Reviews on CardPaymentOptions primarily measure merchant satisfaction and provider policies regarding, fees, sales tactics, customer support, and cancellation of service.

MerchantMaverick

Merchant Maverick is a comparison site that reviews and rates credit card processors, POS software companies, shopping carts, mobile payments services, and small business software.

Reviews are updated on an “as needed” basis; as new information emerges, the site updates reviews accordingly.

MyBankTracker

MyBankTracker tracks thousands of banks to help consumers find the perfect match for their banking needs.

Established in 2008 during the height of the economic downturn, MyBankTracker provides in-depth information on 6,000 banks and credit unions, including the latest interest rates for checking and savings accounts, mortgages, IRAs, and CDs.

WalletHub

WalletHub is a personal finance website that also offers free credit scores and full credit reports that are updated on a daily basis. This is supplemented by online reviews of financial products, professionals, and companies, along with advice from a diverse community of subject matter experts.

Clearsurance

Clearsurance provides an independent source for consumers to share insurance experiences and learn from others to make informed and insightful decisions.

Reviews are based on the experiences of Clearsurance users, who share feedback on their homeowners insurance, automobile insurance and renters insurance companies, factoring in everything from price and customer service to how quickly the company handles claims.

All of these reviews serve as the basis for Clearsurance’s rankings, which are generated by a proprietary algorithm. It determines a company’s score based on consumer ratings for the overall company and customer service, as well as their likelihood to recommend and renew with the company. Once a company has received at least 25 reviews, Clearsurance generates a rating based on those reviews.

List Your Business on Other Review Sites for Banking and Insurance

Learn how to list your financial services company on even more review sites. Check out our comprehensive list of business review sites you can join and plant your business flag on.

Customer Acquisition: Banking Strategies

The ways that customers shop for banks and financial services providers have changed. So, therefore, have the methods and strategies for customer acquisition in banking.

What does it take to acquire and keep new banking customers? How can companies achieve a better understanding of consumers’ new path to purchase? And what can banks and financial marketers do to influence the decision-making process?

Read on as we share cost-effective strategies for customer acquisition in banking.

6 Banking Customer Acquisition Strategies

Increase your visibility on social media

Today’s banking consumers typically begin their investigation online. But it won’t take much time for them to make a decision. According to a local search study, 53 percent of users typically visit a business within 48 hours of search.

If you can build a high-quality social media presence, your bank can achieve greater visibility in the eyes of those searching for new institutions and providers.

Post regularly on your social media profiles. Respond to customer questions and inquiries. Share high-quality content about what’s happening in the industry: trends, security practices, investment opportunities, etc. Add an appointment booking option or link to your digital application forms on your Facebook business Page and Instagram bio. And, if possible, integrate your social media efforts with your customer relationship management application or software.   

A strong social media presence can boost your banking customer acquisition strategy by simplifying access for potential banking customers and making it easy for current customers to encourage referrals to your business.

Not quite sure how to work on social? Check out these social media marketing strategies that drive real results for businesses.

Become a master at managing online reviews

Online customer reviews can impact your search engine performance, affect your brand reputation, and determine your ability to win new customers.

According to finance industry research, online reviews are five times more influential than TV advertisements and six times more influential than social media advertisements.

This makes online reviews management an important component of any successful customer acquisition banking strategy.

Tune into online review websites and engage with banking customers who leave feedback. Respond to their reviews. Be active in protecting your brand reputation. To save time and improve your productivity, use an online review monitoring software tool. Taking these steps lets you demonstrate to potential customers that you care about what existing customers have to say.

But don’t stop at responding to reviews. Take advantage of the 5-star reviews you may already have. Share these on social media. Add them to your website by using review widgets. Show your appreciation for those who consider themselves your biggest promoters and fans.

Online reviews serve as powerful social proof that you can use to inspire shopper confidence and acquire more customers.

Understand the multichannel experience

For a banking customer acquisition strategy to work, you must first understand which channels are most relevant to your target customer. After all, you don’t want to waste your time and money on the wrong channel or customer acquisition tactic.

There isn’t a single correct answer here. Like in other sectors, consumers may switch from one channel to another on their way to making a purchase decision.

Digital channels are important, but branches still play a big role. Recommendations from friends and family can be very influential, but so can traditional marketing and brand-building tactics.

Here’s a revealing infographic from an AOL and Oliver Wyman research study, which explores the motivations, influences, and behaviors of consumers who recently switched banks and opened a new primary checking account. It lists down a number of marketing channels influential to today’s banking customer.

The infographic reflects shifts in the consumer mindset and research behaviors, while also suggesting a non-linear path to purchase.

