Jan 28, 2008

A Bold New Look

There was a news story this morning announcing that Washington Mutual is launching a new version of their website, www.wamu.com. Their stated purpose for this upgrade is to make “the customer's online banking experience simpler, faster and more personalized.” We’ve been talking a lot lately about the importance of relevancy and growth. While I’m not certain their new site gets the job done; I was pleased to see that they are clearly paying attention to two important aspects of remaining relevant: 1) they know that their marketing must remain dynamic; and 2) they understand the customer is at the center of all they do. When was the last time you updated your website? (and yes, by the way, our website is under revision…stay tuned).

One thing their new website does that helps ensure relevancy: they ask "what do you think about the new wamu.com?" They invite feedback. If they have taken steps to show they listen to the feedback they receive, they are well on their way to staying relevant.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Good thoughts, Jim. As a frequent wamu.com user, I think they've done a pretty good job of making it an easy to use website. And I agree 100% in your comments about relevance.

I've been very impressed by the web 2.0-ish websites being built for credit unions by Trabian lately. I think offering things like "product reviews"--much like you'd see on amazon.com or yelp.com, is essentially a built-in way to remain relevant to your members. It's hard to become irrelevant to your members when they're the ones driving so much of the content on your site! Smart stuff...