Out of those who apply for various financial services online, 54 percent are thought to abandon the process before it is completed.
The information people want about financial products tends to be hidden behind application processes on such websites. People who would like to see those details have no choice but to go through the process.
This may help the consumer, but it plays merry hell with the conversion rates. ComScore and Forrester Research looked into the issue of finance and abandonment, and found the devil in the details.
49 percent of applicants in their survey had no intention of completing an application process. That group cited a few reasons for why they entered a process on a financial website:
The top reasons cited by those who did not intend to complete the application included:
• Wanted more product information (23 percent) • Not ready to apply (19 percent) • Wanted to see if they qualified for the product (14 percent)
Forrester Research Senior Analyst Brad Strothkamp said of the conversion problem, "Today’s financial services sites have a ways to go at both understanding and solving this important issue."
There is an object lesson here for site publishers. If people enter a conversion process, then abandon it, and do so in sufficient numbers, it probably means there is a piece of information that belongs in a FAQ or help section that visitors wish to find.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
PeopleJam Procures Financial Backing
Here’s the news: PeopleJam just raised some funds from AOL Time Warner’s former COO and the current CEO of TiVo. Here’s the background: PeopleJam is a social network that’s currently in an invitation-only testing mode; membership may or may not, as the homepage suggests, allow you to “take your life to the next level!”“At PeopleJam, you’ll have opportunities to connect with others who share your goals, ideals and values, as well as members who have been or are going through similar life experiences,” explains an “About Us” section. “You’ll also benefit from the diverse knowledge of hundreds of experts and life coaches who have joined PeopleJam to share advice and illustrative stories through video, articles and blogs on various life topics, including weight loss, relationships, personal finances and purposeful living.”The description then continues, “By participating in PeopleJam’s community and taking advantage of our easy-to-use features, you’ll be given the chance to act and build upon your hopes, dreams and aspirations.”I’m going to kind of back away and let you decide for yourself whether you buy that pitch. There’s at least one aspect of the site that I’m quite fond of, however - the picture of a boxer (the dog, not the fighter) at a computer.And I’ll give Bob Kriegel, a motivational speaker, credit for trying to make an automotive reference. “The thing that’s most important about a goal: passion, baby,” he states on the homepage. “Passion is like high octane fuel in your car. When you’re passionate about something, mountains seem like molehills.” Trouble is, high octane fuel does absolutely nothing for a car unless the car requires it. And if you put regular in a car that needs premium, it’s the molehills that’ll seem like mountains.Also, I’m not quite sure what’s going on with the site’s “Press Release” section - it only provides a link to Marc Graser’s article in Variety. That won’t interfere with the PeopleJam’s true purpose, however, and to each his (or her) own, etc.By the way, the amount of funding that PeopleJam received remains unknown, and it’s also unclear when the site will exit its invitation-only period.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Financial Firms Banking On Podcasts
Clients of some investment firms will soon have the opportunity to download podcasts of financial research for easy listening.
They may be the cure for insomnia for most people, but relevant market research has extensive demand among the power brokers on Wall Street and elsewhere. Since the iPod and iTunes have found their way into so many people's lives, it's very logical that some firms should capitalize on iPod users who wield briefcases and board meetings each workday.
Several financial firms have started or will start podcasts, the Wall Street Journal noted in a report. Well-known bond expert Bill Gross of Pimco has his monthly podcast downloaded 5,000 times a month.
John Caldwell, a chief investment strategist at McDonald Financial Group, does a Monthly Market Commentary podcast and others related to personal finance for the company. However, his last podcast on iTunes is dated March 7th, so this may be less timely than others. (How about an update, John?)
Bear Stearns will be the latest to join the podcast field, the article said. But unlike Gross or Caldwell, those podcasts will only be available to clients of the investment bank.
Even though podcast listening has not been widely adopted, with reports that only one percent of Internet users listen to them currently, the financial sector could be a driver for podcast adoption with its customer base.