This means that multichannel insights are more crucial than ever. By understanding the multichannel experience, banks can navigate quickly shifting marketing channels and effectively drive customer acquisition.  

Demonstrate thought leadership through content

Great thought leadership content is a great way to capture your potential customer’s attention and trust.

You’re in an industry that’s always changing, so there are always numerous financial topics you can talk about. Don’t just aim to sell, though. Create compelling educational and meaningful content that shows you’re an industry leader. Talk about new areas of investment opportunities, online banking safety practices, emerging digital tools and trends — and pack your content with search-engine-friendly keywords and calls-to-action.

There are also plenty of channels for publishing your content: social media, a customer blog, mobile apps, video platforms, and (don’t forget) marketing materials distributed in all your branches.

Engage with your happiest customers to drive referrals

In banking, recommendations from family and friends are powerful customer acquisition drivers. It therefore makes sense to develop a customer referral program. This incentivizes your best and happiest customers to refer their friends and family to your business. It’s a low-cost, high-ROI banking customer acquisition strategy. (The acquisition costs for these referred customers will also be lower than normal acquisition.)

Start a newsletter campaign that goes out to your brand promoters. Develop a program that rewards your regular customers with points or freebies. Or create personalized discount links or codes for your banking customers to share with their own networks.

Remember: when you make customers happy, they will want to share their experience with people who matter to them. A customer referral program is a great way to leverage that, nurturing your relationships with happy customers and empowering them to refer your business to others.

Invest in customer-centric transformation

Customer experience — more so than digital strengths, rewards program, or coverage options — could be the key for banks that prioritize customer acquisition. By providing an effective, easy, meaningful, and effortless experience, your bank can attract more customers without inflating customer acquisition costs.

Your entire organization, from the C-suite to the frontline, must therefore focus on becoming more customer-centric. Reengineer your sales, service, and marketing strategies based on customer feedback. Refine your operations and processes to deliver experiences that wow, delight, and inspire loyalty. Train your sales teams so they can more effectively communicate the product functionality and value proposition of your offerings, while also being able to handle customer questions, issues, and concerns.

Bank Reputation Risk Management

Reputation is one of the most valuable assets that a bank can have. It’s also the most fragile one.

After all, reputation is the key to building public and consumer trust. A great reputation can set a bank apart from its competitors. Negative reputation, meanwhile, can drive away potential clients and increase customer churn.

• In a 2014 Ernst & Young survey, respondents said reputation was a “very important” factor in deciding whether or not to trust a financial services provider.
• In 2012, Edelman Insights found that financial services and banking was the industry consumers trusted the least — even less than they did the media sector.
• A 2017 global risk management survey found that damage to brand and reputation is ranked as the top risk management concern.
• While the fallout from the big banking scandals and corporate collapses of previous years has since slowly faded away, a recent FIS report indicates that 75 percent of consumers agree there is still a gap between their expectations and bank performance across a range of factors essential to creating trust. “The trust factor continues to be a concern for consumers,” the report reads, highlighting the need “to reset the foundation for consumer relationships.”

To state simply: reputation is a foundational component of a bank’s ability to inspire trust.

This leads us to the question: what is bank reputation risk management?

Let’s start by defining what reputation or reputational risk is. Bank reputational risk is the risk of loss of reputation. Unlike other risks that banks have to manage — credit, market, operational, liquidity, etc. — reputational risk is intangible and hard to measure.

Reputational risk can cause damage to a bank’s brand and reputation. Its impact is very real. According to a Finacle report, this type of risk is “felt in no uncertain terms as negative publicity, litigation, loss of revenue, clients, partners and key employees, decline in share price, and difficulty in recruiting talent.”

Reputational risk management in banking, therefore, can be defined as the forecasting and evaluation of reputation risks, together with the identification of procedures to avoid or minimize their impact.

This process or practice helps banks shape public perception of its products, services, and brand in ways that foster public and consumer trust.

Reputational Risk Management in Banking: Best Practices

Here are some ways you can help prevent and mitigate banking reputation risk.

Demonstrate business integrity

“The glue that holds all relationships together,” wrote best-selling business author Brian Tracy, “is trust, and trust is based on integrity.”

This holds especially true in reputational risk management in banking. Customers won’t feel comfortable doing business with you if they feel like you’re not looking out for their best interests. And if they’re not comfortable doing business with you, your reputation suffers.

Customers also won’t feel inclined to trust your bank if your business integrity — your ability to do the right thing — is in question. There’s a reason why, in the aftermath of so many scandals, banking became the least trusted industry in 2012.

