complained about "words, words, words.

" She got too many - and they weren't the ones she
wanted to hear. Do your customers sing the same song?

Communicating with clientele is the lifeblood of public relations, the necessary means in
marketing bank products. But can it be done better - and at lower costs - by using new
technologies? This question is on the minds of many financial institution professionals who call
the ABA/BMA Center for Banking Information. They ask about those all-important words that
will bring people to their doors, keep them coming back and ultimately, sell their products and
services.

Brad Iverson, of Bank One Corp., sees the vital link between customer relations and bank
communications. In an article in Bank Marketing (January 1997, p. 64), he calls for developing
"consumer-based" messages by using the language that customers understand. He looks at
several consumer giants (McDonalds, Disney, Nike and Volvo) and makes a very compelling
argument for what these companies seem to do well: connect to the emotions of customers.

Employees as communicators

There is a means of communicating with customers that is very personal, effectively sending a
message to them with more than just words. Merrie Spaeth and Rod Downey of Spaeth
Communications, tell us in the Illinois Banker (March 1998, pp. 20-23) that employees are
ambassadors. Each minute of customer contact offers a new chance to communicate. If
employees know what is being advertised and marketed; have opportunities to share their
customer success stories; and are offered communication skills training, they will become an
essential link between you and your customers. Spaeth and Downey give a number of scenarios,
both inside and outside the bank, where employees can communicate the bank's message.

One of the most important aspects of the "employee as ambassador" idea, is the unity of the
messages the bank is trying to send. Advertising and marketing pieces that show your bank as a
caring institution are worth no more than the paper on which they are printed unless customers
are treated with care when they come into your bank. The authors use the phrase: "Message
alignment." Employees must carry out, in the most personal way, the message that the institution
is using in its written communications. They can do this with welcoming smiles, patient listening
and courteous explanations. By serving customers with care, what they say about your products
and services will be heard.

What about lowering costs?

As an added benefit, there are few costs involved in training loyal, caring employees to carry the
bank message. Using the bank lobby as the place to communicate with customers is another way
to keep marketing cost-effective. The most crucial element is the "single unified look." Remove
the clutter, stick to the same theme and position displays where customers will be able to focus
on them. These are all basic tenets of the theory of communication. In a speech at the Bank
Marketing Association's Annual Marketing Forum, Stewart Schacter expanded on the theme of
using one's own retail space for customer communication. Patrick Dalton writes about Mr.
Schacter's concept of "bank merchandising" in Bankers News (October 6, 1998, p. 5). Here
again, employees' efforts are seen as key elements.

Bringing other marketing tools in-house can also enhance cost-efficiency. Must mailings,
newsletters and other customer communications be sent out to expensive printing companies and
mail houses? Mutual Savings & Loan Association, in Hartsville, S.C., has been using desktop
publishing technology to perform many communication tasks in-house, with a healthy cost-
saving as a result. How the S&L does this is the topic of an article in Cost Controller for
Financial Institutions (March, 1997, p. 3).

Email is flourishing

Thus far, we have focused on some old-fashioned ideas: the use of employees and the bank's
own in-house displays for low-budget advertising. But every day there are newer channels of
communication gaining in popularity that are worth investigating.

The popularity of email is growing by leaps and bounds. Although one often hears people
complain about how many email messages are waiting for them each morning, people do read
these communications - or at least some of them. But which ones? How to make email a more
effective method of communication is the topic of a column in Independent Banker (October
1998, pp. 6869). Mary Smolenski gives some rules of etiquette that can make your
communications via email the ones that get read.

The subject line is the "make-or-break" information that determines whether the next click is the
delete button or read button. The more specific the information, the more likely it is to be read. A
descriptive subject helps the reader prioritize. We've all heard that shouting - the use of all
capital letters - is poor etiquette. However, using bold, italics and asterisks are all positive ways
to add emphasis.

Brevity is key. Using short paragraphs and holding the line at one to two screens will keep the
reader's attention. If there is a longer message, send it as an attachment. As informal as email
may seem, it is still a professional communication and the rules of business correspondence still
apply. Clarity and professionalism are the watchwords of a well-crafted email message. Not
surprisingly, the rules of good customer communication that have always been important for
paper-based materials are equally true for electronic mail.

There are no magic tricks to make people read your e-mail communications. It has been said that
by the year 2001, 130 million people in the U.S. will using email - that's over half the population.
Forrester Research, Inc. predicts this rapid-fire growth to continue. Their study is summarized in
a special Bank Technology News report (October 1997, pp. 43-47).

