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Financial Brand

Top 10 Best Banking Blogs

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(Via The Financial Brand) Congratulations to all of the winners in The Financial Brand’s Best Banking Blog poll. I am honored to count several of the winners amongst my friends. It is a group of smart, kind and funny people– what more could you want?

1. JD Power & Associates Banking Blog – @JDPowerBanking

2. Snarketing 2.0 – Ron Shevlin —  @rshevlin

3. ACTON’s Financial Marketing Insights – @ACTON_Marketing

4. Bank Marketing Strategies – Jim Marous  @JimMarous

5. Banking.com –  @bankingdotcom

6. CU Insight – Randy Smith @CUinsight

7. Bank Innovation – @BankInnovation

8. Netbanker –  @netbanker

9. GonzoBanker –  @GonzoBanker

10. Financial Services Club Blog – @FSClub

Congratulations as well to the Write-Ins & Other Honorable Mentions, along with the nominees, where I again am fortunate to recognize another great group of smart, kind and funny people I call friends. I am also humbled and grateful to even be mentioned in their company.

Again, from The Financial Brand, Write-Ins & Other Honorable Mentions:

Read the entire article, including links to representative posts from the winners at The Financial Brand: Top 10 Best Banking Blogs – Readers Choice 2012 Winners | The Financial Brand: Marketing Insights for Banks & Credit Unions.

Other nominees:

I encourage you to bookmark these sites if you are interested in the future of financial services.

Related articles:

How to Rebuild Trust in Financial Institutions

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I always enjoy reading Ron Shevlin‘s work. He is a senior analyst with Aite Group, where they say he is

“…a recognized thought leader for his pioneering research on right-channeling consumer interactions, the impact of customer advocacy on future purchase intention, and developing sense-and-respond marketing capabilities to improve sales and marketing efforts.”

I’ll buy that.

I also read his provocative and funny insights on his blog Snarketing 2.0 , so I was pleased that he linked to my March 27 post Why Should Your Clients Trust You? in his April 3 post on The Financial Brand, titled 9 Critical Ways Financial Institutions Should Rebuild Trust With Consumers.

In his post, Shevlin says that he has concluded “…that “trust” is too complex a construct to boil down to a simple formula. Trust is multi-dimensional, comprised and influenced by many attributes.”  I agree– I cited David Maister’s formula for trust in my post not because it’s the complete mathematical computation, but because it’s great shorthand for thinking about the way your (and your firm’s) behaviors impact how your clients perceive and trust you.

Shevlin cites Aite Group’s research that found nine critical areas that financial firms must address. It’s only fair that you read his entire post in context to get the whole list, so I will only quote the top three here:

  1. Have friendly and helpful service reps
  2. Listen to problems and concerns
  3. Empower employees to fix issues

None of the items on the list are any more complicated than that. So why is it so difficult for financial institutions to drive trust and brand loyalty?

The simplest concepts are sometimes the most challenging to implement. And the larger your firm, the harder it is to do it consistently.

I still go back to the whole “divided by self-interest” part of Maister’s formula.

If you can only implement one great idea– make it creating and nurturing a culture that really understands client needs and delivers what they want and need, in their best interest.

It’s usually easy to figure out “what’s in it for the firm” in any given interaction. Focus on “what’s in it for the client”.

Why should your clients trust you again?