Sure, it’s nice to have corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, green supply chains, charity campaigns, and similar initiatives that you’ll find in your PR firm’s strategic brief.

But focus on ethics, too. Ethical lapses are another major source of reputation risk. To avoid these lapses, set high standards for the way you do business and have clear business practices and policies.

Manage online reviews, social media, and customer feedback

Consumers today rely heavily on social media and online reviews — not only to choose where to have lunch or which hotel to check into, but also to make bigger decisions, like where to get healthcare, or who has the best auto service coverage, or which banks are trustworthy.

That’s why it’s so important that banks are able to manage and monitor social media, online reviews, and other digital channels where people are leaving feedback or talking about their brand.

Whether it’s in the form of a Yelp review, an aggregate star rating on Credit Karma or Lending Tree, or a candid comment on Facebook or Google, customer feedback is an important trust factor that can shape consumption behavior and impact reputational risk.

Foster a happy and productive workplace

Sometimes, a disgruntled workforce ends up being a major source of bank reputation risk. So keep your employees happy.

Make sure that all employees, from the C-suite to the frontline, are treated fairly. Be open to and properly manage employee feedback. Build a people-first culture. Reward great employees for their hard work. Refine your people practices and make your company values truly operational.

Not only does a happy workforce contribute to productivity; it also boosts your reputation as a good company.

Protect against data breaches

Bank customers trust you with their data. This includes some of the most sensitive personal information and financial data, like social security numbers, passwords, logins, PIN numbers, and bank account numbers.

Be proactive in safeguarding your customer and employee information. It’s an essential step to protecting your bank’s reputation and financial health.

A data breach will damage your reputation and would cost your bank a draining amount of money. If this happens, whether the breach is your fault or not, be upfront about it. Show accountability, have plans in place for restoring the safety of your clients’ information, and communicate to all stakeholders your plan of action for improving cyber protection policies and procedures.

Become more customer-focused

It’s not enough that you have a great mix of products and services. To mitigate reputational risk in banking, you must deliver consistently excellent customer experiences, too.

Grow your customer relationships beyond providing transactional convenience and focus instead on the customer experience. Build customer confidence with efficient service, flexible and customized products, and technologically advanced banking channels. Make next-level service and support an investment priority. And engage with customers in ways that help them achieve a better understanding of how your products and services can meet their goals and expectations.

The key to reputational risk management in banking is to conduct close and consistent monitoring. Find ways to measure and anticipate the impact of reputation risk and be proactive in managing high reputational risk situations.

What’s worse than losing billions in revenue is the amount that insurers have to pay to acquire new customers. According to Hubspot, the insurance industry is tied for the third-highest customer acquisition cost at $303.

Reducing customer churn requires insurance companies to think outside the box. Specifically, they can make two major changes to the way they present, offer, and market products and services.

• Offer more than insurance
• Cultivate an online reputation

Reduce Customer Retention by Offering More than Insurance

A 2018 report from Bain & Company revealed that customers look for value quality and ease of use from their insurer.

In other words, to truly stand out from the competition and retain customers, insurers must look to offer more value and a simpler customer experience. There are three main ways of doing so:

• Provide a personalized experience
• Create a product “ecosystem”
• Expand your digital efforts

Provide A Personalized Experience

Insurers can create products and services that are tailored to the needs and lifestyle of each customer.

A 2017 Accenture survey showed that 44 percent of health insurance customers believe it to be important that their providers not just offer insurance packages but health advice as well.

The survey findings also allowed Accenture to put the respondents into specific groups such as the “Nomads,” which are “digitally active insurance customers” and made up 40 percent of the overall group. In terms of auto insurance, Nomads stated their interest in receiving customized adjustments to their insurance package depending on their car usage.

Creating these personalized packages for each customer pays off in the long run. It shows customers that you view them not as just another entry in the database but as a major investor in their well-being. Personalization is also one of the early building blocks of trust and value between the provider and consumer.

Create A Product “Ecosystem”

Personalized insurance packages also means that insurers have the means to provide additional products that are in tandem with existing packages. The Bain report cited above also showed that a growing number of insurance customers around the world want their insurance plan to include additional items that help them with everyday life.

For example, auto insurers might include assistance service when the time comes to buy or sell a car. Life insurance plans can offer additional support for senior citizens and home insurers can provide a home security bundle along with their insurance plans.

A portion of this model already appears in U.S. markets, according to the report. Nearly 40 percent of customers who needed information on diagnostics or healthy living advice actually took advantage of the additional services available within their insurance plans.

Providing this “ecosystem” of services related to the insurance product not only helps keeps customers, but it further shows that an insurance provider cares about the customer to the point where the value of the product offered exceeds customer expectations.

Expand Digital Efforts (Where it Counts)

The customer’s reliance on digital platforms continues to increase, and it already has a major impact on the insurance industry.

The Bain report revealed that the amount of “digitally active” insurance customers increased with an average of more than 60 percent over the last four years. That’s not just in one country; that’s across multiple insurance markets around the world.

These digitally active policyholders are using mobile devices to engage with insurers. The same report showed that the use of mobile device for “research and/or interactions” increased by an average of over 70 percent in 2017 alone.

These numbers might prompt insurers to adopt a digital-only strategy, but that will negatively impact customer loyalty. The Bain report showed that customers actually gave lower loyalty scores to insurers who only engaged on a digital level. Instead, companies will need to create a digital strategy that compliments current offline channels of engagement.

To keep customers happy and loyal, the Bain report also suggests that insurers will need to have multiple, high-quality engagement with its customers throughout the year. Each contact with a customer must be substantial and informative to have any positive effect on the relationship between provider and customer.

Reduce Customer Retention by Cultivating an Online Reputation

Providing an ecosystem of personalized insurance plans and experiences that are transparent across multiple channels can be a boon for any insurer, but it won’t amount to anything without a robust online reputation.

To grow that reputation, insurance companies will need to actively monitor and respond to reviews because doing so can actually create loyal and retaining customers.

Our online reviews survey showed that 80 percent of consumers believe that a business cares more about them if management responds to their reviews. A simple response goes a long way in showing an insurer’s appreciation and value of each customer and their feedback.

Responding to reviews also allows insurers to tap into a highly-neglected portion of consumers. The same survey showed that over 63 percent of consumers never got a response to their online review. Taking the time to respond to both negative and positive customer feedback can increase both customer retention and acquisition.

The surveys also shows 61.2 percent of consumers see online reviews as influential when choosing a new insurance agent. Business responses to those existing reviews can further entice potential customers to visit the business to the tune of 45 percent.

The average star rating for the insurance market is the highest of any industry we surveyed, which includes restaurants, transportation, and healthcare. With excellent service, high-rated reviews, and a vigilant review monitoring and response strategy, any insurer can increase that average rating and retain more loyal customers.

Bank Customer Retention: Why It Matters

You’ve probably heard this more than a dozen times: retaining a customer is so much cheaper than acquiring a new one.

This holds true for banks and financial services providers, too. Here are some bank customer retention statistics to consider:

• According to Customer Think, the costs of acquiring a banking customer are estimated to be around $200 while the typical customer generates only $150 in revenue each year. That means the relationship does not become profitable for the bank until well into the second year.
• In banking, the annual churn rates on new customers hover in the 20 to 25 percent range during the first year, with half not making it past the first 90 days after opening their accounts.

A few more statistics reveal how customer experience — more so than digital strengths, rewards program, or coverage options — could be the key for banks that prioritize customer retention.

• 80 percent of consumers would switch financial institutions for a better experience.
• According to Kantar, banks that lead in the customer experience index have a recommendation rate that is 1.9 times higher than banks at the lower end of the index, their share of deposits is 1.9 times higher, and their customers are 2.1 times more willing to take up new products and services from their bank.
• Banks that let their customer experience decline risk losing up to 12.5 percent of their share of deposits.

As these numbers suggest, providing an effective, easy, meaningful, and effortless experience is one of the keys to reducing customer churn. Therefore, to improve customer retention in banking, organizations must focus on becoming more customer-centric — and delivering experiences that wow, delight, and inspire loyalty.

Customer Retention Strategies for Banks

Start a Customer Newsletter Campaign

Staying engaged and in regular communication with your banking customers beyond their branch visits can make a big impact on your customer retention efforts.

Start a customer newsletter campaign. By doing so, you can foster trust-based relationships that help encourage preference and inspire loyalty. It also allows you to show customers how much you appreciate their business, as well as build the kind of goodwill essential to getting recommendations and referrals.

What should be on your newsletter? The content doesn’t exactly have to be promotional. You can discuss industry trends, banking safety practices, or new digital offerings. You can also link to your social media profiles and occasionally send out customer satisfaction surveys. (More on this later.)

Outside of your newsletter, you can also send automated messages and notices, such as birthday greetings, appointment reminders, and event invites. This increases personalization and drives even more engagement.

Send Out Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Effective customer satisfaction surveys can make a positive impact on your bottom line. They’re great tool for collecting valuable information from your customers.

