By Pankaj Kumar
Credibility is a real issue for the financial institutions in current volatile economy. The financial institutions are in constant pressure to maintain and improve reliance and customer satisfaction. In this social media era, so much of transparent content are being generated each day and technologies are evolving rapidly, the financial institution find it even more challenging to deliver steady and integrated customer experience.
Many industries have found various creative way to leverage social media to promote their product, resolve consumer’s issues and keep all members acquainted with important information. So, why the financial institution are not able to leverage the social media to its full extent?
First of all, just social media compliance is not enough. Are the people sharing the opinion about financial product and services are honest? The opinion shared are mainly driven by personal experience and it’s extremely public. The study shows, people are 50% more likely to share bad experiences on social media than good ones.
Even though it is possible to write off few disgruntled customer, it is important to address the issue before it goes viral. When it is done correctly, monitoring of social media could help to identify upcoming risk and subside effect when it occurs. The bad experience shared on social media should be acknowledged on the same platform, as it could damage credibility and institution’s image. Furthermore, the institutes could engage consumers in a way that is helpful, relevant and personal.
The fundamental goal of the institution should be to interact and convert them to active participators from listeners.
The major challenges of the financial institutions are security and privacy. They have to meet the expectation and need of the customer, especially Gen Y who like to do everything in public light. However, they have to meet the requirement of the regulatory authority. Due to this most of the institutions have created Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest account but do not allow to make payment, transfer money or check their balance.
The institutes uses these medium to just educated, provide help and respond to queries raised in the real time. The companies should use the right mix based on the consumer presences and content of the information as social media need customization for individuals.
Even though financial services firms are late adopter, they have realized the value of the social media engagement. Many of the investors have change the service provider or reallocated the investments based on the social media feedback. The social medial could play a vital role in the business growth, whether through extension of PR, HR, sales and marketing or customer services team. The financial institutes could use social to optimize client experience across channels, department and locations.
