“Time and tide waits for no man” - Chaucer, The Clerk’s Tale
“Time is on my side” - Jerry Ragovoy (but made famous by Mick Jagger)
There are areas in your customers’ lives where urgency creates opportunity. Now is valuable. 5 days from now, 5 hours from now, 5 minutes from now, or 5 seconds from now is worthless. Maybe worse than worthless because not only did you miss the mark, but you wasted their time in the process. This is where time to value is paramount, particularly in your digital experience where consumer expectations are through the roof.
How quickly can you help your customers complete their objectives with you for these use cases? In the branch? On the phone? At the ATM? On the web? In your app?
If you look at all the steps required to sign up for a product, how many are absolutely necessary to get started? How many can wait? How many can you just do away with?
But where is there no rush for your clients? Where do they want you to slow down? Where is there an opportunity to stop and listen in your process or engagement? When a customer, who normally logs on to only check balances or quickly pay bills, looks up auto financing rates, are you able to take that as an invitation to talk or engage?
Connivance and funnel optimization are all about velocity, the speed and the direction you nudge your customers towards. Removing friction is key to a modern experience your customers expect. However, you also want to be able to recognize the right time to jump in with advice and suggestions to help your customers, who trust you, get better outcomes with their finances and their lives.
Do you have the systems to listen and hear when things are too slow or too fast for your customers? If you’d like some suggestions on where and how to listen let us know. We’d be happy to talk about best practices and benchmarks for community FIs like yours.