By requesting feedback through surveys, you can:

• Find out what customers really think and how they really feel about your bank and their banking experience
• Achieve a more accurate and complete understanding of the customer experience
• Identify, manage, and resolve any high-impact issues and weaknesses
• Evaluate loyalty and satisfaction
• Identify brand advocates and promoters who are likely to recommend you to others
• Gain valuable insights essential to improving your product or service

Get Involved in Financial Wellness Programs

A lot of companies today have their own financial wellness and counseling programs in order to promote the financial well-being of their employees.

For this, they will need experts, which is where your bank comes in. Getting involved in company financial wellness programs or counseling services is an excellent customer retention strategy for banks.

Whether you’re simply offering financial advice or partnering with company executives to set up workshops, lunch-and-learn sessions, or seminars, financial wellness is a great platform for retaining current clients and acquiring new ones.

As you get involved, don’t forget to hand out your brochures, contact information, application details, and other promotional materials.

Manage and Respond to Online Reviews

Online reviews can make or break your bank. In the age of Yelp and Google reviews, what customers say online can impact search engine performance, shape your bank’s brand reputation, and affect your ability to keep and retain customers.

This makes it critical for your bank to manage and respond to online reviews. As part of your bank customer retention strategy, tune into banking review sites and engage with customers who leave feedback.

This demonstrates to existing customers (outside of the actual reviewer) that you care and are listening to what they have to say. (Read this helpful guide for examples of how to respond to reviews.)

Apart from responding to reviews, banks can also harness positive reviews and 5-star ratings they may already have. Share your best reviews on social media. Add them to your website. (Review widgets should be a useful tool.) And celebrate and call out your bank customers who consider themselves as your biggest fans.

This helps you build powerful social proof that will inspire shopper confidence and foster customer loyalty to your business.

Focus on Delivering Superior Customer Experiences

It’s important to grow your customer relationships beyond providing transactional convenience and really focus on the customer experience. Make next-level service and support your bank’s investment priority. Reengineer your sales, service, and marketing strategies based on customer feedback. And tailor your communications in ways that offer customers a better understanding of how your products and services can meet their goals and expectations.

The financial services and insurance industries will always have a unique set of challenges and opportunities — not least in the area of customer retention. Using these tactics above, you can provide your customers with an effective, easy, meaningful, and effortless experience. This, in turn, will make your bank more profitable in the long term.

Insurance reviews have a massive impact on the industry. Our online reviews survey revealed that insurance companies have an average of 4.53 stars, meaning that the competitive landscape in the insurance world is fierce. This average rating beats out other major industries including services, restaurants, and healthcare.

This makes it vital for every insurance agent to not just have online listings but reviews and ratings as well. In fact, 68 percent of consumers are unlikely to make any decision on an agent if they have no reviews at all.

How Customers Use (and Affect) Insurance Reviews

In the insurance industry, 61.2 percent of consumers view reviews as influential when it comes to choosing a new agent.

Customers see online reviews as social proof. They want to know that other people tried out a specific insurance company or agent and had a positive experience with them. Without those reviews, people become wary and their likelihood of a purchase decision will decrease due to a lack of reviews.

The good news is that people are now writing more positive reviews after their experience with an insurance agent. So where do consumers leave their reviews?

The Best Sites for Insurance Reviews

The following sites all feature ratings on insurance companies and agents alike. Insurers should have a presence on these sites if they want to increase their exposure and grow their online reputation.

Google

Insurance companies and individual agents alike can claim their own Google My Business listing and show up on the world’s most popular search engine.

To better inform customers, they should also include as much information about your listing as possible. This includes updated and accurate contact information and address. Images can also help people visually identify the office or put a face to the agent’s name.

You can easily claim your Google My Business listing by following our quick and easy claim guide.

Yelp

In addition to the usual trimmings on any Yelp business listing, insurance agents can also utilize Yelp’s “Request a Quote” button.

Clicking on this button allows users to ask you their plethora of insurance questions. They will also need to provide their first name and email address with the latter being the primary form of communication between you and the potential client.

Claim your Yelp listing today with our handy guide.

Facebook

Local insurance agents can also have their Facebook business listing. Existing customers can leave reviews on your page and “rate” the business with the Recommendation system.

There’s also an opportunity to attract more customers through posts. By making high-quality and compelling content, you can encourage customers to share your posts and grow the business’ exposure.

Use our detailed guide to quickly set up and claim your own Facebook Business Page.

Better Business Bureau (BBB)

Customer reviews combined with the site’s letter-based grading system make the Better Business Bureau an essential review site for the insurance industry. In addition to the usual batch of location and contact information, a BBB listing also includes a brief overview of the agency, the products and services it offers, and any major complaints from consumers.

