This Week in Customer Engagement: October 10th

Whether you were crushing it with CCW’s team in Nashville last week or are just in need of a detailed guide connecting today’s news with the customer experience, you came to the right place.

This Week in Customer Engagement: October 10th 

1. Money Lost in Fraud Battle with Zelle

Seven of the world’s largest banks own Zelle, an online money-transferring tool similar to apps like Venmo and Cash App. Unfortunately, the transactions have proven to be less than secure. Senator Elizabeth Warren has recently targeted one of the banks that use the application, Wells Fargo, in her latest campaign for the people. While most banks experience a small percentage of fraudulent transactions, Wells Fargo's customers have had an enormous number of financial deceits while using Zelle. Senator Warren’s issue isn’t just that 0.06% of Wells Fargo customers with Zelle experience fraud (double what members of other banks experience), but that the money they lose is gone forever: “Banks also often refuse to issue refunds even to customers who claim money was taken from their account without their authorization,” The New York Times reports, “a potential violation of federal law.”

Wells Fargo spokesperson, Amy Bonitatibus, refutes Warren’s claim, stating, “As a member of Zelle, we've seen the number of transactions double in just three years, yet in 2022, 99.94% of our customer transactions occurred without incident. We don't believe the numbers in a recent report are done on a comparable basis, and therefore the analysis is misleading and inaccurate.” Perhaps she is right, but her statement has hardly calmed customer fears.

It's customary for retail businesses to refund customers when the client feels even slightly wronged, but banks are often not held to the same standard. Anyone who has lost their debit card, had their credit card used without their permission, or made a large purchase that made the bank suspect criminal activity can attest to the snail’s pace of the customer care they received across multiple channels of contact. Even if the customer gets through the grueling process of removing fraudulent charges, those charges are rarely removed within a few days and, more often than not, take weeks or even months.

Will banks finally be forced to pay up (in a timely matter) for the customers that have felt wronged? Who will take culpability, Zelle or Wells Fargo? Keep up with the story here.

2. Van Gough eats Soup

What do famous art and climate change have in common? They share some fans, a few favorite landscapes, and, most recently, a can of Heinz Tomato Soup. Early on October 14^th, two young environmental activists threw tomato soup on Van Gough’s “Sunflowers” painting in London, begging the question: Do we care more about painted sunflowers than real ones?

Dani Di Placido with Forbes notes, “Sure, Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” is a unique, priceless piece of art, and if it is damaged, there is no replacement - but why isn’t Earth’s ecosystem treated with the same level of deference?” The point may be valid, but not all those who watched the two protesters glue themselves to the wall in an act of defiance were quite as moved.

At CEI, we’ve talked at length about what it means to listen to your customer. These protestors are publicly displaying an ideal that many of your Millennial and Gen Z customers live by: protect the earth like your life depends on it. While not everyone goes to the extreme of pasting themselves to a wall, these individuals are so passionate about environmentalism they are willing to go to jail for it. Perhaps it’s time brands heed the calling and take actions to protect the climate like they protect their product. Read more about authentic advocacy here and about the tomato soup incident here.

3. Mass Marketing is dead

Gen Z is flying through trends at an alarming rate. By the time your marketing team has developed a witty strategy that capitalizes on the trend, it’s over. Gen Z is on to the next one.

How can brands effectively market to a group that changes its mind so quicky? By saying goodbye to mass marketing and incorporating a niche, subculture-targeted marketing plan. DigiDay recently reported that “(91%) of those aged 18 to 25 [say] there is no ‘mainstream’ pop culture.” Rather there are small groups of individuals who share aesthetics, hobbies, or styles.

A large part of this is due to social media platforms and streaming services. When, a few decades ago, there were only a handful of channels on TV and the only new music you were discovering was from the radio, the lack of choice created a more cohesive notion of what pop culture everyone consumed. Now, however, with an abundance of choice, it’s so much more difficult for something to take off as a universal hit—and to get more than 15 minutes of fame.

Marketing to Gen Z properly is becoming increasingly important as their buying power continues to grow. Learn more about how you can personalize your marketing strategy to these niche groups here.

4. If It's Online, It Must be True

Popular social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have been known to have a degree of misinformation on them. Despite fact-checkers working around the clock for the sites, misinformation has yet to be eradicated entirely. In fact, on Thursday, October 13^th, the Integrity Institute released a dashboard dedicated to Misinformation Amplification Analysis and Tracking. The dashboard will be updated weekly until the elections in early November.

The initial report found that different platforms have different misinformation amplification levels. Twitter, for example, scored high, as they have a “retweet” function that allows users to spread an idea to thousands, sometimes millions, of followers in an instant. Facebook’s is lower, with content that goes viral slower and takes more effort.

Even considering the varying degrees, all social media platforms have an awesome ability to amplify information. This on its own is not a problem. What makes it a negative is the fact that misinformation is much more likely to be shared than factual content.

Using social media and controlling your brand’s reputation has never been more important. Customers no longer take for granted that just because a brand’s handle has the blue check mark its content is truthful—Amazon blew that idea out of the water when they misled customers about transportation worker conditions. Your company must go above and beyond, using data before making claims and refraining from re-sharing information unless you are 100% confident in the source. To learn more about the current state of misinformation in social media, click here.

Header Image: Photo by Jazmin Quaynor on Unsplash  

In Text Photo 1: Photo by Erol Ahmed on Unsplash  

In Text Photo 2: Photo by Luke Porter on Unsplash