These firms generate lots of reports for their clients. A powerful Wall Street firm could afford to hire or contract with voice artists to read those reports for recording on a regular basis.
An investment bank could make certain strategic investments itself, perhaps giving iPods pre-loaded with some recent reports to select clients along with specific instructions on subscribing to future podcasts.
They may be the cure for insomnia for most people, but relevant market research has extensive demand among the power brokers on Wall Street and elsewhere. Since the iPod and iTunes have found their way into so many people's lives, it's very logical that some firms should capitalize on iPod users who wield briefcases and board meetings each workday.
Several financial firms have started or will start podcasts, the Wall Street Journal noted in a report. Well-known bond expert Bill Gross of Pimco has his monthly podcast downloaded 5,000 times a month.
John Caldwell, a chief investment strategist at McDonald Financial Group, does a Monthly Market Commentary podcast and others related to personal finance for the company. However, his last podcast on iTunes is dated March 7th, so this may be less timely than others. (How about an update, John?)
Bear Stearns will be the latest to join the podcast field, the article said. But unlike Gross or Caldwell, those podcasts will only be available to clients of the investment bank.
Even though podcast listening has not been widely adopted, with reports that only one percent of Internet users listen to them currently, the financial sector could be a driver for podcast adoption with its customer base.
These firms generate lots of reports for their clients. A powerful Wall Street firm could afford to hire or contract with voice artists to read those reports for recording on a regular basis.
An investment bank could make certain strategic investments itself, perhaps giving iPods pre-loaded with some recent reports to select clients along with specific instructions on subscribing to future podcasts.
The Next Wave at Work
A report in the Financial Times on social media in the workplace highlights some terrific examples from companies who talk about the benefits to be gained from deploying blogs, wikis and RSS.
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein:[] More than 450 DrKW employees have internal blogs and the bank has built an internal wiki with more than 2,000 pages which is used by a quarter of its workforce. After just six months, the traffic on the wiki exceeds that on the entire DrKW intranet. [] The wiki is also used with video clips to substitute traditional manuals in training new recruits. [] DrKW uses Really Simple Syndication (RSS) technology to inform employees when the contents of wikis or blogs are changed. (The FT reported in December 2004 on DrKW's use of blogs for internal communication.)
KnowNow: [] KnowHow's hosted service aggregates content from blogs, newsfeeds and applications such as Oracle. The content is filtered to match the interests of each user and pushed out as RSS alerts, either to a Google browser bar, a dedicated RSS reader or an instant messaging client. The FT feature concludes with a good thought for those who worry about employees spending time on blogs, from DrKW's JP Rangaswami:[] Is blogging a good use of company time? They are going to have these conversations anyway - in the lift, for example - and if the topic is boring, people lose interest. It is self-policing.Financial Times Social networking becomes work
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein:[] More than 450 DrKW employees have internal blogs and the bank has built an internal wiki with more than 2,000 pages which is used by a quarter of its workforce. After just six months, the traffic on the wiki exceeds that on the entire DrKW intranet. [] The wiki is also used with video clips to substitute traditional manuals in training new recruits. [] DrKW uses Really Simple Syndication (RSS) technology to inform employees when the contents of wikis or blogs are changed. (The FT reported in December 2004 on DrKW's use of blogs for internal communication.)
KnowNow: [] KnowHow's hosted service aggregates content from blogs, newsfeeds and applications such as Oracle. The content is filtered to match the interests of each user and pushed out as RSS alerts, either to a Google browser bar, a dedicated RSS reader or an instant messaging client. The FT feature concludes with a good thought for those who worry about employees spending time on blogs, from DrKW's JP Rangaswami:[] Is blogging a good use of company time? They are going to have these conversations anyway - in the lift, for example - and if the topic is boring, people lose interest. It is self-policing.Financial Times Social networking becomes work
The Real Value of Communication
Headline findings from the 2005/2006 Communication ROI Study from employee benefits and HR consulting firm WatsonWyatt:
Companies that communicate effectively have a 19.4 percent higher market premium than companies that do not.
