Alternative t Management: the Bank Counting on Video

You wouldnt expect the Financial Times to be the place you discover people who are using video in new ways. Whilst trying to read my copy of the FT in the one square inch of space you get on a normal London commuter train, I came across a really brilliant piece on a Bank that has set up a TV Channel.

Now I know what youre thinking at this moment - hold on - Ive been subjected to the Banks' TV channels for years whilst stuck in the 20 minute queue to speak to someone. Nothing more than canned adverts for the bank's products on a rolling reel of death, they only just beat the horror of being sat in the doctor's surgery faced with the same thing but running pieces on how you are overweight, stressed or at risk of cancer.

This TV channel is different - its a genuine news channel that has become the one of the most watched, in the entire country.

The country is Sweden and the bank in question is Handelsbanken, a rapidly expanding organisation with branches across Europe. Launching a news channel is something that you might associate with a trendy investment bank or one of the high street giants, not a relative unknown.

Renowned for its deliberate policy of devolving decision making to a local branch to provide a more personalised service, Handelsbanken is a genuine believer in relationship banking and knowing their customers. It only lends money only to people who can actually pay it back, as an example.

Their approach is clearly working. Not only was it the only bank in Sweden not to take a government bailout (much to the annoyance of its competitors apparently), its growing like crazy here in the UK, opening branches at the rate of two a week.

The FT article Swedens Back to the Future Banker sums them up well. They launched their TV channel not because a strategic consultant told them so, but because when they asked their customers how they liked to get information, they said video clips.

Rather than just put up some clips on what products they provide and some fluff marketing speech from the CEO, they decided to go all out and make a full news channel. The result is this (Swedish language only): http://tv.handelsbanken.se.

The channel nowhas over 100,000 viewers in Sweden and is the countrys leading online news service.

They realised that as a corporation - be that a bank, mobile phone network, car manufacturer or coffee shop, one of the things that sets you apart from your competition is what value you can give to your customer. The TV channel from Handelsbanken gives people something they value - up to date financial news in short digestible clips that they can watch anywhere. In return the bank keeps its customers happy and reinforces its brand with those who arent yet clients.

Im amongst the many people here in the UK who isn't exactly jumping for joy when it comes to the service from their bank. The way Handelsbanken operates has certainly caught my eye - Id never heard of them before reading this article. Whether theyd want my overdraft is another matter, but Id be interested in becoming a customer!

If as a corporation you read this and take one thing away - its that Handelsbankens customers told them they wanted video. The challenge is to give them they want in return - high quality, informative video thats regularly produced, with all the challenges that entails. In true Handelsbanken fashion - wed be happy to help.

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