Our practice manager, Sharon Chinn, referred to me in her recent post as resident doctor of consumer banking.  I’m flattered!  I only wish that the challenges faced by today’s bankers were amenable to that old-fashioned prescription, “Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.”

I’ve had the chance during the last several years to interact with hundreds of executives at banks, credit unions, cooperatives, and cajas.  It’s been interesting to track the patterns of what’s been cooking on their proverbial front burners.

Challenges have typically been similar across geographies, as well as distinctly cyclical.  It really didn’t matter where you went: with a few exceptions, the same issues tended to resonate across our membership at roughly the same time.  At the turn of the century, it was all about getting on “the Net” (funny how that term sounds dated now!).  Next came CRM, the customer experience, and (by 2006) strategies for continued growth in an environment about to turn.

And turn it did.  Looking back on it, the canary in the coal mine heralding the impending meltdown was the barrage of questions we received very early in 2007 about how to cut costs rationally, without endangering continued growth.

The crisis, at it turned out, demanded a lot more than just cost cutting.  Firms ran for shelter in multiple directions—often at once.  Priorities across our membership diverged and fragmented in the scramble for survival.  As a result, what might be the most pressing challenge for members in one market can be totally irrelevant in another.  Universality is out, specific and unique is in.

That’s the chief  reason why we re-pivoted our research in order to more effectively align it not just with abruptly shortened planning horizons, but also with the heterogeneity of member challenges.   Recent work, for instance,  has focused on new payment trends, social networking, and updates to our ongoing innovation library.  Check out all of our insights, “quick-win” best practices, briefs, and tools at our website.  

One more thing: it wasn’t just our research that we re-invented.  We have also created new ways to more easily hook you up with it, including special webinar huddles for sales heads, this blog, and (of course) even a Twitter account.  One of our most popular innovations is our new retail banking forum (an online community for you to connect with peers.)

Enjoy!

Next time: Will a more viable consumer banking business model emerge from the wreckage of the crisis?