3 Technologies Citi is Honing to Improve Customer Relationships

Banks need to prove their value to customers, Paul Kadin, executive vice president, North America Consumer Banking Customer Strategy at Citibank, told attendees at the Financial Services Marketing Symposium in New York yesterday. "We ask our customers to conform to us, to come to our channels, to work within our policies, to pay pricing that covers our cost," he said. "In earlier times, the tradeoff was some security, some trust, some feeling of safety for the money. That equation has eroded over the last few years dramatically."

Citi is using technology to provide value to customers in a few ways, he said.

1. Combining reward points, mobile coupons and mobile payments. Through its partnership with Google Wallet, the bank already generates coupons customers can use as they tap and pay with Google Wallet using a Citi card. An iPhone application Citi has developed with Best Buy lets customers research an item in which they're interested with a barcode scanner and later buy it using loyalty points. A future scenario will look like this, Kadin said: The customer will check in to a retailer and a "dynamic offer engine" will deliver that person's Citi rewards balance and location- and time-specific offers from nearby merchants. The customer will use a barcode scanner to check for additional offers and compare prices and redemption opportunities. Before checkout, the customer will select a means of payment that can be a mix of banking accounts, debit and credit cards and gift cards. At the register, the customer will pay with a tap and Citi will display the customer's current reward balance, account balance and other offers.

2. Providing content and free wifi to "be in customers' lives." "In the past, we've put our message out in locations customers travel to, and it might be relevant, but it's our message to them — it's one-way, self-serving messaging," Kadin said. Citi longs to be a valued presence as customers travel through the media universe throughout their day. For example, a mom might start her day looking at news on the web, later check emails, get ideas for what to make for dinner or how to entertain the kids, check in with friends on Facebook and at the end of the day watch a movie on her laptop. Citi has partnered with BabyCenter to provide articles about raising children that can be pushed out to such customers throughout the day.

In other media sponsorships, Citi provides content about simplifying one's life for its Simplicity cardholders. [This is reminiscent of SunTrust Bank's LiveSolid site, which provides articles about living within one's means.] The bank also has a partnership with LiveNation, the entertainment company, through which it provides concert-related special offers only to those who "like" the bank on Facebook. Citi provides complimentary wifi access at places where it knows its customers go (one such place is its flagship store in Union Square in Manhattan).

3. "Social listening," in other words, monitoring customer comments on social media sites. "This is important because some value is being added by our clients amongst each other," Kadin said. "We have a large group of people who monitor social conversations all the time and participate when appropriate." Recently a woman using the site Gripe [http://www.gri.pe/] complained about her Citi credit card. Citi's social media team saw the comment, replied to the customer on the site, solved her problem and turned the situation around. "This only comes about if we're transparent, open and honest and in our customers' lives watching those dialogues," Kadin said.