By Terry Cole, Chief Content Officer

When it comes to setting a new relationship up for success, it’s important to be intentional. That means being intentional about communicating effectively – sharing information, asking questions and genuinely listening. It means building trust and confidence by doing what you say you are going to do. It means being attentive, understanding and appreciative. And, importantly, it means not taking the relationship for granted and remembering that staying in the relationship is a choice. What’s also true is that all relationships, perhaps new ones in particular, require work. This applies to friendships, work and family relationships, romantic partnerships and, yes, even banking relationships.

The new bank customers you have just acquired can be valuable lifelong customers for your organization. You want them to view your bank as their primary bank and become loyal customers who turn to you for solutions for all their financial needs, even as those needs change and evolve over time. They may form an emotional connection to your bank’s brand and even become brand advocates, proactively referring other customers to you. Generally, though, none of this happens overnight because relationships require work. This is as true for new customers who chose to do business with your organization (i.e., customers you attain through marketing and other outreach efforts) as it is for new customers who did not proactively choose you (i.e., customers you gain through a merger or acquisition).

In both cases, you can set the stage for long-lasting valuable customer relationships and help ensure strong customer retention with some intentional strategies to solidify and nurture these new banking customers.

To help ensure your new relationships flourish, here are some things to consider in your onboarding initiatives:

1. Be affirming

Customers who choose to open a new account and begin a new relationship with your bank have already been sold on some of the value you provide. It doesn’t mean, however, that they are “all in” and ready to say that you’re “the one” for the long term. For starters, it is important to confirm for your new customers that they have indeed made the right choice.

Immediately following account opening, use personalized welcome communications to remind customers about the reasons they chose you. Reiterate the key benefits of banking with your organization and provide helpful tips for getting the most out of their new accounts and services now available to them as a new customer. Continue these themes in subsequent follow-up onboarding communications, providing additional helpful information and building additional trust and confidence in the bank. 

2. First impressions matter

Making a positive first impression is critical to relationship success and particularly important for new customer relationships that begin because of a merger or acquisition. Customers who did not choose you (and may not know anything about you) are likely neutral at best about the start of this new “relationship.”  It’s somewhat like a blind first date. A positive first impression, however, can go a long way to creating a valuable long-term relationship. 

For these customers, your merger communications starting immediately after the announcement of the transaction are vital to creating a strong foundation from which to develop a connection. Be intentional about crafting communications that demonstrate you care about your new customers and understand that they likely have questions, some of which you may not yet have answers to. Be forthcoming about that. Think like a customer and communicate what matters to them. Let customers know what to expect for next steps. Make it easy for them to get updates when you have them and get answers to specific questions that they may have. This is a pivotal point in your budding new customer-bank relationship and budding relationships need careful attention to flourish into the long term.

3. It’s a process

Just like a new friendship or romantic relationship needs time to grow and evolve, so does a new customer-bank relationship. Your bank has a lot to offer and perhaps (as is sometimes true in the case of bank acquisitions) it offers some new services that were not available to customers at their previous institution. It is certainly valuable to share new advantages and opportunities that your bank can bring to your new customer relationships as part of your work to build positive perceptions of your brand, but don’t overwhelm customers with too much, too soon. Be intentional about identifying products or services that may be valuable to your customers and reach out with timely, targeted cross-sell communications likely to resonate with your audience. Remember that relationship building is a process, and it takes time.

Don’t just acquire customers, build relationships that last

The journey to maximizing new customer relationships demands intentionality and effort. Whether acquired through marketing efforts or mergers, you have already made a significant investment in your new customers – don’t stop there. By prioritizing personalized onboarding experiences, crafting thoughtful communications and implementing targeted follow-up cross-sell initiatives, you can lay the groundwork for enduring and mutually beneficial bank-customer relationships that maybe, just maybe, can blossom into love.

MKP communications inc. is a New York-based marketing communications agency specializing in merger/change communications for the financial services industry.