Similar to Yelp listings, users can also click on the “Request a Quote” button on most listings to get in touch with an agent.

Consumer Affairs

Consumer Affairs features over one million reviews across 3,000 brands, and many people go to the site to leave feedback on their insurance.

In addition to a brief description of the provider, a listing’s main page features a “bottom line” summary in addition to a “Pros” and “Cons” section that gives users a quick overview of the overall customer sentiment. For better context, reviewers can also include images with their text feedback and rating.

Clearsurance

Clearsurance differs from the rest of the sites on the list because it is an insurance-only review site. It features homeowners, renter’s, and automotive insurance.

Similar to Consumer Affairs, each listing page on Clearsurance includes an overview and overall customer sentiment description of the provider. However, the Clearsurance goes even further and lists specific discounts and savings associated with each insurance company, which can further drive consumers to a purchase decision.

Pissed Consumer

As the site name suggests, this review site is full to the brim with negative customer complaints (along with a small dollop of positive reviews). In addition to an overall star rating, each listing page also includes a breakdown of that rating, which is based on customer service, product or service quality, and staff.

Users can see the total number of reviews for the company, and more importantly, the number of issues that the company resolved from user feedback.

Sitejabber

The business reviews site attracts 2.5 million monthly unique visitors and features reviews of over 100,000 reviews. In addition to basic contact and location information, each listing includes links to the business’ social media accounts. When reviewers leave feedback on the site, they can also rate a business based on specific factors such as service, value, and quality.

Supermoney

Instead of a star rating system, Supermoney lets customers choose one of three options to judge their providers: Recommend, Unsure, and Don’t Recommend. Users can also expand on their choice with text feedback.

Supermoney also makes sure that customers are well-informed about each insurance provider. Each listing includes a detailed overview of the provider with information such as insurance types, its financial strength rating, and general availability.

Superpages

On top of customer reviews, Superpages listings include location and contact information at the top of the page for the customer’s convenience. Listing managers can also add photos and videos that can give consumers a better idea of the office, staff, and service provided.

Wallethub

On top of offering credit scores and a daily monitoring report, WalletHub also provides information on different types of insurance providers. Users can also filter their searches by a specific agent or broker, agency, or company.

Each listing includes basic contact and location information as well as a list of states where the provider is licensed to operate. Listings also have an “Answers” tab, which allows users to ask the provider questions directly through Wallethub.

Customer reviews on Credit Karma have the potential to either attract or drive away customers from a specific financial product or service. Suffice it to say, they also play a major role for consumers looking to decide whether or not to trust a provider with their finances.

A 2019 report from Edelman found that financial services have the lowest percentage of trust across multiple industries at 57 percent, which is why consumers need social proof to be the deciding factor for their purchase decisions. This is where review sites like Credit Karma come in to play.

Its reviews section features customer feedback across multiple categories ranging from credit cards and personal loan products to credit unions, home equity, and auto insurance. These types of feedback are heavily favored by 42 percent of consumers, who prefer to use third-party reviews to find out if a financial institution is trustworthy.

However, they also have benefits for any banks, credit card companies, or other financial services that have products on Credit Karma. Reading the opinions of customers with your products provides valuable insights that can improve the customer experience and increase revenue.

How to Sign Up for Credit Karma

Anyone can sign up for Credit Karma provided that they meet the following requirements:

• They are 18 years of age or older.
• They have a valid U.S. Social Security number
• The information provided during the signup process and in the future is “true, accurate, current, and complete.”
• They will only use the account for themselves.

Those who are eligible can begin the signup process by clicking the “Sign up for free” link on the top-right corner of the Credit Karma home page. From there:

1. Create the account. The user will need to enter a valid email address and password before moving on to the next step.
   
2. Provide additional information. In order to retrieve their credit score and “provide personalized information,” Credit Karma will ask the user for more personal information. They also have to mark a checkbox that authorizes Credit Karma to retrieve your credit scores. The information provided in this step includes:
   1. First and last name
   2. Address (including city, state, and ZIP code)
   3. Date of birth
   4. The last four digits of their Social Security Number
      
3. Verify user identity. By default Credit Karma will ask a few questions that will confirm the user’s identity. If they can’t complete this process, they can choose to upload a copy of their driver’s license or state ID.

A Closer Look at Credit Karma Reviews

Those that have a financial product or service listed on Credit Karma can respond to the reviews posted on its listing page. However, a business account for any financial service isn’t available on Credit Karma’s website.

What you can do instead is sign up as a regular “member” and choose your business or product name as your user name.

To respond to Credit Karma reviews on the product page:

1. Find the review. Customer reviews are located beneath the product details. You can choose to filter them by recency, popularity, or rating. You can also choose to see all reviews or a small sample of “Suggested Reviews.”
   
2. Write your response. When you find the review in question, click on the speech bubble icon beneath the review. You should see a large text box where you can write a reply. Click the submit button when you’re done.
   

Why Are Credit Karma Reviews Important?

In the face of negative reviews and social media criticism, your financial services organization may feel like rejecting online reviews altogether. However, reviews and other forms of user-generated content and customer feedback can actually be harnessed as a tool for building consumer trust.

“Most leading companies are tracking brand sentiment and social media conversation,” says Troy Janisch, Director of Social Intelligence for U.S. Bank.

“What they are overlooking are review sites such as Yelp, mobile app stores, and social media review pages. People write reviews most often because they have a really bad or a really good experience. Companies often approach review sites solely as a customer service channel, but that’s only half of the opportunity.”

In today’s competitive financial services landscape, the most successful brands have learned to use online reviews and customer feedback in order to drive search engine performance, gain visibility in the eyes of ready-to-buy consumers, and boost consumer engagement levels.

Customer experience is growing steadily as a top priority in the banking industry. Computer Services surveyed more than 160 bank executives in 2017 and 55 percent of that group said they planned to put more money into “customer experience initiatives.”

A major factor in this shift to customer experience is because of the potential for more revenue. Research by Forrester revealed that banks that suffered even a one-point decline based on Forrester’s CX (customer experience) Index score would lose out on $124 million in revenue.

That’s a hefty sum left on the table, but banks can still turn their fortunes around by focusing on two specific areas to improve their customer experience strategy.

• Have a multichannel approach
• Make customers feel valued

Improve the Customer Banking Experience with A Multichannel Approach

Research from FIS shows that mobile devices are now the primary way for customers to interact with their bank, and standard online browsing comes in at a close second in terms of customer engagement.

The data all points to the fact that digital platforms are a must-have for any bank. Banking websites have to work on desktop and mobile devices with a standalone app to follow in its wake. Doing so allows customers to easily interact with their finances at their convenience.

However, national and local banks alike shouldn’t throw all of their resources on a single digital approach. Doing so means that you won’t offer the same quality of experience at a local branch or ATM, and it’s important that you evenly spread out customer experience efforts across multiple channels of engagement.

The Forrester report noted that 70 percent of consumers think that banks already perform well in terms of customer service. The right distribution and execution of your customer experience plans across the digital and physical representations of the bank means that you keep that majority of customers satisfied when they visit a local branch or the app. The “multichannel approach” also means that you have more chances to acquire and retain more customers.

However, there’s more to improving customer experience than just creating a strategy for different mediums. You also need to…

Improve the Customer Banking Experience by Making Customers Feel Valued

Think of the last time that a customer wanted to feel like just another entry in the database (it’s never happened). In fact, they want the opposite. Consumers want their bank to see them as a valued customer, and that starts with going above and beyond the expectations of what a bank should provide.

One example is Monzo, which is based in the U.K. and operates as a digital, mobile-only bank. Chris Skinner, chairman of The Financial Services Club, loves Monzo because it provides a modern banking experience.

Monzo customers can use the app for more than just monitoring their finances. They can set budgets and make well-informed changes based on the app’s reports on their spending habits. Skinner even pointed out that Monzo can even offer loans or other services as a way to save money in the long run on things like your daily commute.

However, Monzo engages even more with customers through content, specifically its blog page. Skinner pointed out that they even published an article that talks about the links between mental health and financial debt. When was the last time any other bank cared about its customers’ physical health?

Another way to make a customer feel valued is by responding to their reviews. Our 2018 online reviews survey showed that 19 percent of people are more inclined to leave a review of their bank after a positive experience. That’s a major difference when you consider that only 13 percent of people were willing to do the same thing in 2017.

Responding to reviews also puts a bank in a small group of businesses that actually go out of their way to respond to feedback, which doesn’t occur for 66.3 percent of consumers.

With the help of review management software, U.S. Bank was able to easily monitor and respond to any one of the 24,000 pieces of customer reviews that was spread out over 23 review sites. Doing so also allowed the bank to find different ways to improve the customer experience across 3,000 locations.

Why were reviews a priority for U.S. Bank? Troy Janisch, VP of social intelligence at U.S. Bank explains that review monitoring “provides us with a more accurate view of our locations through the eyes of customers than we’ve ever had.” Reviews provide the clearest understanding of customer experience.

