Slip Sliding Away: Customer Cynicism and Banker Detachment Is a Perilous Combination, Says Marketing Consultant Charlene Stern. but There Is Still a Chance for Banks to Connect with Retail Customers, Who Are Looking for Help

Men's clothing and retail financial services would not seem to have much in common. Au contraire. People are people. Men want to feel good about how they look, bank customers want to to feel good about their money, and about their lives generally. Charlene Stern knows this from first-hand experience in both fields. The veteran marketer helped Levi Strauss & Co. launch its successful Dockers line of mens clothing. She also worked for Wells Fargo Bank helping the big bank build brand identity and redesign its branches. In 1992 she formed her own company, Stern Marketing Group, which in 2000 became part of NewGround. Stern is senior vice-president and chief experience officer for the Chicago-based branch building and branding company. In short, Charlene Stern lives and breathes marketing--which at its heart is all about understanding customers. Anyone who has met her knows she is candid, passionate in her advocacy of a centric approach, and a strong believer in the inherent value of the banking industry. In the following dialogue, she holds forth at length on the critical opportunity she feels banks could be in danger of missing. Q Do you sense that financial services customers have changed--become more demanding or more discerning? A Over the last 8-10 months, the customer has grown to a level of cynicism and detachment from their bank that we have never seen before. Customers don't want to be promoted to; don't want to hear any more opportunities. They've discounted the importance of their bank--shrunk it to the size of a debit card. They don't believe banks have the intellectual capital to help them with what's keeping them up night after night. What's keeping them up is concern about their money and their financial future. Consumers are frozen in the headlights asking, 'How long is this downturn going to last?' 'Will I ever be able to retire?' 'Will my kids ever be able to afford a house?' While at the same time, bank executives debate the merits of the latest CRM software. Q So there's a disconnect ... A Huge. Banks' revenue is soaring, but it is driven not by shareholders, not by the board, but by customers who have a pulse--who live, breathe, worry, have insomnia and fear that they are not ready and secure for their future. These are the people, who got burned late in the '90s. They know their broker isn't part of the discussion about their future; they know the broker is all about churn. This level of anxiety is as high as I have ever seen it. But I'm not seeing the customer trusting their bank for more than the debit card and the checking account. The banks are detached from consumers' anxiety. They're not addressing it, they're not asking, 'What do we own that Charles Schwab shouldn't be taking from us, or Merrill Lynch?' Q What about the inflows of deposits to banks? A It's called park it. Banks are doing okay because more people are parking their money at banks in money market accounts and some in CDs while they're waiting for the market to rebound, even though they can't live off that interest rate any longer. Q What would you suggest to banks that they should do? A More than anything, before they decide what to do, they better go out and get close to the people with the pulse and hear, not so much how hard it is in this economy, but how little banks mean in the lives of even their customers. What's the value to them of this bank? What's the meaning? Would the customer turn to the bank for advice about what's keeping them up at night? The most important thing a bank can do is to humble itself and go and listen to the people who are putting the bread on the table. Because they'll tell you what they want. Yes, you'll hear 'lower your fees,' but I've been listening to customers for close to a decade and a half, and I'm amazed at how willing they are to tell you what they need. …