Yesterday, I mentioned Capital One’s self-service travel notification process. Another aspect of the service is a follow-up email before you head out of town (see below).

I like the email for a couple reasons:

• The well wishes make you feel good about the bank
• The message provides helpful contact info in case of trouble
• It’s an an additional fraud check to ensure that it’s really you traveling to Yakutsk next week

The bank even tells you to call collect. Nice.

Capital One could jazz up the message with more color and snappier copy (note 2), but it gets the job done.
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Capital One email to customers who’ve told them they are traveling internationally (31 Jan 2012)
Note: Sent the day before scheduled departure

Notes:
1. Picture credit: Greeting card at Zazzle.
2. I’m surprised Capital One doesn’t use this opportunity to reinforce its travel rewards, mobile app, and zero FX fees. 
3. We’ve tackled remote banking customer service and messaging a number of times in previous issues of our Online Banking Report. The last one was Live Help earlier this year.

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I get that multi-channel messaging is a mess. I understand that new regulation is creating huge backlogs in project queues. But 17 years into the Web banking era, I should be able to service my bank account entirely online, if that is my choice. And more importantly, if I’ve signed on for alert services, there shouldn’t be any surprises when I go to log in to my account. 

Yesterday, <largebank> failed me on both accounts (see note 1).

With Finovate Europe less than two weeks away, we are wiring large sums to London to pay for it. My bank got a bit concerned about all this outbound activity, which is good. I’m glad they are paying attention.

But how the went about notifying me about their concerns was simply outdated. Here’s how it went down:

1. The bank called me from a toll-free number and left a voicemail asking me to call them back. Despite the fact that I get every alert under the sun, the bank did not send an email or text message. I don’t know about you, but listening to voice messages from random 800 numbers is very low on my priority list. By mistake I did happen to hear it a couple hours after the fact. 
2. As soon as I listened to the message I first went to my email to see if I’d also received a message from the bank to verify the authenticity of the phone call. Seeing nothing there, I attempted to log in to online banking to verify the call and assure myself that my account had not been drained. But guess what? The bank had disabled my account access and gave me a vague error message with instructions to call a toll-free number. The number matched the one on the voice mail so at least I could confirm it wasn’t a vishing attack. There had been no mention in the voice mail of my account access being disabled.

Now, when you are 11 days out from an event and the cash in the bank is needed to pay for it, it’s beyond disconcerting to be locked out of your account for no known reason.

Luckily, we were able to quickly assure the bank that yes, we really did need to wire that much money. So we are back up and running and our patient vendor simply had to wait one more day. (Update: I wrote this post yesterday. Today, the exact same thing happened again with another wire. While it wasn’t a surprise this time, it’s annoying.)

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A Better Process
________________________________________________________________________________

Let’s repeat this scenario using an approach that preserves your customer’s sanity while making it more convenient for those that favor digital channels:

1. Bank sees something odd so it freezes outgoing wire transfer capability and sends me a text message, email message and leaves a voice mail.
2. Instead of shutting down my account access, they let me into my account so I can verify that the balances are still there. And for extra credit, the suspicious activity is highlighted.
3. After confirming the transaction through an extra authentication step, the bank re-opens my outgoing wire capability.
4. For extra credit, let me simply authenticate the suspicious items by replying back to the messages (at least on smaller dollar items).

Now that I can breathe again, I can lay out three rules to guide your “suspicious activity” messaging:

1. Contact the customer in their channel of their choice (but also use others for backup in urgent situations).
2. Allow the customer to authenticate transactions without moving out of that channel.
3. Never completely disable online access (unless absolutely necessary). Yes, shut off transfer-out functions, but continue to allow “read only access.” And post a red warning graphic within the account drawing attention to the suspicious activity. 

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Notes:
1. I’m not identifying the bank because my “data point of one” may not be indicative of what other customers experience. But I will disclose the name “off the record” if you email me jim@netbanker.com.
2. For more on messaging, small business, security and much more, see our Online Banking Report (subscription required).

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We’re very excited to announce that FinovateEurope 2012 has officially blown past last year’s record attendance of 450 with two weeks still to go.

On February 7th in London, this year’s audience will get to witness dozens of new fintech innovations debut from both cutting-edge startups and leading established companies (check out the list of presenters) via Finovate’s signature fast-paced demo-only format.

