I had the pleasure of seeing Arkadi Kuhlman, Chairman, President and CEO of ING Direct speak this morning. ING Direct has been remarkably successful building the largest direct bank in North America. I now understand why. Mr. Kuhlman noted that like consumers he hates bankers and this has inspired a renegade view across his company. For example, while big banks are outsourcing, ING keeps the jobs local. Banks push 800 numbers and phone trees. ING has real people answering the phone right away. Banks try to cross sell at every opportunity. ING favors focusing marketing resources on new customer acquisition.
ING has challenged conventional wisdom at every turn. While the 16,000 largest banks in the US focus on the 30 million richest Americans, ING is concentrating on the 270 million less-affluent consumers. They have found the “Main Street” customer easier and less costly to service than the more demanding super-affluent crowd. They have taken strong advocacy points of view versus the usually demure banking industry. Rather than use focus groups, ING takes advantage of every consumer interaction to learn from its customers. ING’s non-traditional cafes also provide a relaxed environment to gain customer insights and feedback.
Mr. Kuhlman spent a lot of time talking about how ING’s value system drives employee productivity and informs its business practices. One such value is total honesty and he noted firing three employees recently who did not follow up on promises made to consumers. He called this behavior “lying” and completely “unacceptable.” He noted that ING employees go through a rigorous training program called the “Orange Journey” much like Marine boot camp. He also described his highly unusual interviewing process that included hand writing analysis and reviewing photos of one’s closet. His search focused on character and drive not education or past training.
He described seeking people to join a “mission” to change banking as we know it. The result of this highly customer-centric business approach has been double-digit growth for several years adding 150,000 new customers annually. Mr. Kuhlman proudly referred to the fact that 40 percent of its new customers arrive from word of mouth . Not surprisingly, ING tracks Net Promoter Score carefully to make sure customer satisfaction and referrals remain strong.
ING Direct’s focus on the enhancing the customer experience at every turn (i.e. humans answer phones, online forms are short and easy to complete, eliminating annoying fees) is a terrific example of Marketing for Good in action. What’s really interesting is that while a number of banks have tried to copy various aspects of ING Direct’s approach few have made a dent. ING Direct has gained competitive advantage by making customer satisfaction part of its DNA and continuing to enhance their offerings with missionary zeal. This spirit of “good” is not easily replicated.