RFG - Small Business National Research

Small Business Research sets the stage by reviewing key economic statistics affecting the marketing of small business services. Competitive information from a variety of sources concerning the most recent marketing strategies and tactics being employed nationally will be examined. Following this introduction, small business responses to questions in the following areas will be explored.

Economic Indicators:

Economic expectations influence financial actions taken by firms, knowing what they expect can make your institution’s small business expectations reality-bound. RFG will present trends on:

changes in projections as to how long the recession will continue,

which business actions businesses have taken to weather the downturn are on the rise and which are declining

sales level comparisons for the past two year, as well as future estimates

changes in priorities for taking on debt during the downturn

When the economy improves, how will small businesses responses to the turn-around impact their financial needs? What will drive future credit needs?
How sensitized are small businesses to fees/charges paid for financial services? How favorably/unfavorably do financial services charges compare to charges by other industries?
How do financial services stack up against other industries in regard to reasonable fees for services? How can your institution best deal with any negative customer images of financial services?
Small businesses face an uncertainly about possible climate legislation (increasing energy costs for firms), tax cuts set to expire and unknown obligations associated with possible health care legislation; expressing an understanding of their issues and perspectives positions a business development officer in a highly competitive stance.

Business Development:

What is the most efficient way financial institutions can reach small businesses who are seeking financial product/service information?
When firms are considering changing financial providers, what factors have the greatest influence on the selection of their new provider?
What is the likelihood small businesses will seek loans under the proposed government plan to divert $30 billion of federal bailout funds to provide capital for smaller banks (under $10B) to make these loans?

Attracting and Retaining Small Business Customers:

What is causing the decline in satisfaction reported by small business banking customers and what differences are present across types of providers?
Find out the key characteristics firms value in their main business banking contact, and how important this contact is to their overall banking relationship
Are you offering the right array of online small business banking services? What is the profile of an online business banker in terms of the online services used and frequency of use? How do firms compare with their retail counterparts?
Does your institution have the right information to invest resources appropriately to meet your business customers’ mobile banking needs? What mobile banking activities do small businesses currently engage in and what are their mobile banking plans for the next 12 months?
In the current market, what interest rate increase prompted firms to move their deposit accounts from one institution to another? What interest rate reduction prompted them to move their loan accounts from one institution to another? How does this compare trend-wise? What do you need to do to protect customer defection, or attract new customers?
Should your institution devote resources to a small business newsletter? What value do firms place on their financial institution’s newsletter? Would firms like their financial institution to provide a newsletter? If so, what contents/topics do they want?
Learn how to best meet your customers channel preferences and usage patterns by understanding how they vary across size and type of firm. Learn how their channel usage differs from their consumer counterparts.

The Major Small Business Bank Providers:

What is the penetration level of the major small business bank providers (BofA, Chase, Citi, Wells and PNC) among small businesses? What can we learn about them from their customers? How can we use their customer profiles (comprehensive information provided by their customers) to successfully compete with them? How do satisfaction ratings among all financial institutions compare with each other?

Segmentation - The Competitive Advantage: