Best Practices for Managing Online Reputation in the Banking Industry

The products and services offered by today’s banks no longer simply speak for themselves when it comes to establishing a brand and rolling out marketing. Instead, consumers consider a myriad of factors before choosing who to bank with. While matters of convenience such as digital access, proximity to home, and competitive (or zero) fees weigh heavily on decision making, 33% of consumers also consider a brand’s reputation before choosing a bank.

While reputation can impact companies regardless of sector, reputation management for financial firms is an increasingly critical marketing cornerstone. Banks do more than just offer a service; they provide services that can have a direct bearing on a consumer’s financial wellbeing. As such, reputational risks such as regulatory compliance, trust, transparency, and ethical practices can carry much more weight for financial institutions (FI) than for companies in conventional retail industries.

Yet finance reputation management may have a long way to go with regard to trust. Only 42% of consumers believe their bank is very transparent regarding fee disclosure, 32% think their bank will keep their information private, and 39% feel their bank does more than companies in other industries to protect them. Clearly, bank reputation management has room to improve and can be a way for smaller regional or community banks to differentiate themselves in a competitive marketplace.

Add to this the ease with which consumers can leave negative feedback online and easily share it with others. Finance online reputation management (ORM) quickly becomes an even stronger imperative for banks looking to shape how their brand is perceived. In this guide, we’ve pulled together an overview of finance reputation management best practices with actionable ORM strategies specific to banks.

Why Reputation Management is Critical in Finance

Cultivating a positive reputation can take months, if not years, for a bank to achieve. Yet that perception can be brought down in just minutes due to bad press or a negative review that catches public attention. While this would be detrimental to companies in any industry, banks are uniquely susceptible to the impacts of poor reputation management.

Customer acquisition and retention for FIs are both tied to consumer trust. Those banks that give potential or current customers a reason to believe their experiences, and their funds, could be better elsewhere are likely to see higher turnover rates. Brand loyalty means much less to modern consumers than decades ago. 76% of surveyed consumers are willing to switch banks, with younger customers (Millennials) more likely to make a change than older generations. In fact, trust narrowly outweighs convenience for consumers who remain satisfied with their bank, with 70% stating that trust is the deciding factor for their banking choices.

Add to this the growing usage of digital platforms such as social media, online review websites, and Google business listings, all of which make it easy for consumers to share feedback after a negative brand experience. Compounding matters even further are the regulatory scrutiny and investor confidence distinct to financial services reputation management.

No FI is immune to the impacts of brand reputation management. Even the largest companies can suffer from scandals that can spoil their digital footprint. For example, Wells Fargo was found guilty of opening millions of unauthorized accounts and fined $3 billion after pressuring employees to meet unattainable sales goals.

The result was more than just a breach of trust with investors. The brand’s reputation as dishonest and unethical jeopardized up to 30% of its existing customer base at the time. Restrictions from the Federal Reserve remain in place on the bank with consent orders governing operations. While Wells Fargo struggles to reinvent itself with updated marketing, the bank maintains a poor online presence across trusted sources including the Better Business Bureau and Trustpilot.

Core Components of Finance Online Reputation Management

Not every instance of bank reputation management happens on the scale of a multinational FI like Wells Fargo. However, the bank’s experience serves as an example of the importance of establishing strong reputation management banks can rely on across platforms and over the years. In many cases, smaller and more frequent negative sentiment online can build up to be harmful to a company’s reputation.

One takeaway from the Wells Fargo incident is that once information is distributed online, overshadowing it (if not removing it) can be a daunting, potentially impossible task. The scandal erupted online in 2016, and over 10 years later, articles, reviews, and ratings for the company dominate the narrative.

With this in mind, brand monitoring and media coverage analysis quickly become essential to bank marketing efforts. Brands can control the content they produce, but they cannot control public reactions to campaigns, customer service interactions, or product misgivings. Instead, marketers can track online sentiment and react in real time to try to catch issues before they become too large to handle. Marketers can consider using social listening and sentiment analysis tools tailored to the finance industry to identify potential risks and address them quickly, especially on platforms where consumer comments can rapidly spread.

Review management is also a critical component of finance reputation management. Marketers will want to regularly monitor consumer reviews left on websites including Google, Yelp, Reddit, and Glassdoor. Hyperlocal services such as Nextdoor, community message boards, and finance review sites should also be checked.