Shareholder returns for organizations with the most effective communication were over 57 percent higher over the last five years (2000-2004) than were returns for firms with less effective communication.
The 2005/2006 study found evidence that communication effectiveness is a leading indicator of financial performance.
Firms that communicate effectively are 4.5 times more likely to report high levels of employee engagement versus firms that communicate less effectively.
Companies that are highly effective communicators are 20 percent more likely to report lower turnover rates than their peers.
Companies that communicate effectively have a 19.4 percent higher market premium than companies that do not.
Shareholder returns for organizations with the most effective communication were over 57 percent higher over the last five years (2000-2004) than were returns for firms with less effective communication.
The 2005/2006 study found evidence that communication effectiveness is a leading indicator of financial performance.
Firms that communicate effectively are 4.5 times more likely to report high levels of employee engagement versus firms that communicate less effectively.
Companies that are highly effective communicators are 20 percent more likely to report lower turnover rates than their peers.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Four Steps to Overcome Collaboration Obstacles
A thoughtful feature in the Financial Times discusses the question of why in-house collaboration in organizations is so difficult, with the consequent impact on effective working.
The article highlights some accepted theories about this, including these:[The first theory] is that most companies have "first generation organisation structures and second generation management capabilities". Internal synergies will only come with the right organisation structure - overlapping accountabilities for products, geographies and functions - and when managers have acquired the right skills and attitude - a "matrix in the mind of managers". Under this view, a company should restrict its ambitions until it has developed the appropriate structures and skills.
The second theory comes from authors such as Gary Hamel of London Business School and Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard. They say that most managers suffer from the "not-invented-here" syndrome, a character flaw that is amplified when they are given responsibility for divisions or business units. Hell-bent on making a success of their unit, they ignore links with other departments and reject anything they see as interference. The remedy, under this view, is to reduce the importance of structural units while drilling managers in collaborative behaviour and giving them incentives for co-operation.The bold text is my emphasis. All of this rings a few bells for me from a previous work experience. So I like the argument of the author of the FT feature (Andrew Campbell, a director of the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre) who sees an entirely different way of addressing this, and offers four steps managers can take to overcome collaboration obstacles:
1. Managers should put more effort into calculating the size of the prize. This is not a question of broad concepts such as best practices or savings on group purchases. It needs to be a cost-benefit analysis of a tightly defined synergy opportunity.
2. Once the prize is clear, managers can investigate why collaboration is not already happening [and] go beyond broad concepts such as not-invented-here attitudes to understand why sensible managers are not doing what appears to be the sensible thing.
3. Once the reason for inaction is clear, managers can assess whether they have the skill and will to unblock the problem. Sometimes it requires hard choices in terms of restructuring or personnel changes, sometimes hands-on expertise on the part of managers.
4. Look out for downsides - distraction costs, contamination risks, loss of accountability, initiative and motivation. There is a dark side to collaboration that is all too apparent in some companies. In these organisations, it is politically correct to collaborate, regardless of the cost.
Campbell's conclusion is that by applying these four steps, senior managers can create synergies without the upfront investment implied by the current received wisdom and without the risks associated with blurred accountability and restructured organisations.
The article highlights some accepted theories about this, including these:[The first theory] is that most companies have "first generation organisation structures and second generation management capabilities". Internal synergies will only come with the right organisation structure - overlapping accountabilities for products, geographies and functions - and when managers have acquired the right skills and attitude - a "matrix in the mind of managers". Under this view, a company should restrict its ambitions until it has developed the appropriate structures and skills.
