Communications, payments and competition dot strategic planning agenda

For many organizations, autumn is strategic planning time. Here are a few items you might want to add to your discussion agenda: Communications around core processing; assessing payment system options, and competition for the small business customer..Communication is key part of conversion effortThe Richfield, Minn., community page on Facebook blew up in August with comments from dozens of people who were complaining about problems at a local credit union following its core conversion. One commenter worried that their direct deposit paycheck was not showing up in their account when he expected. Another said they were “having issues with items cleared and pending so even though there are funds in my account, my transactions are being declined.” Another person wondered why the credit union seemed to be without phone service for two days. One person who wanted to change their password said the computer kept transposing her birth month with her birthdate and was therefore locked out of the app for the credit union. More than one person posted a link to the consumer complaint page hosted by the Minnesota Department of Commerce.From a public relations standpoint, the text thread seemed to present a public relations disaster. The financial institution’s website contained a customer newsletter that provided a schedule of meetings it was conducting at its various branches about the system migration. That seems like a good start, but once the damaging Facebook posts start to appear, what should an institution do?To get some insight I contacted Scott Mills, a public relations professional with extensive experience in both the financial services world and the fintech space. Mills, president of William Mills Agency in Atlanta, declined to specifically address the example I cited, but he shared thoughts about how best to communicate with customers during a core conversion.“In the best situation, the tech companies involved and the bank would begin making a communications plan a year in advance of the conversion,” he said. “Many bankers might go through only one core conversion during their entire careers, so it’s not like they are going to have a lot of experience with this kind of thing. You cannot begin planning soon enough if you know a conversion is on the horizon.”Mills encouraged prompt responses to social media posts. Messages of apology for any inconvenience are appropriate, along with reassurances about an improved customer experience coming soon, he said. If an increase in the number of phone calls is anticipated, a financial institution might consider hiring a call center to help out. Ideally, calls can be tracked so that issues get handled in appropriate order should they stack up. For example, someone calling on a commercial account that is having trouble paying vendors with the bank’s bill pay service might queue ahead of a customer calling to reorder checks. In the best case scenario, a bank will have in place an effective means of communicating with each customer. Given the publicity around fraud where bad actors spoof phone calls and emails posing as bankers, however, many people don’t respond well to bank communications through those channels. Texting can be a channel that customers read, even if they are suspicious of the sender. In some cases, sending out letters is going to be the best option, Mills conceded. One person who participated in the Facebook texts identified himself as someone who “used to manage IT transitions and upgrades.” He commented: “It’s a nightmare and you’re relying on 25-year-olds who the IT firm hired that think they know everything. I don’t care how much testing gets done before the “go-live” event, there is roughly a 50 percent probability for a meltdown. It’s sad but true and probably not the credit union’s fault. They may have their own IT department but probably relied on an outside firm to do the upgrade. It’s why banks try to avoid upgrades because they know how harmful the impact can be. It’s just a fact of life that these things will happen.”Nobody likes to go through a conversion, but if there is one in your bank’s future, you will want to devote resources in terms of time and treasure into your communications planning so that customers never feel abandoned or helpless, regardless of how smoothly (or roughly) the technology converts.