Company: Consorsbank
Entry submitted by: Clemens Eckstein (CCornerstone) Senior Expert e-Business
Community: Die Wissenscommunity von Cortal Consors (https://wissen.cortalconsors.de)
Lithy category: Total Community All Star
Consorsbank by BNP Paribas is a leading direct bank in Europe that prides itself on “liberating clients from the restrictions of classic banks.” The digitalization has changed our daily lives – and that’s what we have translated to banking. Our broad product offerings, useful tools and the platform for customer ideas allows us to create the banking of tomorrow together with our customers.
The bank’s brand is built on the concept that financial investors hold the power to make the best decisions for their investments, and its goal is to provide product offerings that help achieve this objective.
Consorsbank is an online bank with no branches, therefore there are limited number of opportunities for the bank to connect with its customers in traditional ways. The bank wanted to create a social environment where they could better understand the needs of their customers, help them solve problems and build trusted relationships. Market factors also dictated the need for Consorsbank to differentiate itself from the increasingly competitive landscape and deliver on customers’ extreme expectations.
The bank was inspired by its challenges to move beyond the outdated “knowledge base” on its website and create a Total Community experience for private investors. The company envisioned a social community for the full gamut of investors, beginners to those with decades of experience. Consorsbank planned for a community where private investors could feel comfortable sharing knowledge, offering peer-to-peer support, and providing investment advice. Always on the forefront of innovation, Consorsbank also wanted to allow their customers greater influence and involvement in the company’s offerings by giving them the ability to rate the bank’s products and services.
Benefits of having a Lithium Total Community
In order to create a customer community that would meet these diverse needs, Consorsbank turned to Lithium to provide the Total Community software platform. Now Consorsbank’s Lithium-powered community boasts more than 14,000 community members with more than 8,500 posts. It gives customers a voice and builds trust between the bank and investors.
The main feature of the community is Consorsbank Websection Knowledge base, monitored by the bank’s community manager. It gives customers a voice and builds and gathers trusted user-generated content. The platform offers real and up-to-date help for customers, and provides a place for them to discuss financial markets and have their questions answered. Many long-term customers have significant knowledge and experience in a wide array of banking topics, and the community allows other members to tap into their insight. Additionally, a blog written by the bank’s subject matter experts allows Consorsbank to provide professional education to their community members.
Ideas
Consorsbank Community Ideas is an aspect of the community that asks members to help create “ the bank of the future” - it’s a place for investors to share their wishes and proposals for the bank of tomorrow. The bank provides the community with bi-weekly themes to help drive the conversation. In addition, members evaluate products, compare prices and services, and suggest features to help make banking products transparent. This activation has produced 150 innovation ideas within 2 months.
Ratings and Reviews
What really sets Consorsbank apart from other financial institutions is its Ratings & Reviews. Customers can rate and review the bank’s products and services and give feedback. Consorsbank is one of the first banks in Europe to drive this level of feedback and transparency with its customers.
“This is a bold move for us since it puts great power in the hands of our customers,” says Clemens Eckstein, Social Solutions Architect and Project Head at Consorsbank. “By allowing this open and public feedback from existing customers on our own platform, we provide absolute transparency into our strengths and weaknesses.”
The program has validated the importance of transparency and increased the bank’s conversion rate by 30% which was an increase of 1,500 customers per week.
Customer Voice 2.0
Consorsbank set the bar high with its Customer Voice 2.0 roadmap. Their goal was to transform themselves into a customer-centric company. By using Lithium’s Community Platform, they were able to leverage the ideas, knowledge and feedback from all of their customers. In doing so, Consorsbank is allowing customers to be active participants in developing an even more effective foundation for their money decisions, while also further enhancing the bank's connections with its customers. The trusted relationships they are building with their customers encourage open dialogue, brand advocacy, and loyalty. Customer Voice 2.0 is also extremely valuable to internal stakeholders by giving them valuable and immediate feedback regarding their products and services. Thus, it helps them to define a roadmap together with their customers.
Our Total Community results
In the first year the Consorsbank Community saw outstanding business results:
- The average rating for current account holders is 4.3 out of 5 stars
- Increase of conversion rate by 30% netted 1,500 new customers each week
- 260 Ratings & Reviews by customers with more than 80 Comments
- 40% increase in click-through rate on banners showing Ratings & Reviews
- Unique Visitors increased by over 300%
- 17,000 community members
- 150 Community Innovation Ideas within two months
Because of the success of the social platform, the marketing campaign introducing the new “Consorsbank” brand featured community as one of the main selling points. The campaign also included a commercial.
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