Financial Surveys

Banking and finance is a market sector that is growing fast and evolving constantly. If your company operates in the sector, you need to be aware of what is happening, adapt to changing conditions and stay ahead of the game. Your customers expect you to provide the services they need, to offer the latest technology and to deliver secure and competitive products. Added to this, you have to react to market conditions as well as the overall economic situation.

So how do you survive and prosper in such a dynamic and challenging market? The answer is to have up-to-date information about the market, your customers and the economy in general. But gathering large amounts of data, storing it and then analysing and interpreting what it all means are not the easiest of tasks. To do that, you need a powerful and flexible data collection and survey tool such as Key Survey.

Finding out what your customers think and want

Like any companies, financial organizations grow by gaining new customers, retaining existing ones and providing additional products and services for all their customers. To do this successfully, you need to keep your existing customers happy while at the same time attracting new ones. This means being aware of what your customers need and meeting those needs.

As a financial organization, you have an advantage over some other types of business because many of your customers will manage their accounts online. They are used to reading about new services and receiving product offers while online and so are more likely to participate in a survey at the same time.

Using Key Survey to conduct online customer surveys means you can:

• Avoid costly and slow paper surveys that don't deliver the required results. Instead, you can conduct online surveys that achieve a higher level of participation through convenience of use and will deliver valuable information quickly.
• Ask your customers what they really need. By asking them to state what services they want and acting on their requests, you are involving them in your decision-making process so they feel they have a valuable contribution to make.
• Distribute the results of survey to branch managers and other appropriate employees so they can act on them. This ensures that standards are improved and are consistent across the branches.

Learn about new requirements in the market

The financial market changes very quickly, probably more than any other market sector. For your organization to succeed and even survive in the sector, it's vital that you are aware of what is happening around you and what is likely to develop in the future. Using a survey tool such as Key Survey allows you to be fully informed so that you can stay ahead of the game rather than simply keeping up. You can run surveys to find out useful facts about your customers:

• How old they are, what they earn and what they plan to do with their money, so you can provide suitable products and services.
• What they have bought recently, such as a new car or house, and whether they have other ongoing expenses such as school fees and healthcare costs. Knowing your customers' commitments means you can offer the necessary finance.
• Whether they need additional services such as insurance, retirement planning or access to the equity in their house.

Plan for successful products that your customers want

The success of a financial organization is often based on innovation, with a constant flow of new products, services and features. However, launching a new feature that your customers don't want or understand can actually have a harmful effect. So you need to plan carefully and find out how scheduled changes are likely to be received before you actually implement them. Do it wrong and you risk losing customers; make it a success and you're likely to enhance your brand.

Use Key Survey to find out:

• whether customers want features such as online account management and paperless statements
• if there is likely to be a demand for planned products or new branches; running a survey and analysing the results can avoid expensive mistakes
• how customers feel about existing services so you can adapt and improve them

You can design your surveys for maximum impact and analyze the results to learn what is really needed. Customers are unlikely to resend a survey that is properly structured and accurately focused but instead will feel their opinion is valued and useful. You will gain valuable information about your customers' habits, needs and practices, and at the same time improve their perception of your organization. Any costs incurred to conduct a survey are more than offset by the valuable information you gain, which enables you to drive the business in the right direction.