Communicate Like Zelenskyy
Customer communication is a problem for all financial institutions. FIs can learn a lot about communication in 2022 from Ukrainian President Zelenskyy .
source: Zelenskiy_official
Like a lot of people, during the last few months I've become a bit obsessed with President Zelenskyy's social feeds. Even though I don’t understand Ukrainian, I’m fascinated by his daily communications.
No this isn't a political post.
It's a post about customer communication. I’ve been thinking about how President Zelenskyy communicates and also about Bryan Clagett’s recent LinkedIn post about the heat Vystar Credit Union & Nymbus are taking in the press & social media. Until I'd read his post, I had no idea that Vystar was in the process of an implementation, they had problems, and online and mobile banking were offline. To find out, I went over to twitter and with a couple of searches I saw the member (and non-member) tweet comments and links to local news reports.
All the tweets, comments, opinions and press reports got me thinking again about customer communication. Customer communication must be above the noise and so often it gets lost in the noise. President Zelenskyy of Ukraine has been expert in pushing his communications above the noise. There's endless news reports, opinions, misinformation, propaganda even about the war and yet he has managed to break through with clear messages for Ukrainian citizens and for constituencies outside the country. Messages that go viral, that become the foundation for TikToks that other people create, that reporters write about in traditional news media.
I’m not going to opine on Vystar’s situation because a) I don’t know all the details and - and more importantly - b) all financial institutions have problems with customer communication. At one point or another, all financial institutions have or will face a system failure or other problem that affects its all or some of its customers or members. Especially as customers and members rely on their mobile and online banking more than other channels to do basic stuff like pay bills and check balances and they get out of the habit (if they have ever had it) of going to a branch (if it hasn’t closed) or using telephone banking to get that information.
Talk to your people, internal and external.
Speak plainly, directly and simply as possible. This 32 second clip said everything that the people of Ukraine needed to know after the start of the war: The government was still intact.
Be honest. Admit to the crisis. Don't cover up bad news with corporate speak.
Clearly and repeatedly give directions for alternatives. For what people can do and how. When people are in an emotional state, they forget stuff, like what you told them about how to get their balance from an atm. Panic has a very real impact on people.
Use all mediums available to broadcast your communications. Every single time. You can't assume members or customers will go to 1 place for answers and you cannot direct them. President Zelenskyy uses Twitter, Facebook and Instagram — but he also posts to Telegram. Use texts and emails as well as social media your customers and members use to communicate directly and personally with them. You don’t have mobile phone numbers or the ability to text customers or members? You don’t know what social media your customers use and how to connect to them? That’s an opportunity for a small innovation.
Answer questions with plain direct language. Zelenskyy gives a daily detailed summary of the heads of state he has met, the status of Ukraine’s EU application, speeches to legislatures worldwide, new initiatives, soldiers who have won service awards, upcoming meetings. He also updates the citizens about the status of the war - and he doesn’t sugar coat it whether he’s talking about the horror of Bucha and Mariupol or the victory in Kyiv.
Don't use passive voice. Passive voice always sounds noncommittal and like you are avoiding responsibility for the situation…and people will believe that you are. Start sentences with “I” and “We.”
Keep it short. Think of how powerful and memorable Zelenskyy’s 32 second message of “The President is here” is. How many would remember this message 3 months later if it was 60 seconds long?
Keep communicating, daily or multiple times a day if necessary. Does Zelenskyy look like he's sleeping much? Some of his communications - like the daily summary - are longer than others, but many are much shorter. He or his team re-post the same post to certain social feeds so that as many people as possible will see the post. That is the only way to keep up the pace of daily communication.
Is President Zelenskyy the only public person out there who is an effective communicator? For sure not. But when people listen to you even if they don’t understand the language, that’s something. Take advantage of the moment and position your financial institution to communicate more effectively, more clearly whether you are have a system failure — or you have exciting news about a product to share.
Me, Elsewhere
I moderated a great panel of folks for a conversation on innovation. We cut through the hype and share practical advice for making your digital transformation efforts pay off. We definitely talked about the importance of small innovations.
How can banks be truly low friction? They must address friction everywhere. Otherwise innovation & digital transformation will elude them. In this report I identified the characteristic of a low friction bank and why legacy core banking and architectures don’t support it.
What can the Kardashians teach your financial institution about partnerships and innovation? How can working with empathic fintechs help you identify niche groups (aka hidden tribes) and innovate. All this and more in this this ebook that you can download at Praxent or Nymbus.
Adopt an Agile Digital Banking Platform: How bankers must have an agile digital banking platform to support both global and local trends and requirements to help them identify new niche markets that will drive innovation, create new value and increase profitability. In this report I identified a set of capabilities that a digital banking platform must have that will help take banks into a competitive future and urges banks to select a digital banking partner who shares their innovation, vision and support for new value creation.
How Your Financial Institution Can Leverage Niche Markets for Next-Level Growth: The old rules that influenced how mid-sized financial institutions acquired technology and the tradeoffs they had to make no longer apply. Why? Because new thinking on old models brings new ways for banks and credit unions to deliver new products and services to new niche customer markets. I moderated a vibrant discussion about this & more with Jeffery Kendall, Chairman and CEO, Nymbus and Tim Hamilton, CEO of Praxent.
Think like a Challenger: How banks and credit unions can compete and win - I recently moderated this conversation on challenger banks with Bryan Clagett of Moven and Ted Brown of Digital Onboarding.
Digital banking transformation’s surprising secret for success in Entersekt’s ebook New Directions in Authentication
Does It Fit Me? Tailored Banking - The Next Step in Digital Transformation.
Yes, I worked with clients on these ebooks and webinars. They may ask you for information before you can download or watch them. If you’re interested in collaborating with me on a similar project or something else completely different, please contact me at stessa@pivotassets.co or via LinkedIn.
Who writes PivotAssets?
I’m an independent analyst & consultant & a former Gartner analyst. I’ve worked in and covered the banking industry for over 2 decades. I write about digital banking in this newsletter - not to confirm what you know (and you are plenty smart!) but to give you a fresh perspective & analysis on the transformation that is —and isn’t happening - in the industry.
This newsletter is for people and companies who are trying to differentiate their banking software in an increasingly competitive market. It’s also for bankers and investors who want to know more about digital banking transformation strategies & the technologies that power them.