While the landscape may remain quiet and consumer sentiment may be quite positive, marketers should still establish a crisis response plan to manage any public relations blowback that occurs with the unexpected. Incidents can happen, and brands that respond promptly may stand a better chance of mitigating the damage. Going back to Wells Fargo, the brand did not immediately address the scandal, further exacerbating the reputational damage.

ORM Best Practices for the Financial Industry

Understanding that finance reputation management is critical is the first step. Designing and implementing a comprehensive ORM plan comes next. These plans are not just reactive, but proactive to assess and enhance online reputation. The following best practices can help marketers develop actionable strategies for financial services reputation management.

Align ORM Strategies with Regulatory and Compliance Standards

Before responding to any review, comment, or (worst-case scenario) accusation, marketers should involve their legal teams. Planning ahead for potential incidents can help ensure that the brand’s reactions limit any liabilities while also complying with industry specific regulations. These considerations will span a variety of regulatory bodies and laws, with respect to marketing, such as:

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): Rules that prohibit misleading advertising messaging through use of false statements or omissions
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA): Parameters for marketing language that is clear and concise, includes disclosures, and does not predict or project financial outcomes
Anti-Money Laundering (AML): Guidelines for tracking and reporting suspected transaction misuse or strange activity tied to customer identities
Know Your Customer (KYC): Regulations part of AML and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) stipulating FIs verify customer identities and business actions
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Stipulates how personal data can be processed or transferred while granting individuals rights over their information

Any communication, from formal press releases to brief social media posts, addressing reputation management for financial firms should be run through a legal team before distribution. Even if the plan is agreed on prior to an inciting incident, legal counsel may have additional insights to protect the brand while also helping marketing respond in a timely, effective manner. Documenting ORM processes can also help in the event of an audit and for compliance reporting.

Centralize Brand Monitoring Across All Digital Channels

With a response plan tentatively in place, marketers can start to more robustly monitor consumer sentiment. Finance online reputation management can be somewhat automated through the use of comprehensive reputation platforms that track mentions across social media, forums, news outlets, and review sites.

Most brand monitoring platforms will require users to establish keywords and brand elements, each associated with customizable alerts. Consider looking for more than just brand, product, or service name mentions. Automated alerts can be configured for brand name variations or executive mentions. Potential risk keywords (e.g., “fraud,” “lawsuit,” “scandal”) used in conjunction with brand terms are also important to monitor.

Brand monitoring and social listening are different aspects of reputation management banks can benefit from using. Brand monitoring identifies and reports individual instances of specific words or phrases that can be used to determine who and where a brand is being mentioned. It is a primarily reactive approach to digital conversations about a particular topic or brand. Social listening analyzes brand discourse and helps companies assess public sentiment and trends that can inform long-term decision making. Both can help marketers understand brand perception and adjust outreach and response efforts accordingly.

Proactively Generate and Manage Reviews

Reviews can be a powerful source of brand reputation online. One study demonstrated that 88% of consumers are influenced by reviews when making a purchase decision, and 74% check multiple review sites as part of their process.

However, curating those reviews can be a challenge in the finance industry. Marketers can encourage satisfied clients to leave authentic reviews through post-interaction emails or SMS, directing them to relevant third-party websites. Critically, these calls to action must be compliant with industry regulations and platform guidelines. Being transparent and asking customers to share their experiences to help others can help with gathering feedback. As another best practice, marketers should avoid incentivizing reviews in any way.

Once reviews start populating online, reputation management for financial firms necessitates prompt responses. This applies to all reviews, both positive and negative, using an engaging yet professional tone that reflects the brand’s mission and values. For positive feedback, messages can include acknowledgement, gratitude, and personalization (where appropriate) while keeping the message brief. Negative reviews may require longer responses that emphasize the brand’s sincerity, empathy, and interest in providing a resolution. For more complicated issues, responses can invite the reviewer to discuss their issue in more detail offline to provide more personalized service.

Curating reviews and managing responses can give banks opportunities for ongoing interaction with their customers. Marketers can take this a step further by leveraging ORM software to aggregate, analyze, and act on review data at scale. This information can not only inform bank reputation management but also offer data-driven decision making for the company as a whole, potentially helping to optimize customer service, product offerings, and competitive market share in the long term.

