No Fear!

Patience and Opportunity – Not Fear!

There has never been a better opportunity to help your customers within the financial services arena. While stories of fear and lack dominate the news and continue to scare your customers and perhaps making them apprehensive of getting a mortgage or buying a new car, I invite you to practice some patience and help them to navigate the challenges which may lie ahead.

The needs that create the demand for many financial products and services have not gone away; they have in some instances merely been postponed. Regardless of the bumps in the economy that may cause one to pause and sit back – your customers still need to educate their children and pay for college, they still need to buy or refinance homes, purchase new cars and they still need a place to keep their money from which to pay their bills. Their timing may be just a bit off from yours.

I am advocating for more of what I call “Short Term – Long Term” thinking. Now may be the best time for many banks and credit unions to be educating their customers on how to manage their finances during the months ahead. By doing so, by taking care of the short term worries of customers, long term seeds are being planted about your financial institution being seen as helpful, about being a partner in their long term success, so when the time to buy a house does indeed arrive, you are there for them. The great opportunity during this time is helping navigate customers to new ways of thinking.

For example, while Ford and GM are whining about the high cost of gasoline and the impact on the sales of their large gas guzzling SUVs’, Honda and Toyota have been busy developing fuel efficient cars and mini SUVs that appeal to customers. While many banks are complaining about the need for more checking accounts, ING has created its “Orange Account”, (www. ING.com) a totally online checking and/or savings account which pays a great rate of interest, without the hassle of visiting a branch to open the account.

Both of these examples illustrate the power of businesses to transform what they do and what they offer and to capitalize on the challenging business climate and turn it to their advantage. I invite you to view the current economic client and the impact on your business, not as “rough times” but as times that are simply “different”. What are you doing to turn this current economic cycle to the advantage of your customers and your business?