In case you’re curious about who’s attending this year, here is a (very) small sample of the organizations that have already registered:

If you want to join the top-notch audience and watch the future of European finance and banking technology debut live, there are still a few tickets left. But please register soon as tickets are continuing to sell quickly. We’ll see you in London!

FinovateEurope 2012 is sponsored by: Bluerock Consulting & The Bancorp Bank

FinovateEurope 2012 is partners with: BankerStuff, BankInnovation, Celent, Deutsch Startups, Finance on Windows, The Financial Services Club, The Financial Services Innovation Centre, Juniper Research, and PYMNTS.com.

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Evidently, the owner of the domain "square.com" drove a hard bargain. How else could you explain a billion-dollar tech company, Square, using a domain name with "up" in it <squareup.com>?

Dorsey’s Square had all the Google juice around the word, so it wasn’t likely causing any lost sales. But for credibility, there is no choice but to own the basic .com version of your brand. (Plus, they would hate to get confused with the board game of the same name).

It may not yet be a done deal. I don’t see any confirmation of a sale on the web. Square.com is currently being redirected, very slowly right now, to squareup.com.  And the  Whois record still shows that square.com owned by Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, the makers of the popular video game, Final Fantasy. 

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With 2012 underway and winter out in full force, it means that spring is just around the corner. And with the warmer weather will come our return to San Francisco with FinovateSpring 2012.

On May 8th & 9th, we will again be showcasing dozens of Silicon Valley’s newest fintech innovations via our signature format that blends fast-paced demos with high-quality networking.

Tickets for the event are selling quickly and we’re on pace to beat last year’s record attendance of 850. The already long list of registered attendees includes executives from organizations like Wells Fargo, MasterCard, Mint.com, Charles Schwab, Citi, CNNMoney, Aite Group, H&R Block, Intuit, BBVA, and USAA (to name just a few).

If you’re interested in joining them to watch the future of financial and banking
technology unfold live on stage at this must-attend event then please get your ticket before Friday to lock in your spot at the low super early-bird rate of $ 300 off. That said, if you can’t wait until May for your next fix of fintech innovation, we do still have a few tickets left for FinovateEurope 2012 (February 7 in London).

FinovateSpring 2012 is sponsored by: The Bancorp Inc., the law firm of Chambliss Bahner & Stophel & TxVia

FinovateSpring 2012 is partners with: BankInnovation, BankerStuff, Celent, Filene, Finance on Windows & PYMNTS.com

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With 2012 underway and winter out in full force, it means that spring is just around the corner. And with the warmer weather will come our return to San Francisco with FinovateSpring 2012.

On May 8th & 9th, we will again be showcasing dozens of Silicon Valley’s newest fintech innovations via our signature format that blends fast-paced demos with high-quality networking.

Tickets for the event are selling quickly and we’re on pace to beat last year’s record attendance of 850. The already long list of registered attendees includes executives from organizations like Wells Fargo, MasterCard, Mint.com, Charles Schwab, Citi, CNNMoney, Aite Group, H&R Block, Intuit, BBVA, and USAA (to name just a few).

If you’re interested in joining them to watch the future of financial and banking
technology unfold live on stage at this must-attend event then please get your ticket before Friday to lock in your spot at the low super early-bird rate of $ 300 off. That said, if you can’t wait until May for your next fix of fintech innovation, we do still have a few tickets left for FinovateEurope 2012 (February 7 in London).

FinovateSpring 2012 is sponsored by: The Bancorp Inc., the law firm of Chambliss Bahner & Stophel & TxVia

FinovateSpring 2012 is partners with: BankInnovation, BankerStuff, Celent, Filene, Finance on Windows & PYMNTS.com

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I spent many hours in November looking at how banks and credit unions position insurance offerings online (our report here). Many banks don’t even mention insurance. And those that do often bury it under a "investments & insurance" tab. Wells Fargo is the most notable example (screenshot below).

While I understand the need to keep navigation choices to a manageable number, these two really shouldn’t be lumped together. It’s like Amazon having a one tab for "Shoes and Goats." It’s confusing for both the shoe buyer and goat shopper.

Although, there are a number of investments with an insurance component (e.g., annuities), for most shoppers this is unclear. Usually investing comes first, so it’s unlikely the auto insurance shopper is going to pay much attention to a navigation item beginning with "investments." That’s the furthest thing from their mind when they are trying to save a few bucks on keeping the family fleet running.

