Banking Review

Using blogs for customer research

Savings & Loans Credit Union has launched a new blog to engage with its members on community and environmental issues.

The Community & Environment blog has a corporate social responsibility angle, an area of strong focus for the mutual institution.

Savings & Loans CEO Greg Connor has been blogging since 2006, making him one of the few banking CEOs willing to speak directly with customers via a blog.

While Connor’s blog is attracting quite a following (more than 25,000 views since launch), it’s early days for the new community version. Perhaps Savings & Loans is hoping it will evolve to emulate VanCity’s Change Everything – a site that encourages people who wish to change themselves, their community, or their world. Users of the site can blog about changes they wish to make – a public statement of their commitment – and then provide updates on their progress.

Sites like these are an excellent way for the financial services sector to get closer to customers and understand their concerns, hopes and dreams. It’s insight that can be used to help develop or re-design products, channels, and communication methods to better meet customer needs.

Home furnishing giant Ikea is taking a similar approach with its new “Who is the messiest?” campaign. The user-generated content site sees consumers uploading photos of their messiest rooms, and voting on whether it’s men or women that are the messiest.

Of course while users of the site are busy having a giggle at some of the messiest rooms they’ve ever seen, Ikea is gaining some great ideas for storage and other furniture products.

All of these sites show companies from any industry can effectively use blogs to connect with customers. All it takes is a topic that is close to the heart of your audience.