The second theory comes from authors such as Gary Hamel of London Business School and Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard. They say that most managers suffer from the "not-invented-here" syndrome, a character flaw that is amplified when they are given responsibility for divisions or business units. Hell-bent on making a success of their unit, they ignore links with other departments and reject anything they see as interference. The remedy, under this view, is to reduce the importance of structural units while drilling managers in collaborative behaviour and giving them incentives for co-operation.The bold text is my emphasis. All of this rings a few bells for me from a previous work experience. So I like the argument of the author of the FT feature (Andrew Campbell, a director of the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre) who sees an entirely different way of addressing this, and offers four steps managers can take to overcome collaboration obstacles:
1. Managers should put more effort into calculating the size of the prize. This is not a question of broad concepts such as best practices or savings on group purchases. It needs to be a cost-benefit analysis of a tightly defined synergy opportunity.
2. Once the prize is clear, managers can investigate why collaboration is not already happening [and] go beyond broad concepts such as not-invented-here attitudes to understand why sensible managers are not doing what appears to be the sensible thing.
3. Once the reason for inaction is clear, managers can assess whether they have the skill and will to unblock the problem. Sometimes it requires hard choices in terms of restructuring or personnel changes, sometimes hands-on expertise on the part of managers.
4. Look out for downsides - distraction costs, contamination risks, loss of accountability, initiative and motivation. There is a dark side to collaboration that is all too apparent in some companies. In these organisations, it is politically correct to collaborate, regardless of the cost.
Campbell's conclusion is that by applying these four steps, senior managers can create synergies without the upfront investment implied by the current received wisdom and without the risks associated with blurred accountability and restructured organisations.
Reuters Financial Glossary Wiki
Reuters is hosting a Financial Glossary Wiki, a fascinating case study for the way enterprises will host professional communities.
For a major enterprise, this venture contains a degree of Risk:
The probability that an investment or venture will make a loss or not make the returns expected. This probability can be measured. There are many different types of risk including basis risk, country or sovereign risk, credit risk, currency risk, economic risk, inflation risk, liquidity risk, market or systematic risk, political risk, settlement risk, systemic risk and translation risk.
The Glossary was initially based upon their second edition, which is available for purchase. Then they baked it out with an internal soft launch. The value of this approach is you prototype in private while building a community of employees prior to launch. The opposite of the Wikitorial debacle. Content is licensed as Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial, a fundamental underpinning of the social contract, and they have adopted Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View and other values.
A well hedged position. So what is the potential reward? Reuters is putting itself at the center of it's industry in cultivating shared language. The renewable resource becomes a focus of attention that can be directed in respect of the social contract. The community that may form, their greatest challenge going forward, could contribute tangible word of mouth benefits. This is community marketing, people -- an essential move as trust and influence shifts from institutions to peers. And very significant institutions are starting to get it.
Ross Mayfield is CEO and co-founder of Socialtext, an emerging provider of Enterprise Social Software that dramatically increases group productivity and develops a group memory.
He also writes Ross Mayfield's Weblog which focuses on markets, technology and musings.
For a major enterprise, this venture contains a degree of Risk:
The probability that an investment or venture will make a loss or not make the returns expected. This probability can be measured. There are many different types of risk including basis risk, country or sovereign risk, credit risk, currency risk, economic risk, inflation risk, liquidity risk, market or systematic risk, political risk, settlement risk, systemic risk and translation risk.
The Glossary was initially based upon their second edition, which is available for purchase. Then they baked it out with an internal soft launch. The value of this approach is you prototype in private while building a community of employees prior to launch. The opposite of the Wikitorial debacle. Content is licensed as Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial, a fundamental underpinning of the social contract, and they have adopted Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View and other values.
A well hedged position. So what is the potential reward? Reuters is putting itself at the center of it's industry in cultivating shared language. The renewable resource becomes a focus of attention that can be directed in respect of the social contract. The community that may form, their greatest challenge going forward, could contribute tangible word of mouth benefits. This is community marketing, people -- an essential move as trust and influence shifts from institutions to peers. And very significant institutions are starting to get it.
Ross Mayfield is CEO and co-founder of Socialtext, an emerging provider of Enterprise Social Software that dramatically increases group productivity and develops a group memory.
He also writes Ross Mayfield's Weblog which focuses on markets, technology and musings.
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