On Tuesday I contributed to my 5th EFMA event (3 in Paris, 1 in Barcelona, 1 in Athens), "Online Financial Services Study Day".
Once again, my friend Philippe Van Fraechem, Programme Director at EFMA, put together a great event with some excellent speakers from the following financial institutions: BNP Paribas, BRED Banque Populaire, ING Direct, Gras Savoye, Societe Generale, as well as Google, and a few research firms: Aite Group and Exton Consulting.
Even though like any other event organizers (which is just one of several activities for the EFMA) the audience wasn't as big as it would have been three years ago, the event attracted about thirty delegates from 6 countries and the following financial institutions: Axa, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (BCV), Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP), BNP Paribas, BPCE, BRED Banque Populaire, Caisse des Depots et Consignations (CDC), Casden - Banque Populaire, CBC Banque & Assurance, Credit Agricole Belgique, Credit Agricole S.A., Dexia Banque, GIE GSGC, Gras Savoye, HSBC, ING Belgium, ING Luxermbourg, ING Direct, La Banque Postale, LCL, Societe Generale.
I was honored to join such a great speaker line up.
Philippe had me deliver the final presentation at the end of a long day packed with insights and conversations. Thanks again Philippe! ;) Jokes appart, thanks a lot for your fantastic introduction.
I decided to start my session with a summary of the day, with a focus on the key topics I'm passionate about such as customer satisfaction and engagement, confidence, trust, and of course social media.
Please find below some key thoughts and comments I've highlighted during every single presentation.
* Sophie Heller, VP Marketing & Communications at ING Direct France: focus on customer "hyper satisfaction", identify and engage with brand ambassadors, redirect web users to the Web Cafe ING Direct facebook page to extend the conversation and drive participation.
It was great to catch up with Sophie (we met for the first time at a Google event I contributed to in Paris a couple of years ago).
* Olivier Chedeville, Director - Multichannel Distribution Strategy at Societe Generale: more or less, 75% of all contacts come from online and mobile. But the relationship with their advisor is what matter most to banking clients. From online to the branch: whenever needed, it is important to provide a great "magical moment".
Very good presentation from Olivier, "le gars de l'alternatif". ;)
* Jerome de Labriffe, Head of Strategy & Digital Banking at BNP Paribas: it is important to distinguish download vs usage (mobile apps), you need to understand to be able to innovate, the industry in France still doesn't understand social media, we must gain people's trust.
I loved Jerome's approach which is (very) direct and transparent. Basically no BS.
* Charles-Pierre Serain, Societe Generale: a study shows that the industry needs to simplify and put the emphasis on the advisors. Behaviours are changing, the challenge is to better understand our clients and in particular their needs and their expectations.
I asked Charles-Pierre a couple of questions about the advisors: how could a bank leverage their expertise in social media and give them more exposure for instance on facebook? In the future, will we be able to rate our advisor and check the ratings online?
* Philippe Gardes, Director at Exton Consulting: it is critical for banks to find better ways to accelerate adoption of online banking.
* Stephane Corre, Head of Organization and Direct Banking at BRED Banque Populaire: "CRM, the toolbox of PUSH", expectations haven't changed much but the industry made it more complicated, the client relationship with their advisor is critical and should be estemeed and trusted. Banks must develop a corporate culture based on client satisfaction.
* Olivier Madelenat, Industry Leader - Financial Services at Google France: 38% of web users search for financial products (by the way, on Tuesday Google announced the acquisition of the UK price comparison site BeatThatQuote.com), in 2015 video content will take over text, more than a third of financial services searches are about credit.
I was delighted that Olivier used in his presentation some insights from the Visible Banking Twitter Watch series (1,350+ accounts tracked in 70 countries) and the Visible Banking Facebook Watch series (700+ pages and applications tracked in 69 countries). It is always good to see one's work endorsed by Google, isn't it?
