Whether you’re a B2B or B2C company, the advice of listening to your customers is nothing new. Between sending out customer surveys or including them in focus groups, we feel like we’ve “been there, done that.” In the Digital Age, however, the way we listen and respond has to be much more nuanced, agile, and immediate. This is how Chase for Business’ recent campaign with the Chase BizMobile came into existence. At their small business conferences, they noticed that more and more small businesses were clamoring for help and resources. Those who attended the conferences benefited immensely, but there were many customers who couldn’t make it to the events at all.
Hence was born Chase BizMobile, a physical mobile consulting trailer, which would literally go to where the customers were to provide advice and complimentary consultations to help their small businesses grow.
My company, Zen Media, has been a strategic partner with Chase for Business in helping design and deploy this campaign, as well as provide many of these digital marketing consultations across the United States. The project has been deeply fulfilling for us as a team on many levels, and here’s what any business can learn from this campaign.
Go where your audience is
If you ask my team which social media platform is my favorite, they will inevitably chuckle. I have no favorites. I only care about where the audience and attention goes, and it is most certainly a moving target in the digital age. Chase for Business noticed that many of their customers were hungry for knowledge and expert resources but they didn’t necessarily have access to those resources in their local communities. The Chase BizMobile is a literal and figurative solution to that challenge. You can’t insist that your audience follow your marketing. You have to go where your audience is — online and offline.
Look beyond the transaction
The BizMobile has provided the opportunity to help the bank’s business customers at the most fundamental level. It steps back from just banking to take a greater view of what customers are really looking for and banking becomes part of that larger solution as opposed to the primary diver. By looking at what customers want most — to run their businesses successfully — and empowering them to do exactly that.
The old question was “how do we sell more products or services?” The new question truly has to be “how do we enrich the overall customer experience so they want to keep buying from us?”
Leverage existing assets
The Chase BizMobile was designed, built, and executed on by Chase small business clients. It really took a village, and the village came from within. So often organizations miss this key opportunity to fully utilize their current ecosystem. The common philosophy is to view everything in silos, i.e., “these are our customers and those are our vendors.” In this campaign, the customers were engaged as vendors and partners to serve other customers. The campaign and the organization walked their talk. This wasn’t just lip service; small businesses were supported across the spectrum in every way possible.
Proactively invest in customer retention
Chase for Business is one of the most popular business banking services at the moment. A strong leadership team which constantly innovates has been one of the core reasons. At a time like this, it’s very easy to take the popularly and customers for granted, but Chase for Business recognizes what so many companies don’t — business needs to be continuously earned. Customers have choices when it comes to banking and customer retention has to be just as important if not even more important than customer acquisition. The best marketing doesn’t just attract new customers, it appreciates and retains current customers.