Back to cost-savings. Now that postal rates have increased, there is a greater attraction to email.
At East Texas National Bank, Marshall, Texas, more and more customers are giving their email
addresses to the bank and receiving various communications via that delivery channel. Mark
Maden, of the bank's marketing department gives how-to tips and a sample "get connected" card
in Cost Control Strategies (September, 1998, p.5).
Since the other popular medium for customer communications is the telephone, the link between
email and call center transactions is a natural one - with great potential. Call centers, like email,
are growing. According to a Mentis Corporation study, call centers are predicted to take care of
16 percent of all bank transactions in the year 2000. That's up from 10 percent in 1995. This
study is discussed in the Bank Technology News report referenced above.

The coming together of the two media - email and call centers - is not a surprising marriage,
according to the study's author, Jackie Cohen. Call centers receive a large number of emails
every day. How these are handled has become a customer communications problem. The
Forrester study includes the grim news that email has a long way to go as an interactive medium.
It brings out the important question of who answers incoming messages and asks if customers
are getting the care and information they need.

Vendors are unveiling tools that integrate these two media. The current challenge of many
financial institution software vendors is designing programs that will route emails to CSRs and
bring together e-mail and calling campaigns in an intelligent union. One vendor describes its
model as "a two-way conversation between the bank and customer."

Honesty and customer care

Whether one uses people or automatic response email, there is always the core of customer
communication - the honest relationship. R.G. Edmonson, in Marketing for Credit Unions
(March 21, 1997, pp. 1), reminds us to "balance the communication." The bad news of rising fees
can be offset with the good news of the benefits offered by the bank. If customers are thought of
as partners, then customer communications will be about customers.

At the beginning of this column, we started with the notion that personalized customer
communication was essential and that customer care is at the root of all successful
communications. Is it possible that the latest technologies will help develop an old-fashioned
sense of customer community? Is it possible that there might be some cost-savings? We can
never do without people or forget that employees are ambassadors. However, we can embrace
new technologies as a way to get those "words, words, words" not only read, but heard and
understood.

Getting the best of the best is very important. For more information on this subject, and others
related to the marketing and management of financial services industries, contact the ABA/BMA
Center for Banking Information. CBI specializes in researching the literature and pulling
together targeted information geared to the specific needs of members. Most of our customers
are looking for practical solutions, such as case studies of what has been successful, or not, at
other institutions.

At the Center for Banking Information, we are ready to assist with critical information for
banking business solutions. To be connected, just call the BMA Hotline: (800) 433-9013, and
ask for extension 5042.
1. What's the Message to the Marketplace?

When the president of a profitable community bank was asked about his message to the
marketplace, he was confused.

"Message?" he asked. "What message? We're a bank. Everyone knows what that means."

What may seem obvious, isn't necessarily so.

Most businesses send a message to their markets. But it's not their message - not necessarily the
message the customer wants to hear, or it may be the message someone decided the customer
wants to hear. Unless the message connects with the customer, the intensity with which it is sent
is meaningless. In fact, sending an inappropriate message is often damaging.

2. Is the Message Focused on Each Customer?

All marketing must be micromarketing. The ad in one newspaper is aimed at one audience, while
an ad in another newspaper on the same day must be totally different to attract a different
audience.

There is little so-called "Pontiac" or "Toyota" advertising. Instead, the emphasis is on vehicles
designed for specific customer segments.

Seiko produces more than 3,000 different watches, while M&Ms packages can vary by region,
time of year and trial product status. Credit card companies design and market cards to specific
segments of the market; the same card may come in many versions.

These examples demonstrate the value of focusing on the customer with the highest level of
informed intensity.

3. Are You Staying on Track?

Most marketing programs don't fail because of inadequate planning, although that can be a
problem. They fail because the plan isn't given a chance to work. It is either stopped, altered or
aborted.

Closely related to rushing results is the tendency to jump from one approach to the next. The vice
president of sales attends a seminar and immediately kicks off a new campaign. Two weeks later,
someone picks up a direct mail idea from a competitor and everyone rushes to get it printed and
out the door. Quickly, both are declared failures, and everyone surges ahead looking for the next
great idea. A lack of continuity results in disaster. The need is for effective implementation.

4. Are You Coming at Customers From all Angles?

A new level of marketing sophistication is required today to get attention, keep it and shape
customer perception. All marketing programs must be multifaceted to succeed. American
Express bombards its customers with direct mail, print ads in travel and high-end retailing
publications and television to describe ways to use Amex cards. Levi Strauss markets Dockers
using this technique and expands it to include news stories on how casual dress is becoming
increasingly acceptable in business. Justifying the purchase drives sales.

