KeyCorp, a Cleveland bank, will offer consolidated statements to its retail customers this spring. They’ll reflect everything from credit card charges to investment updates. The effort follows successful integration of the bank’s high-net-worth and brokerage clients.
The bank has realized annual savings of more than $400,000 by reformatting statements and moving production in-house, said Al Pytel, senior vice president for banking services. It has done this using Exstream’s Dialogue software.
But the initiative’s return on investment is also being judged by how many clients choose to receive the all-in-one statements, which show a customer’s entire relationship with the bank — from investment products to credit cards to retail banking accounts.
“Everyone will tell you the main reasons for a statement enhancement is to retain current clients,” noted Connie Markiewicz, senior product development manager for KeyCorp’s investment services arm McDonald Financial Group.
Over 350,000 McDonald clients receive the consolidated statement quarterly, as do some 60,000 affluent customers.
McDonald’s high-net-worth clients have investment assets above $500,000, while wealth-management clients have more than $5 million. Markiewicz said the bank conducted interviews with clients across the country to find out what they wanted in a statement.
“Clients at the level we’re talking about want a balance sheet,” she said. “They want to be able to take that information and pass it along to their accountant and know where they stand at the end of the month.”
Within the statement, there is a common area up front for both McDonald’s investment and banking divisions that can be utilized for cross-selling. But while the potential to cross-sell banking services to investment clients and vice versa is strong, Markiewicz added that McDonald is concentrating on the messaging capabilities of the Exstream product, and conducting campaigns to inform customers of all the bank’s services. McDonald Investments merged with KeyCorp in May 1998, and McDonald Financial Group was formed about a year ago. “We’re still trying to get the message out that we can do it all,” she said.
Markiewicz said a survey is in the works to get feedback from clients about the revised statements, which began mailing last September. An e-mail box was also set up after the statements were rolled out to elicit comment from clients and the sales force. The response — positive and negative — was enlightening, she said. “Some people don’t like change. But many people thought the fact that they could offer feedback was great.”
While McDonald Financial hasn’t utilized direct marketing in the past to reach its investment clients, it’s considering a step in that direction, said Markiewicz, noting the initiatives would be more strategy- and brand-focused rather than product-oriented. Services like the bank’s online capabilities and the option to receive only electronic rather than paper statements may be highlighted. About 11% of the customers who enrolled in online banking over the past 12 months have opted for online statement delivery, said Pytel.
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