Make Every Staff Member a Marketing Ambassador
2011-06-16
No matter what the business or how diversified its products and services, all employees need to act collectively toward the common goal of meeting customer needs and ultimately boosting profitability. With increasing pressure to improve ROI and keep clients happy so they remain loyal, marketing and all other functions within an institution need to work more closely than ever before. Today, this especially applies to banking as the industry still recovers from the mortgage debacle and other missteps.

Since many consumers don’t stop to check which banks caused the problems, they consider them all guilty by association. So it’s crucial for a bank to seize every opportunity to tell its own story and differentiate itself in the competitive landscape. In most banks as well as other types of businesses, the marketing department handles revenue-generating communications while public relations officers concentrate on their employer’s image and reputation. Each individual employee should be regarded as an extension of the marketing and PR departments. How can this be put into practice?

Empowering employees with information is essential. This means staffers throughout the institution should know as much as possible about what the bank has to offer. Banking clients should be able to approach anyone with questions and get satisfactory answers—even if the answer is to steer them to another employee with expertise on the topic in question. A customer service representative fielding a telephone inquiry, for instance, should perform multiple functions and attempt to go above and beyond the direct reason for the call. Likewise, all employees having even casual contact with visitors to branches should accommodate and anticipate all client needs. Every type of customer interaction should be considered a marketing opportunity. Handled well, clients will perceive that their bank cares about their business and is doing everything possible to work in their best interest.

By tapping the marketing potential of every employee, banks can leverage resources more effectively. Knowledge is power and a well informed employee is a powerful marketing tool.

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