Relevance, not love, key to bank marketing - Andy Lark

Technology is bringing big changes to the way people interact with their banks, says Andy Lark. Photo / Andy Lukey

Ralph Norris' departure from Commonwealth Bank of Australia doesn't mean the bank will be cutting its Kiwi ties.

His successor, Ian Narev, is also a New Zealander, as is its head of marketing, Andy Lark.

Lark's last job was head of global marketing for Dell's public and large enterprise group and, like Norris, he is passionate about the role of technology in business. But he is also well aware that banks are hardly flavour of the month right now.

"We wake up, like everybody, concerned about what we see happening globally with regard to the attitude towards banks," he agrees. "But no matter what industry you're in you feel as if you're not exactly loved by people, so the real challenge you face as a marketer in a bank is not being loved, it's being relevant."

Lark defends last year's interest rate hike by CBA as the right thing to do.

"CEOs don't get paid on popularity - they get paid on making the tough calls and making the tough decisions. So Ralph had a huge amount of courage to do that, I think."

Lark's aim is to remind people the value they actually get for their monthly bank fees. And he is hugely excited about various projects underway intended to ensure the bank is seen as the leader in its field.

In October the bank unveiled Kaching, a mobile phone application which allows customers to email each other money, as well as make payments through Facebook. The application also has a PayPass facility, meaning users can simply wave their phones over special terminals to make a payment.

"For me to email you $20 to send it to your phone, or to your Facebook account, it's game-changing," he enthuses.

Huge amounts of money are also being spent on data mining, says Lark. The bank has two main datasets - information about its customers, and real-time monitoring of their transactions, for security and other reasons.

"There's a huge amount of innovation in this space."

Meanwhile, banks are also eyeing the market for the storage of digital data as well as money.

Most of CBA's 10 million customers already use its online banking service, known as NetBank, and increasing numbers are using mobile phones as well. According to Lark, one noticeable trend is that many customers are now logging in with their phones while watching TV. In April, there was a huge spike of customers logging in during the British royal wedding - presumably doing a bit of banking during the boring bits.

Tracking these sorts of transactions in real time helps the bank roster staff more efficiently, he says.

Lark also notes that Facebook is still growing exponentially, and that two-thirds of New Zealanders are now believed to spend more than three hours a week on the social network. In Australia, the figure is believed to be 84 per cent, making Australia Facebook's third largest market by penetration.

As a frequent user of Twitter and other social media, Lark is excited about the possibilities for improving customer service through dedicated social response teams.

"One of the things that Ralph has done which is nothing short of remarkable is the turnaround in customer satisfaction," he gushes.

But of course, there is always room for improvement - this week thousands of customers were unable to access their funds due to a "network connectivity problem" which also affected eftpos purchases and phone banking. Twitter went ballistic.