* Pascal Piedfort, Marketing & Communication Advisor for Gras Savoye Turkey: Turkey is one of the most active countries in social media (4th facebook country with 22million active users) and the biggest user of Skype worldwide. Social media is all about "Live & Learn", it is important to start experimenting asap, twitter offers a great opportunity to provide a second-to-none customer support.
* Jennifer Goetz, Business Development & Marketing at Aite Group: most financial institution surveyed declared themselves as beginner or average at best in social media, within 5 years most financial institutions will have a dedicated social media budget, credit unions are very active online. More concerning for me, it seems like financial institutions plan to use social media more and more to drive sales...
Jennifer did an awesome job delivering her presentation in French. And knowing that the presentation was originally put together by the excellent Ron Shevlin, this is a double kuddos to Jen! ;)
My presentation - "Innvoation, Customer Experience, and Social Media"
I created a brand new presentation for this event and I won't publish it on my slideshare account.
Nevertheless, please find below the links to some of the articles I mentioned in my presentation.
* A Few Trends
-> Innovation: Recent Articles from the Visible Banking blog
-> Transparency: Thoughts on Transparency & Social Media (15 Initiatives from 10 Countries)
-> Organisation: 5 Ways Banks Use to Build their Social Media Team, List of Banking, FS, Insurance Executives on twitter
-> Moderation: List of Social Media User Policies & Moderation Guidelines in Banking, FS, Insurance
-> Support Client: Financial Institutions Must Support Their Customers on Twitter
-> eReputation: 10-Step Strategy to Sail Through a Crisis Thanks to Social Media
* Towards More Engaging Initiatives
-> NAB's "The Break Up": a Traditional Marketing Campaign with an Efficient Social Media PUSH
-> Can 'Lloyds TSB Me' Emulate Nintendo's Success?
-> The Wepad Project: Italy's Webank Invites 6 Experts (and You) to Help Them Create in 6 Weeks the Best iPad Application for Banking
-> Idebank: Danske Bank Leverages Facebook to Improve its Mobile Banking Application
* Recommendations
-> 20 Ways Financial Insitutions Should Use to Promote Their Social Media Presence
A Fantastic Networking Opportunity
The event was a success. I spoke with most of the speakers and delegates and they were all very enthusiastic. So you might wonder how they did it again? Please find below what makes the EFMA events so special:
1. European Financial Marketing Association: EFMA is a non-profit association that includes 80% of Europe's largest retail financial institutions. The association is owned and governed by its members institutions, which includes not only multi-national institutions but also regional institutions, local savings banks, and other industry associations.
2. Speakers: very few consultancies or vendors are invited to contribute. The vast majority of speakers come from the leading, and/or the most innovative, financial institutions worldwide. And those speakers are always happy to share and even be (sometime) controversial.
3. Audience: 90% of the delegates work in the industry and are equally eager to share their concerns and their views.
The EFMA team is always experimenting new ways to improve the format and make their events as valuable as possible. During this event, we had 25mn to present and the audience ask their questions during dedicated discussion panels with two or three speakers at a time. It worked well.
There is still a long way to go should they wanted to reach the level of energy and diversity found with the immensely popular finovate format where slides are not allowed! ;)
Pictures
I invite you to check the pictures I shot at the event which are all available on the Visible Banking page on facebook. Please feel free to comment / tag them and add yours!
I am keen to help you and your financial institution to better understand and leverage social media.
Don't hesitate to call me (0044 7736 446 357), send me an email ([email protected]), or DM me (@Visible_Banking) to talk about about twitter, facebook, customer reviews & social commerce in banking, financial services, and insurance..
Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Social Media News
* Twitter Activities covered on Visible Banking
* Facebook Activities covered on Visible Banking
* 2010's Top 10 Most Liked Financial Institutions on Facebook
* 2010's Top 10 Most Followed Financial Institutions on Twitter
* Visible Banking Directory: Social Media in Financial Services
* Visible Banking Social Media Watch Series (Twitter, Facebook, Blogs)
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