SALESCALL: Of Online Banking & Variable Print

Have you checked out online banking yet? Very cool stuff: Pay bills, move money, manage your account all from home or the road. I feel like the master of my financial domain, though setting it up was no day at the beach. I spent quite a bit of time sitting with Sovereign Bank's customer service people, quite a bit more on the phone with their online specialists, and still more time being convinced by the branch manager that the Farquharson/Print Tec fortune was safe from those evil Libyan hackers (or are they from Jersey?).

In all, it took some effort to break the white-knuckle grip I had on my paper-based check, envelope-and-stamp system. How much time? Let me put it this way: I opened the account in March 2006, signed up for on line banking in April 2007, and just got around to getting a password in September. As Garth Algar* put it, “We fear change.”

What a pain in the assets it was to enroll. Each of my payees (credit cards, mortgage, car payment, bookie, etc.) had to be entered, complete with address and account number. I repeated this process four times: Once for me personally and once for each of the three companies I own.

The whole process got me thinking: What's in it for the bank? Hours of free consulting and customer assistance, thousands of dollars of ads on the radio, TV, billboard and in print, on top of the free bill pay service adds up to a pretty heavy investment. Why would they spend so much just to convince William J. Farquharson to sign up, sign on and let go?

As I considered that question, I drew a very close comparison to the process of getting a variable data printing customer signed up. What's in it for the bank is the same as what's in it for a digitally capable printer who would spends hours educating me to make print-ready files, collects and stores my data, and then outputs a personalized print campaign.

As a result of my time and effort, I have a deep time investment in Sovereign Bank. Other banks can offer better rates, free checking or a naked Swedish massage in the lobby (my contribution to the Suggestion Box), and there is little that I can do about it without having to spend all that time to set up my accounts once again—not likely. They've got me.

Think about it: If you are into VDP, you likely spend lots of money marketing its benefits, make numerous sales calls convincing the uninitiated why they need to go the way of the digital file, and sit with customers for countless hours teaching them how to make the digital file—and for what, a $250 order? What are you thinking?

If you're smart, you are thinking about the future. You are thinking, “As painful as this is, once the customer goes digital and gets into variable data printing, they will design for digital and even think in terms of digital printing. They will invite me in at the conceptual stage of the job and not the quoting stage like they do now. If I can help them to make the change, I will own top-of-mind positioning on future orders. I will own their files. I will own the customer.”

The future of banking is not unlike the future of printing: Own the file, own the customer. Hmmmm, maybe printers should give out free toasters with every new order. Where is that suggestion box?

*Wayne's World reference. As if!