The pandemic has given a shock to the banking sector which is one of the biggest service industries in AU. We all know the importance of banking and how seriously various sectors depend on the banking sector that gives a lifeline to many through funds.

What happened to the banking industry? How do behaviours change during the pandemics? How it will impact them and how banks are going to address the changing behaviours? These are important questions and answers every sector associated with banking expect from the banks. Secondly, in the changed scenario, how banks should restore confidence and ensure business continuity. This is very important for the very survival of all industries.

Today, many changes taking place in the banking operation. One thing is the closure of many branches with the help of digital services. Due to Covid, many are unable to report to work seriously affecting the operations. To wait for the Covid to exit may not be a good idea at this point. On the other hand, what makes sense is to restore confidence through consumer education and rapid digitisation.

We can see two scenarios. One is remote banking. In the earlier scenario during morning hours banks witnessed heightened business activities with the help of a token system. At that time, physical presence was very important to disburse cash and mainly to understand whether the customer is genuine or not. We are so used to one to one interaction in dealing with financial matters. In the absence of that, we don’t simply trust people because experience has taught us in that way.

Secondly, there is always a challenge in convincing people about various financial products. Imagine a customer is a highly solicited one, he or she may be using the service of the competitor and not from the aspiring bank that wants to sell loans or credit cards. Then the second scenario, another person has an interest in buying the services of the bank. But the problem here is, that customer has a low Sibel score. Or, he or she has a record of non-payment of loans and trying to take advantage of the bank willing to offer services.

In such a scenario what can be the ideal option, many banks may think likewise. One way to address the situation is through promotions and banks have already taken that route with cheap promotional items for business. That was the earlier scenario of reaching the customers with some gifts. Gift marketing works, but in the changed scenario one needs some tweaking, it can be in strategy or the choice of product.

Nothing is constant. We have realised the importance of this maxim after the advent of Covid. Everything is facing a change, where some needs total revamp or pushing old structures into obsolescence/irrelevance.

To understand this more clearly, few will have the interest to go to hotels at this point because a public place like a hotel or theatres can be a source of infection. Secondly, there is no guarantee that the service staff will be available to do service. Some have fears to work, a few others succumb to Covid and the like. Banks also face a situation like hotels where more people interacting with the staff and vice versa. So, the future lies in remote working and when banks respond to this change, they need to educate the customers through constant communications and reminders.

Changing certain behaviours is easier said than done. Herein comes the relevance of promotions with the help of corporate promotional umbrellas. Banks should identify their gold customers who pay on time. Create a database of them and start sending personalised messages of mails. As people have had enough with sweet talk, don’t forget to offer umbrellas as gifts. This will help you to strike the right chord.

As earlier said, there should be some tweaking in the strategy. Why not try with custom corporate umbrellas? It is important to stun the target audience with the help of high quality and useful gifts and make them endearing to the banks. An interesting quality about the humans is, many have gratitude and when they receive a good gift, they tend to be loyal to the giver and this will help banks to create goodwill abundantly.

Creating a database like gold, silver and bronze will help the banks to separate the wheat from the chaff. There should be cold calling to remind the customers how valuable they are and many financial services awaiting them with low interest. Yeah, during tight market conditions banks have to reduce the interest rates and empathise with their good customers.

Changing banking behaviour like deferment of paying is a good idea with the support from the State. At the same time, banks should encourage earlier payment with a gift package. By looking at the earlier track record banks can identify good customers, offer gifts like promotional umbrellas to those who pay early. Once the payments began to flow, they can easily come out of liquidity crunch. Who knows, this will also help in the revival of other sectors? So, try out and hope for the best.

We have created a list of bronze customers also. Promote them with the help of cheap wholesale umbrellas. To banks, all customers are important but wealthy and ethical ones are more important. We need to balance them. Since the customers belonging to the elite class are the wealth creators of the banks, they need special treatment. To them, banks should not give generic gifts. On the other hand, treat them special with custom umbrellas. Do so, all the best for now.

Author : Amit Ghia