The Financial Services sector is emerging from the credit crunch as a more customer focused industry according to its communications professionals at a VMA Group roundtable discussion held last month. VMA, which specialises in PR and Communications recruitment for both permanent and interim roles, brought together in-house and agency communications professionals from across the financial services industry to debate the current issues and discuss the future of the sector.
Whilst there is no doubt that the past few years have been some of the most difficult and testing times for the sector, representatives at VMA’s event felt that they now have better relationships with their customers and thus are better positioned to meet their needs.
Julie Mazzei who heads up the Financial Services practice for VMA North said: “Customers are more informed about their financial providers than ever before and have a keen interest in how they are run. Given this interest, many organisations are taking the opportunity, while the spotlight is on, to deepen relationships with customers and regain their much needed trust.
“The organisations that are forging ahead are the ones that are consistently communicating with their customers, even when times are tough, and are transparent in their dealings.”
One of the ways in which customer communications has improved is though the use of social media. It is being used for both internal and external communications programmes from updating employees on financial results to providers responding in real time to customer complaints. Often times it can turn a negative into a positive result and create customer loyalty.
Julie, who worked in Financial Services PR before joining VMA added: “A lot has been learned and it’s important for the industry to keep a dialogue open with its customers. The focus for communications professionals now is on how they engage via new channels and whose responsibility within the business this should fall to.
“It is certainly exciting times and while social media is the latest tool, it is not the communications solution for all customers or employees. Financial services organisations have a lot of ground to make up with their customers and to do this successfully they must embrace all communications channels as suits their individual customers’ needs.”
