Most bank customers don’t want their financial institution tweeting at them or asking for “Likes,” and they prefer to air their grievances face to face.
A survey by Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group shows that nearly 90 percent of bank customers believe their financial institution’s use of social media is “annoying, boring or unhelpful,” and more than half said their bank’s use of social media is “ineffective.”
McLean-based Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) probably disagrees. It has launched a major social media campaign tied to the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament.
More than two-thirds of those surveyed by Carlisle and Gallagher said they would never use a social media channel to solve their problems with a bank. But banks should be prepared to deal with customers who would use very public social media platforms to complain, said Patricia Sahm, customer experience leader for the Charlotte, N.C.-based management and technology consulting firm.
Facebook was by far the most popular social media platform, used by 54 percent of those surveyed, while 18 percent used Twitter.
The consulting firm performed an online sampling of 1,002 U.S. consumers in September 2013.
