Highlights From Forrester's Finance Forum 2006
If you weren't one of the 600 people who attended our Finance Forum 2006, "What's Next: The New Realities In Retail Financial Services," in New York City a couple of weeks ago, you missed a great event. But don't worry: There was so much outstanding content at the Forum that we decided to share some of the highlights.

Forrester's Bill Doyle kicked off the event by unveiling Forrester's 2006 Customer Advocacy Rankings.

Although USAA's score fell from last year, its customers still rate the organization higher on customer advocacy than all other major firms. And, as they have been for each of the past three years, credit unions are next in the overall rankings. In fact, many of the organizations at the top of our rankings have consistently landed near the top of the list, including AAA, State Farm, Vanguard, and Edward Jones.

But the news wasn't good for everyone. For example, in the past year, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase were the two lowest-ranked firms in our ranking. In fact, six of this year's bottom seven firms are large banks like Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America.

Bruce Temkin's keynote speech on the first day defined the new skills required for the new realities in retail financial services. The combination of changing consumer needs, increased competition, and new capabilities will force significant changes in the industry. To succeed, firms need to master five new skills: customer-centric DNA, solution management, cross-channel process agility, integrated merchandising, and interactive education. Look for more details in Forrester's upcoming report, "The Financial Services Survival Guide."

Harley Manning led off the second day with a speech about how to make the most of your financial services brand on the Web. The financial services industry includes world-famous brands like Citibank, Fidelity, and Morgan Stanley. But how good is the brand experience offered by major financial services Web sites today? To find out, Harley graded the sites of 16 top brands on how well they communicate their Brand Image and deliver value to consumers through Brand Action. Just one site managed to differentiate itself in both these dimensions: Fidelity.

Here are some highlights from our industry keynote speakers:

• Susan Faulkner, banking sales, service, and marketing executive for global consumer and small business at Bank of America (BofA), discussed how the bank serves customers across channels. An interesting insight: BofA surveys its associates to determine their level of confidence in selling different products.

• We heard a number of interesting things from our retirement marketing panelists. Sean Hagerty, CMO, Vanguard, said, "Close to 90% of our new clients shopped us online. Over half of the new accounts are opened online." Chris Armstrong, EVP, sales and marketing, TD Ameritrade, said, "Boomers won't wake up one day and want a full-service broker." James Wironen, VP, AARP Financial, said, "We have a requirement for all of our call centers to be in the US."

• According to Jane Thompson, president of Wal-Mart Financial Services, Wal-Mart currently offers check cashing, money orders, and money transfers, averaging more than 1.5 million transactions per week. And even though Wal-Mart wants a bank charter, it does not plan to open any branches or do any lending.

• James D. Weddle, managing partner of Edward Jones, discussed how his firm differentiates itself with face-to-face relationships. He said that small accounts can grow into big ones, and happy clients will bring in their parents and grandparents.

• Douglas K. Freeman, CEO of NetBank, described big banks as the "WT Grants" of the industry and said that he considers ETRADE to be his No. 1 competitor.

• Customer experience reviews. We can evaluate the usability of your Web sites, emails, and phone apps.

• Web site assessments. We can compare the features on your site with those of your competitors' sites.

• Market research. We can provide insights into consumers from our existing North American Consumer Technology Adoption Study data or through customized research.

• Online activity benchmarking. We can compare your firm's online efforts with those of other banks and credit unions.

Research Referenced In This Issue Business Process Management Suites Implementation Best Practices (39566) Customer Advocacy 2006: How Consumers Rate Their Banks, Brokerages, And Insurers (34610) Insights From Forrester's Finance Forum 2006 (39565) Make The Most Of Your Financial Services Brand On The Web (39270) Online Mortgage Shoppers' Paths To Purchase (39408) Prosper's P2P Lending Network Defies Status Quo (39530) The Customer Experience Value Chain (36551)    The Forrester Wave™ 2005 (36769) The Forrester Wave™: eService Suites, Q2 2006 (38429) The Forrester Wave™: European Web Design Agencies, Q2 2006 (37161) The Forrester Wave™: Rich Media Content Delivery, Q2 2006 (38786) The Forrester Wave™: Web Conferencing, Q2 2006 (37378) Zopa Shows That P2P Lending Can Work (39512)

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