ESSAYS
LISA WOOD, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER AT ATOM BANK
What are some of the challenges that come with existing 100 per cent online? LW: Trying to fit everything you want to do with your bank into a mobile experience is pretty challenging and has certainly given our UX guys a conundrum to solve! As we launch there’ll be other challenges too as a bank with no high street or physical presence. Getting our brand known will need a huge amount of creativity, but there are many hugely successful digital-only brands out there, so it’s not a challenge we won’t overcome. One of the most significant
challenges any new bank has, 100 per cent digital or not, is overcoming the inertia UK consumers have to switching banks. Banking is a low interest category and getting customers engaged with it is a big job. There’s very little out there at the moment that offers something truly different from a customer perspective, and here at Atom we’re looking to change that.
Is it fair to say that there’s still a degree of consumer anxiety around mobile banking/payments and if so how are you addressing those concerns? LW: We’re not a proposition for everyone and we’re fine with that. The anxiety we’re seeing is around giving customers confidence that using mobile for banking/payments doesn’t compromise their security, and understanding what the ‘back-up plan’ is if things go wrong. We’re ensuring our security and service propositions are top-notch, with a 24/7 service team on hand to help support customers.
Atom Bank has a different tone of voice to most banks—much less formal and more human. Do you
think it’s harder for purely digital brands to build trust and rapport with consumers? LW: Customers don’t want to buy from impersonal brands – we’re human beings and want to be able to connect emotionally. Customers will be more loyal and willing to have a deeper relationship with you if they share similar values and connect with your brand. Our tone of voice has been developed specifically with this belief in mind. We may be a digital brand, but we have a real opportunity to show the human side of our brand. You’ll get a real sense of this from our website. Equally technology, and specifically working in the digital space, allows you to personalise what you do for your customers.
understand customers want to know they’re getting a fair deal and we won’t be hiding anything in our small print. We’ll put customers in the driving seat and give them the tools to make the right decisions when it comes to their money.
Customers don’t really care about the tech.
CEO Mark Mullen has deemed the banking industry ‘worse than opaque’. Do you agree, and how is Atom Bank challenging this perception? LW: The banking industry has lacked transparency and there are plenty of examples of customers not fully understanding what it is they’ve bought from their bank, or how banks operate. We want to ensure Atom doesn’t follow the same path. We’ve set ourselves a number of design standards: benchmarks that we want to hold ourselves up to. One of these is transparency— we want to keep things simple, be open and ensure everything is easily explained to customers. We
Focus on what the benefit is, what actually makes a difference
How do you perceive the future of banking? Will high street banks still have a place in years to come? LW: It will take some time to change the shape of banking in the UK and the high street banks will continue to have a strong foothold for some time yet. Banks like us will start to change the landscape and other new banks coming along, like Mondo and Starling, can only help accelerate change. The high street banks need to change, but it’s more difficult when you’re changing legacy systems etc. In years to come I think you’ll see a more fragmented financial services market, with customers using a range of services from a number of
different banks and financial services providers. The dominance of the high street banks will decline, but only if consumers choose to take action!
Can you offer a few words of wisdom to other marketers in the digital space? LW: Don’t get overly ‘techie’ with your customers. Tech is a great enabler, but it’s only allowing you to do something useful for a customer—they don’t really care about the tech! Focus on what the customer benefit is, what actually makes a difference to them. Never forget to make a human connection with your customers – don’t just communicate, engage!
atombank.co.uk 39 issue 26 november 2015
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