Placing this type of value on the customer bodes well for customer retention. The Forrester research showed that this approach means that 77 percent of customers will stay with a multichannel bank.

The Path to a Better Customer Experience in Banking

The planning and execution of an improved customer experience strategy will take some time, but the benefits are worth every penny.

A 2018 Kantar study used its own “CX+ Index” score – which combined the customer experience score with the “Experience Gap,” a number that shows the difference between a brand’s promise and the actual result of the customer experience – to grade the performance of multiple banks.

It found that banks with a higher CX+ Index score not only had a recommendation rate 1.9 times higher than its competitors, but current customers were also 2.1 times more likely to try more the bank’s other services or offerings.

Better customer experience is a win-win for everyone. Banks get more customers and revenue while its consumers enjoy a financial institution that values their patronage and feedback.

The Importance of Customer Journey in Banking

There is so much disruption going on in the world of banking and financial services.

After a decade of having to deal with serious trust issues and thin margins, banks today continue to face a mix of challenges. Regulation. Reputation issues. Fickle consumer loyalty and ever-changing preferences. Not to mention, the entry and growth of non-traditional competitors like Alipay, WeChat, and Amazon Cash, among many others.

This makes it critical for banks to get into the customer journey mindset. Knowing the customer’s process from beginning to end is hugely important. By understanding customers better and improving their banking experience, companies can achieve differentiation in an increasingly competitive environment.

What Does Customer Journey in Banking Mean?  

To understand what “customer journey” means, let’s use a definition by SurveyMonkey: “Think of the customer journey as a roadmap detailing how a customer becomes aware of your brand, their interactions with your brand–and beyond.

“The customer journey is the complete sum of experiences that customers go through when interacting with your company and brand. Instead of looking at just a part of a transaction or experience, the customer journey documents the full experience of being a customer.”

In banking, the customer journey can start long before a person decides to visit your bank location. Perhaps they began to become aware of your company or brand when they saw a post on Facebook or Twitter, or when they heard about you from a friend.

Similarly, the customer journey in banking may go on long after customers have signed up for a new account or purchased a product. Their post-transaction experiences may include using your mobile banking app, or speaking with a call center representative to resolve a specific issue.

In banking and financial services, understanding the customer journey is essential to delivering excellent experiences.

It’s not enough that you have a great mix of products and services. Sure, banking customers and policyholders might be impressed with your digital strengths, rewards program, or coverage options. But it’s only when your organization commits to understanding the customer journey that you’ll be able to develop meaningful customer relationships that improve your bottom line.

Keys to Success: Customer Journey in Banking

Map the customer journey

Before influencing consumer behavior, banks and financial services providers must first understand it: from initial contact, through the process of engagement, to post-transactional interactions and long-term relationships.

It’s important to map the customer journey for every product, channel, a combination of channels, and for every product through every channel. Doing so will give your company a better understanding of how consumers interact and engage with your brand.

Build buyer personas. Categorize your channels and touchpoints. Improve the experiences along each step of the journey. And measure the results. By doing so, you can uncover new opportunities to engage customers across their entire journey.

Empower the voice of the customer

Demonstrate your understanding of your customers’ journey by letting them have a say. (After all, the worst way to learn about the customer is to guess.)

Encourage online reviews, conduct customer feedback surveys, and urge your customers to share and be more vocal about their banking experiences. Invest in tools and technologies that capture customer feedback.

Not only does this help you achieve greater visibility among customers; it also harnesses the tremendous potential of having happy customers whose trust you have already earned. From static sources of revenue, they can become brand advocates who won’t hesitate to make recommendations and drive referrals for your business.

Redesign the journey based on customer needs

Grow your customer relationships beyond providing transactional convenience and focus instead on the customer’s actual experience.

Make next-level service and support an investment priority. Reengineer your sales and marketing strategies based on customer feedback. And tailor your communications in ways that offer customers a better understanding of how your products and services can meet their goals and expectations.

Nurture your digital channels

In an on-demand economy where social and mobile innovations have significantly expanded the range of crucial touchpoints, winners and losers will be determined by their ability to diversify and personalize methods of engagement across the entire banking customer journey.

Empower your customers by giving them the tools they need to take control of their own banking. If you haven’t been doing it already, digitizing the customer lifecycle allows your customers to research, buy, and manage loans, bank accounts, savings, and investments through digital touchpoints.

This can also help you cut costs and offer increased convenience. As you develop these digital sales and services, however, always keep customer behavior and preferences in mind in order to optimize adoption rates.