Financial Services for Gen Y - Creative Confidence #14
In 2007, when PNC Financial Services was striving to appeal to younger customers, it created a new kind of account for young people. It attracted fourteen thousand new customers in the first two months.
PNC provides retail banking, corporate and institutional banking, and asset management services to more than six million people across the United States. It was looking to reach a new demographic, Generation Y.
When the team at PNC started getting to know Gen Yers, it became clear that while tech savvy, they are far from literate when it comes to banking and managing their finances. So, the team realized that Gen Y would benefit from tools to better manage their money.
PNC decided to build better long-term customer relationships by supporting healthier financial behavior.
They came up with PNC Virtual Wallet, a family of banking products that provides customers with digital access to their finances and enables them to have better control of their money.
Instead of a ledger, a calendar view helps customers visualize their balance, with estimated future cash flow based on when they get paid and when they pay bills. The view highlights Danger Days, when customers might overdraw their account, so they can reschedule bill payments, promoting better planning.
A money slide bar graphically indicates and controls fund allocation between Spend, Reserve, and Growth. With the Savings Engine, customers can set their own rules, such as automatically transferring money to savings when they receive a paycheck.
The new direction has paid off with greater deposit growth, making up for whatever revenue may have been lost from bounced check and overdraft fees.
By getting to know Gen Y and understanding their needs, PNC gained faith in the long-term success of the product.
Lesson:
There is nothing like observing the person you're creating something for to spark new insights.
[Creative Confidence Newsletter: 14 of 25]
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