Establish Internal Escalation Protocols for Reputational Issues

While only 1.5% of consumers write reviews online, and an average of 19% of those reviews are likely to be negative. When, not if, brand monitoring or social listening platforms detect an external reputational issue such as a bad review, marketers will need to be ready to act on their predetermined ORM strategy. However, only 49% of all U.S. businesses have a formal crisis communications plan.

Banks should create a clearly defined process for escalating brand threats. These can range from viral posts to regulatory inquiries and even executive mentions. Initial language decided on during strategy meetings with legal will need to be customized to the situation at hand and then reviewed again by counsel to ensure compliance and limit liabilities. Beyond legal, resources will likely be required across public relations, marketing, and compliance teams to distribute coordinated responses.

Reacting quickly is critical in reputation management for financial firms, but responses should not be so swift that they forego escalation plans and protocols. Some issues, such as a negative customer review, can be managed individually through prompt outreach and personalized issue resolution. Other reputation threats may require more extensive measures such as an executive statement, press release, or media session. Marketers and corresponding teams should understand when and how to appropriately respond to each unique situation. Establishing regular simulations to test crisis response readiness can also help normalize internal reactions when the need arises.

Foster Employee Advocacy and Social Media Governance

Consumers are not the only source of online reputation hurdles. Even employees with the best intentions can impact bank reputation management. Social media policies should extend beyond stipulating when (or whether) employees are permitted to access social media during work hours. Suitable content pertaining to the bank and business activities should be outlined in detail to ensure employees preserve the brand’s reputation.

Social media governance for financial reputation management can encompass policies regarding:

Acceptable content distribution and sharing
Inappropriate language or topics
Applicable industry laws and regulations
Clear roles for monitoring and crisis response

Employee training and education at all levels of the organization can also help mitigate concerns moving forward regarding financial services reputation management. Frontline staff and executives should be aware of appropriate protocols and escalation policies to prevent well-intentioned yet counterproductive responses. Quarterly refreshers for employees on acceptable digital conduct and brand representation policies can also help reduce the potential for off-brand messaging or inappropriate responses.

In telling employees what they should not promote or distribute online, FIs can also provide acceptable content to empower their employees as brand advocates. Marketers can create branded, compliant, shareable content that has already passed legal review to give employees a way to help amplify positive sentiment and feel like part of the bigger picture.

Leverage Sentiment Analysis and ORM Tools

Brand reputation refers to the perception of a brand by the general public. Brand sentiment takes this deeper by evaluating the emotional response or expression of the consumers referring to a brand. Monitoring for brand reputation alerts a marketer if a brand has been mentioned online. Measuring brand sentiment informs the marketer if a particular mention puts the brand in a positive or negative light at a given moment.

Using sentiment analysis in addition to brand monitoring can enhance a marketer’s ability to react to customer dissatisfaction or brewing crises before they escalate. Those with a CRM in place may also want to establish proactive monitoring for accounts with reduced engagement or recurring support issues that could pave the way toward a consumer voicing their concerns online. The goal is for marketers to deploy tools that can analyze reputational trends across channels, both internal and external, in real time.

Remember, not all financial reputation management is about reacting to issues. Marketers and executives can gain powerful insight into account penetration trends, customer service oversights, and competitive differentiation by understanding how they are perceived by the public. Integrating sentiment and reputation platforms into broader marketing and communications dashboards can lead to improved customer relations, brand awareness and loyalty, and revenue generation.

Harnessing ORM to Move Your Bank Brand Forward

In the finance industry, credibility and trust are critical to a brand’s success and staying power. While marketers cannot control everything expressed about their company on the internet, they can encourage a proactive approach to reputation management banks can implement across the organization. An ORM strategy that includes internal processes for legal review and employee preparation as well as response plans for external threats can help manage reputation and build consumer confidence.

Vested helps consumer shape perceptions through integrated marketing strategies designed specifically for financial brands. Our marketing experts can help banks raise their digital profile and reputation with a combination of content development, consumer engagement, and crisis management. To learn more about brand reputation building and how it can fit into your marketing stack, contact the team at Vested.