Bottom line: If you are serious about selling insurance, it needs proper attention in website layout and navigation. Notice how Wescom Credit Union (Pasadena, CA) splits investments and insurance into two categories, with appropriate calls to action at the bottom of each column (second screenshot). The CU has some work to do on the landing page (it’s cluttered and hard to find the quote I was promised), but it’s still better than most.

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Before: Wells Fargo’s personal homepage with combined "Investing & Insurance" category (13 Jan 2012)

After: Wescom Credit Union has separate columns for insurance and investments 

Wescom CU insurance landing page (link)
Note: The only thing that stands out on this page is the Purina Care pet insurance. The all-important quote functions is buried at the bottom.

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Notes:
1. Image courtesy of 1st Guard Truck Insurance 
2. See last month’s Online Banking Report Selling Insurance Online (for FIs) for more info.

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I just spent the better part of two days attending BancVue’s monthly client/prospect meeting called BTAN (note 1). I knew they would have high-energy presentations, great ideas, and outrageous antics, after all I’ve seen them take home three Finovate Best of Show trophies. They know how to drive a point home.

But what I didn’t expect was to come home believing its Kasasa strategy might really work. Kasasa launched at FinovateFall 2009 (video here) and is the first major attempt to create a nationwide brand around the checking account. They are trying to do for checking what Visa/MasterCard did for the credit card or what Intel did for PC manufacturers with "Intel inside."

One very different element here is that BancVue is creating a national brand exclusively for use by community banks and credit unions. Large banks are the viewed as the enemy (see inset from BancVue’s about us page) and are not allowed to "stock" the Kasasa brand.

On the surface it seems impossible. How could hundreds, if not thousands, of proud, local financial institutions many who’ve been building a local brand for many decades, unite under a nutty brand called "Kasasa" of all things?

But is it crazy like the iPod was crazy? Smaller banks and credit unions are being taken to the cleaners by the big banks, losing more than half their market share in the past two decades. They have the local ties, the human connection, but it is usually hard to maintain the product set, marketing power, and online/mobile UI, of Bank of America or Chase.

But what if someone were able to level the playing field with best of class products and combined the marketing power of 1,000 financial institutions into a national brand? (note 3) Then the community banks/CUs could go ahead and compete on service, price, value and local connections.

It sounds too good to be true, really. And I was skeptical when I heard the pitch two year ago. But after seeing how BancVue has signed up more than 600 FIs for rewards checking, hit #23 in the Inc 500, and witnessing their passion in person, I think they have a real shot.

But can you really get banks AND credit unions to unite behind a single campaign?

Bottom line: It takes a long time to build a national financial brand, especially one centered on lowly checking accounts. Other than PayPal, what’s the last one you can think of? Capital One (founded 1988) maybe. Discover Card (launched in 1985) perhaps (note 4). And I can think of a hundred reasons why it won’t work.

But Kasasa is definitely out of the gates and gaining traction. Having just finished my review of the most important trends of 2011, I have a feeling Kasasa could make this list in 2012 or 2013. 

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Kasasa product set (11 Jan 2012)

Kasasa products dominate the homepage of Farmers Citizens Bank (link)
Question: Do Kasasa ads clutter the Farmer’s homepage? No more than any other promotion. And they are at least attention getting. 

Landing page at Farmers Citizens (link)

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Notes:
1. I attended the event at the invitation of BancVue. But I am not consulting for them or their customers. BancVue is a customer of The Finovate Group for our event and reports just like hundreds of other companies. However, they did feed me really well, which my family will attest, is a powerful motivator in my life. So I can’t say I’m totally unbiased.
2. After hearing the detailed reasoning behind the branding decision, I actually think the Kasasa choice makes sense. But you’ll need to see the presentation to get it. The Financial Brand breaks it down here.
3. BancVue says that with 1,000 financial institutions offering Kasasa it would be bigger than the largest U.S. bank in branch network and marketing budget.
4. I can’t think of any major national banking brands that have appeared in the Internet age other than PayPal, and perhaps NetBank (RIP). ING Direct made it but they were a spinoff of a powerful international brand, and even then they spent more than a BILLION in the United States alone during the past 12 years making ING Direct a household name. E*Trade, Ally also come to mind, but the former is more associated with brokerage and the latter is a name change from GMAC. Bank of Internet is doing well, but is hardly a household name.

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