Say you are planning the trip of a lifetime to an exotic location, just you and your partner. You start getting excited once you have made the decision to go and the next day you book your holiday leave with work and front the travel agent to plan the big adventure. You spend weeks looking through the glossy holiday brochures, days talking to family and friends, hours talking to travel agents and then you finally choose your holiday.

The day arrives when you make the trip to the travel agent to book everything, the flights, the hotels, the transfers, the insurance and then you come to a big moment of truth, payment. In order to secure your holiday, you’ve got to pay a deposit of 30%, 90 days prior to departure and the balance, 30 days prior to departure. You’ve got some money set aside but you and your partner need to save money over the remaining time to have enough to pay for the trip whilst also having enough spending money.

So, you need to set yourself multiple financial goals in order to book your holiday, pay the balance and have enough spending money. Go to the bank right now and they can offer you any number of accounts, savings accounts and term deposits all with different interest rates, fees and conditions.

How many of these bank accounts are truly aligned to the success of the customer, in this case the holiday maker? The holiday maker’s success in this case is to have a fantastic holiday. How many of these accounts help the holiday maker’s life easier simpler and more successful.

What could this account look like?

1.       It should be easy to set-up - perhaps an online account

2.       It should be easy to deposit funds – in person and online

3.       It should know the customer goals – how much money is needed and when

4.       It should provide a competitive interest rate – help the customer achieve the goal and don’t charge fees

5.       It should encourage regular saving – provide regular updates, show how much needs to be saved per week/per month and how close the goal is

6.       It should automatically pay the deposit and balance when they are due – don’t put the onus on the customer to make the payments, schedule the payments automatically

7.       It should be flexible enough to be used for buying things when on the holiday – don’t suspend activity on the account because of suspicious international transactions, the customer is on holiday

8.       It should be easy to close – when the holiday is finished and the customer returns home, close the account – no fees, just confirm the customer is safely home and close it.

If one bank can get this right, they will be on a winner and on their way to becoming outside in. Then someone will see there are other revenue opportunities in the customer value chain like insurance, what about if the bank partners with a hotel chain or airline so that the customer can get a discount on their holiday. Then there are the day trips, restaurants, shopping, photos & video, potential partnership and revenue opportunities for the bank but more importantly opportunities to make customers lives easier, simpler and more successful.  Success will breed success, the next thing might be a car account, then an education account, then who knows, maybe even a home account.

As applicable here as in other parts of the world, these phrases are used by so many of our large financial institutions and show a complete lack of understanding of customers and their needs.

1. Relationship banking
   We have a relationship when I say we have a relationship.
2. You come first
   First after you?
3. Innovative products
   Like the ones that caused the mortgage crisis? 
4. The bank you can trust
   You’re kidding, right? 
5. We’re not like other banks
   Then why do you look, talk, and act like other banks?
6. We make banking simple
   The small print says otherwise.
7. Your call is important to us
   Then why don’ t you answer it?
8. Highest customer satisfaction ratings
   I’d hate to see the bank with the lowest.
9. We make switching easy
   How—with a stack of forms and instructions?
10. 10.  *
    This cancels everything that came before it.

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