Fall 2015 Banking Newsletter: Planning for the Future of Your Bank

Building Your Next Customer Base

What are you doing to develop your next customer base?

Recently, I saw a statistic that for the first time in our 239-year history, more Americans live in cities of 100,000 and over than do not. This trend, a long time in the making, caused me to begin thinking about the impact on community banks, especially those in rural areas. My question to you is: what are you doing to develop your next customer base?

Complacently serving your current customers, without regard to what the next 5, or 10 years might bring, is a formula for disaster. 

Here are three things that you can do today to proactively build your next customer base:

            First, take steps to understand the demographic changes in your communities – city, county, region – so that you have data. It’s difficult to see change when you are in the middle of it, so step back and assess. Years ago, Al Stewart sang, “In the islands where I grew up, nothing seems the same, still you never see the change from day to day.¹” Think about your current customers and evaluate the “age” of your deposits in terms of the age of deposit holders. Start early to convince the next generation that you can be their bank, as well as “mom and dad’s” bank.

Next, take steps to ensure the viability of your community.  In recent years, I have written and spoken extensively on Generational Transfer and its impact on community banks and the communities they serve.  Read more at www.arkansawriverwriter.blogspot.com.  

Civic and business leaders can influence the viability of a community. Supporting and encouraging local businesses, seeking to attract new business, tourism, and educational opportunities are all ways that you can seek to maintain and improve the health of your communities. If your mayor and alderman are more focused on beautification than economic development, seek to change that by striking a balance with commerce. I’m all in favor of beauty, but it takes commerce to make a community thrive.

These are just a few thoughts for you on this important issue. As always, I stand ready to advise you in these and other matters. Please call on me anytime.

Finally, for your bank, seek to enter new markets with similarities to those that you already successfully serve, and look for new products and services that can enhance your presence in all markets.  Wealth Management, for example, is often overlooked, but can be a powerful way to strengthen and enhance existing customer relationships, forge new ones, and preserve them over time.

 (1) Al Stewart, “On the Border” from the 1976 album Year of the Cat

Upcoming and Recent Speaking Engagements

October 16
Missouri Bankers Association:
Young Bankers Leadership Conference, St. Louis

October 21
Nebraska Bankers Association:
Marketing Conference, Lincoln

October 29
West Virginia Bankers Association:
Operations and CyberSecurity Conference, Charleston 

My speaking schedule for 2016 is filling up -
Updates and booking at trentfleming.com

Trent Fleming is an industry expert on banking strategy. He travels around the country, conducting seminars on a variety of strategic, management, and technology topics. He also serves numerous financial institutions as a trusted adviser in managing today’s regulatory and technology environment. As a consultant, he has worked with hundreds of financial institutions to create strategic plans that are blueprints for success, manage the selection and implementation of new technologies, and provide insight to streamline operations and improve productivity. operations and reduce costs.

 

Trent’s Comments is published six times each year and provides insight into strategic topics facing financial institution executives.

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trent@trentfleming.com