Consumers Want More From Internet Banking; Peppers and Rogers Newsletter Polls Readers World-Wide

Business Wire, May 13, 1999

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 13, 1999--

Internet banking is undoubtedly the next huge area of commercial growth in cyberspace. If you think Amazon.com is redefining online commerce, you'll be amazed when the world's leading banks dive in with both feet. Anticipating this tidal wave, Peppers and Rogers Group asked readers of its free weekly online newsletter, INSIDE 1to1, for their best ideas for Internet banking features they'd like to see.

Hundreds of readers from all over the United States and the world -- Russia, Australia, South Africa, Chile -- sent dozens of great suggestions for customer-service improvements that would help build loyalty.

Many banks already offer online banking features, such as reviewing account balances and making payments and transfers. But beyond these "standard" features, readers offered some real innovations that banks could offer to establish genuine, 1to1 customer relationships. Some countries are already far ahead of the U.S. in this area - several readers from Finland for instance, told us about "Smart Cards" that have made writing checks largely a thing of the past.

Here are some examples of the best ideas:

-- Use real-time emails or pager alerts to notify customers when

they are in danger of bouncing a check or when their account

balance is dangerously low. Alert customers when selected

deposits and registrations become valid, and when contributions

or records should be reviewed for tax or other planning purposes.

-- Offer clients a personal computer, or maybe just a "smart phone,"

possibly with free Internet access, allowing them to download

electronic cash onto a "Smart Card" - essentially giving them a

personal ATM in the home (a similar service is already offered by

at least one bank in the Netherlands).

-- Sponsor an online banking school that teaches children how to

conduct transactions, such as balancing a checkbook.

-- Put the entire loan process - whether for a new car or house -

online. Offer an online payment calculator and provide hyperlinks

to real estate agents, home insurers and movers. Notify online

billers of a new home address. In other words, approach the

customer with an integrated solution to his or her relocation

problem - not just with a collection of products suitable for

relocating customers.

To read the entire Top 10 list, plus honorable mentions and other ideas, visit the Peppers and Rogers Group Web site, www.1to1.com. You can sign up for a free subscription to INSIDE 1to1 at http://www.1to1.com/articles/subscribe.html or by emailing Peppers and Rogers Group at subscribe@1to1.com.

Peppers and Rogers Group is a management consulting firm, and the world's pre-eminent thought leader in one-to-one marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) issues. Past and present clients include AT&T, BellSouth, Bertelsmann, Hewlett-Packard, Lucent Technologies, Oracle, Pitney Bowes, Prudential Securities and the American Cancer Society. Peppers and Rogers Group recently was named to the Inc. 500 list of America's fastest growing private companies. Headquartered in Connecticut, the firm employs 90 professionals and has offices in California, Mexico and the U.K.