Dare to be different … plus it!

Synonymous with Disney is original content, quality entertainment, and service.

Immediately upon deciding to visit a Disney theme park, anticipation begins to build.

Visiting a Disney retail store can serve as a reminder of how much fun you had … and plant the seeds of return.

On the other hand, thinking about the lobby of your financial institution or your checking account can be a painfully boring experience.

I understand that your lobby and your products were never designed to be an entertainment experience, but we can take a lesson from Disney and how he inspired.

Plus it! Build on your foundation, and don’t settle

From the beginning of a concept, Walt Disney always asked the question:

“Could you plus the idea?”

Make it better. Make it more real, he insisted, and connect with the imagination of the customer. Even today, almost 50 years after his death, his technique of plus-ing concepts still lives to inspire. Consider that Disney’s doers are still called “Imagineers.”

Turning to your institution, what are you doing to plus the product or customer experience?

Innovation gets things started, but then the work begins. The formula is internal collaboration, the approach is creative vision, the result is going beyond the next logical step and delivering a product or service that not only wows, but can be replicated.

So much so that the customer anticipates it, and when you deliver the experience they keep on coming back.

Here’s the test, it is the little things that matter. It is convenience that matters, it is fun that matters.

And it is the positive memory of the experience that keeps them coming back. Technology, service, and customer interaction are all part of the experience.

Push yourselves, bankers

What can you do to plus the customer experience?

It is not a math problem as much as it is thinking beyond boring.

It is about a wow moment that catches the customer by surprise and puts a smile on their face.

Give out fun. A book for their child instead of a piece a candy. Raffle a pair Taylor Swift tickets from your Facebook promotion or set up a seasonal Twitter Hunt with a fun prize for the holidays.

I remember when I was a district manager of a financial institution, we ran co-promotions with local businesses who were our customers. We wore their uniforms and they wore ours. They handed out our brochures and we handed out their coupons. Both of us had drawings for free stuff!

It was a lot of fun and really increased the energy in our lobby, customer relationships, and our deposits.

If you still have branches, you still have lobbies. Use them!

And up your energy level.

Plus it!

—The Wombat!

Does your bank already “Plus It!” Tell us how you do that in the comment section below.