by: Chris Lawer
First Direct, a progressive UK bank, pushes further ahead with its customer advocacy strategy by creating Little Black Book - a recommendations site for First Direct customers to post tips and advice on restaurants, travel, shops, people, reliable builders, money-saving tips etc. etc.
As a third of FD customers join via recommendations from existing customers, this makes perfect sense. As the site states:
As first direct customers, you'll know by now that we're not like other banks. We tend to do things a little differently. We know you appreciate that - and that's precisely why we wanted to create the Little Black Book.
Or rather, why we want you to create it. Because the Little Black Book isn't just another review site. It's more of a unique source of inspiration - a collection of interesting recommendations made by people like you for people like you that you're unlikely to find anywhere else but here. And it's exclusively for first direct customers.
This is neat. And is one smart and low cost means for financial services companies to rebuild customer trust, provided the service is not abused for seller-centric motives. As I have written previously, operate within the wider context of customer need, some advocacy companies operate a branded community, in order to deliver expertise and advice for customers. For example, Farm Credit Canada provides the means for its farming customers to participate in a peer community where they can help each other address non-financial services related problems (e.g. farm safety), especially those concerning the day-to-day running of their farms.
Original Post: http://chrislawer.blogs.com/chris_lawer/2009/03/first-direct-creates-customer-recommendations-community.html
This blog reflects the personal opinions of individual contributors and does not represent the views of Futurelab, Futurelab's clients, or the contributors' respective employers or clients.
RSS
rach says:
03 Sep 2009, 06:11
sorry but first direct bank is by far the shittest bank ever
the bank it self is ripping people off and theres over a thousand people taking first direct bank to court
i have a friend taking this bank to court because they have her money and the longer they hold her money the more money they make off her money its all part of a con they freeze your accounts ,limit how much u can take out,charge u a fee if u dont have more than 1000 a month going into the bank, there customer service is useless they pass u over to person to person and still nothing gets done , the call centers not one person talks english and there rude have a oh well close your account attitude ,transfers ur be lucky to ever see it happen 18days and still they havent transferd any thing , the online bankin doesnt work properly u never can get into it but funny enough they can ,you ask to close your account and they say send it in writing they recieve it and close it str8 away with out asking where u would like your money put ect ect there by far THE WORSE BANK EVER BEWARE X REAL TALK X
Joy-Fleur says:
01 Apr 2009, 13:05
Good post! I have also written about First Direct and your post was helpful to me. Check it out if you get chance:
First Direct- A Fully Customer-Oriented Business Model
I think that this new "little black book" will provide First Direct with even more data that will allow customised and tailored offers to their key accounts. To me - First Direct have a very advanced marketing strategy comparing to other banks!
James says:
03 Mar 2009, 23:33
This is very Von Hippel-esque in it's application. The bank fosters user-innovation so that the community can better organize to tell the bank what to do.
eric brody says:
03 Mar 2009, 21:53
Love this idea. Beyond rebuilding trust and creating a customer recommendations community, positions the bank as a community member itself.
Strong opportunity for First Direct to step out of its traditional context, and to take a lead role in redefining the idea of "bank."
Add your comment