Marketing Whims
Whim: 1. An idea, vision, passing thought, or fool notion. 2. What It Means.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Brokerages Have An Image Problem
I have not spoken to anyone lately who's had anything good to say about their travel experience -- particulary with the airlines.
But apparently, according to a study done by Harris Interactive, consumers feel that, in general, airlines are doing better job serving their customers than investment and brokerage firms.
Planes are crowded, always late, incredibly expensive, and it costs $4 to get a stupid little box of cheese and crackers. On the other hand, in the past year, the Dow is up 10% and the NASDAQ up 19%. Yet consumers feel the airlines are doing a better job than the brokerages.
It's not a service problem. According to research that Forrester Research conducted in Q4 2005, 69% of investors thought their primary brokerage provided good or excellent service.
Competing on investment performance isn't enough in the brokerage business -- firms have to differentiate themselves on the experience. Being transparent about fees will offer investors a differentiating customer experience.
What's your firm doing to be transparent about rates and fees?
For more on this topic, please go to Marketing ROI: Whims From Ron Shevlin
But apparently, according to a study done by Harris Interactive, consumers feel that, in general, airlines are doing better job serving their customers than investment and brokerage firms.
Planes are crowded, always late, incredibly expensive, and it costs $4 to get a stupid little box of cheese and crackers. On the other hand, in the past year, the Dow is up 10% and the NASDAQ up 19%. Yet consumers feel the airlines are doing a better job than the brokerages.
It's not a service problem. According to research that Forrester Research conducted in Q4 2005, 69% of investors thought their primary brokerage provided good or excellent service.
Whim: It's a transparency problem. Just half of investors thought their primary brokerage made it easy to compare rates and fees.Comparing the top box scores on a number of dimensions helps to highlight the issue. Twenty-nine percent of respondents gave a top box rating to dimensions like "offers high quality investment advice" and "makes it easy to benchmark my investment performance". But just 21% gave a top box score to "makes it easy to compare rates and fees". And this is what investors think about their primary brokerage -- the scores can't be any better for the other brokerages they do business with (and they do do business with other firms).
Competing on investment performance isn't enough in the brokerage business -- firms have to differentiate themselves on the experience. Being transparent about fees will offer investors a differentiating customer experience.
What's your firm doing to be transparent about rates and fees?
For more on this topic, please go to Marketing ROI: Whims From Ron Shevlin
Ron Shevlin, 8:58 AM
2 Comments:
Anonymous, at 2:03 PM
Saw your blog about online credit card application - as it is along the same lines I thought I would share this link with you. We were paying far too much for family things like clothes for us and the kids, games consoles inc the new Wii and soon to be PS3, car insurance/home insurance/pet insurance, broadband, mobile phones, landline calls, home and garden items, camping equipment and utilities/loans etc - you name it, we were spending too much on it.
Then a friend of mine recommended a site called www.bargainplace.co.uk. We were able to get cheaper electricity, gas, mobile phone, broadband and loan deals at bargainplace. Thanks to my friend (and the site) I am saving something like £100 a month and can afford an extra holiday abroard each year. Booked of course on www.bargainplace.co.uk. Thanks bargainplace ;-) !!
Then a friend of mine recommended a site called www.bargainplace.co.uk. We were able to get cheaper electricity, gas, mobile phone, broadband and loan deals at bargainplace. Thanks to my friend (and the site) I am saving something like £100 a month and can afford an extra holiday abroard each year. Booked of course on www.bargainplace.co.uk. Thanks bargainplace ;-) !!
Read all your postings -- have a few I'd love to quote! Long story short, I'm impressed by your thoughts and your writing. Thanks for sharing the URL with me and taking the time to write your WHIMs.
Sherri