5. Is the Program Continuous?

Japanese business leaders seem to understand the value of continuity much better than American
business leaders. Perhaps this is because tradition plays such an important role in the life of that
nation. Western companies often confuse strategy for fact. The Japanese don't seem to make this
error, perhaps because their goal is to improve than merely to change.

Penetrating a market is much more difficult than most companies imagine. It isn't just a matter of
"getting the message through to the customer," but of having it there when the customer becomes
ready to buy. This is a task that requires commitment and resistance to those who would derail
the effort.

The Oldsmobile Aurora is an example of an excellent product whose manufacturer failed to

market it consistently. On the other hand, Chrysler has never stopped its marketing efforts for its
minivans. The company maintained its intensity even after Motor Trend and J.D. Power and
Associates named it the number one minivan manufacturer.

6. Are You Always Looking to Renew Your Marketplace Franchise?

While Chrysler's minivan marketing strategy is an example of retaining dominance, its new
vehicle, The Prowler, makes a different statement. Aimed at affluent Baby Boomers who
remember the roadster from the 1950s and 1960s, this specialty car sends a powerful message:
Chrysler is a company that knows what's going on inside a customer's head. It isn't necessary to
go out and actually sell the vintage-looking two-seater. Only a few thousand are being built. In a
brilliant marketing move, Chrysler is sending the right message to the right customers.

Informed intensity can drive marketing efforts to the top and keep them there. While ideas,
strategies, great products and determination are all essential, a company is left behind if it lacks
intensity based on knowledge.

Increasing sales is no longer an issue of expanding the sales forces, adding new, "hot" products,
or even cutting prices. Sales growth is the direct result of developing a marketing intensity that
propels the selling process.
A unique bank evaluation program established by BP America has improved the cash
management service banks provide and made treasury life easier.

Have you ever been involved in completing bank quality surveys or participated in banks' phone
call market surveys? Have you felt that your company was not directly benefitting from these
exercises? Have banks ever tried to sell you a new and improved service without really
understanding what your needs are? Our treasury team at BP has experienced all of this, but we
felt that such methods of communicating with banks were not effective. We weren't getting our
message across.

So, in 1990, we decided to design and develop our own evaluation techniques to measure both
the banks' performance and our service expectations. The process would allow us to identify
more readily those banks that were meeting our expectations for the delivery of cash
management services and to communicate with the banks how well we felt they met our needs.

Now, two years later, service levels have improved. The process has also made us more aware of
who are the quality service providers. Banks that consistently perform below expected levels are
weeded out, and those that consistently perform well are awarded business from displaced banks.

While many companies have similar programs, we believe ours at BP America is unique in at
least three ways. First, it conveys to the bank exactly what is important at our company. Second,
it compares the service quality of different banks. And, third, it recognizes people on bank staffs
when they give superior service.
THE DISCUSSION

We had 12 banks come in this year, and each one took a different approach. Some banks wanted
to go over the evaluation line by line. Others said: Okay, that's history. How can we help you
next year? The right approach is the one the bank feels comfortable with.

We tell the bank where its services are weak and when services are working well. We cite
individuals or groups that perform well. We gave out plaques this year for the best lockbox and
the best control disbursement banks. For a wire service group that deserved recognition, we
showed up in person with small gifts. This helps keep bank employees motivated to provide us
with the best service.

At the discussion, we review pending changes in BP operations, such as acquisitions or

divestitures. Or whether we are consolidating activities and need new services. We also ask what
we are doing wrong. How can we make the relationship better? Do we need to give better
account instructions? Are we properly authorizing transactions? Do we give enough lead time?
We also want to know if the bank staff and our staff work well together. And, of course, we
always ask the bank to critique the evaluation process itself.

These discussions encourage frank communications. For example, bank executives might say:
We have this service. How could you rate us low on it? And we find out that it was the service
from their education or marketing people that was poor; we just hadn't known about it.

Finally, we confirm that there will be ongoing feedback between both parties. If either party is
doing something wrong in January, it doesn't want to wait until the following year to find out.
We rely on phone conversations and face-to-face meetings to avoid surprises during the formal
evaluations.

BENEFITS OF EVALUATION

The heart of the process is improved communications. Both parties become fully open about
what is going on in their organization. This encourages realistic service expectations and helps to
improve both bank and company performance. Once a client identifies a problem, the bank does
not want to see that problem raised in the second evaluation.

The process also helps us to compare service providers. Should we decide to offer a new service,
we can see which banks perform well in the particular area to be affected.

Finally, costs are a big factor these days. We find evaluations to be very helpful in improving our
efficiency. Our ratings may be on the subjective side, but we get a lot of value out of these
evaluations for the manpower that we put into them.