Success Metrics

Insights supporting M&A efforts with expansion to new markets and enhanced store experiences

Increased client experience through improved marketing and communications

Launch of new online and mobile banking platforms

Overview

EverBank, a leading financial institution in the US, is focused on inspiring their clients to make bold financial moves with confidence. Through improving client experiences the EverBank research team aims to build stronger, more meaningful relationships leading to long lasting brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. 

Their long-term strategy includes targeting key areas for growth, strengthening EverBank's role in clients' financial lives, and developing strategies to maintain and grow customer retention as they continue to expand their brand footprint. As the bank grows to new markets, a well rounded and deep understanding of customer needs and market demands is crucial.

Program Goals:

  • Guide development and refinement of EverBank’s brand, products and services
  • Enhanced effectiveness and clarity of marketing efforts
  • Improve client online and brand experience

Business Opportunity

As the needs of today’s modern banking client evolve, EverBank knows keeping a pulse on client needs and expectations is vital. From enhancing marketing communications to better connect with clients, to identifying strategic opportunities for growth, there was a wealth of opportunity to use client insights to impact brand strategy.

With a recent rebrand and expansion efforts on the way, feedback from clients was a key step to ensure launch and implementation strategies were successful.  The organization also needed to understand how customers felt about the current economic climate, pain points they’re facing, and what clients wanted from their in-person and digital experiences.

“Through the client community we felt we could fully understand the impact of the rebrand and what that would look like from their perspective. As we approached the rebranding we were able to get really specific about communications, brand assets, and how people really felt about it” Kimberly Cooper,  VP, Market Research & Competitive Intelligence.

pexels-rdne-stock-project-7821528

Solution

EverBank has used Alida as a central hub for its market research efforts. The bank has fostered a digital community of 2800+ customers helping to provide rich information and answer targeted questions for business partners. Through the community they are able to survey members directly and easily recruit targeted members for external IDIs and additional qualitative feedback. 

As EverBank plans to expand into new regional markets, they are now able to easily segment and cross-compare current customers with prospects. By digging into different personas, locations, banking needs, and product use the team is able to compare responses to understand the expectations and needs of both clients and prospects.

In partnership with Alida's managed services to scale its operations, the small EverBank team has leveraged community insights to support key rebranding and growth efforts, including:

• UI/UX development and testing of new website and app
• Refining marketing communications
• Brand awareness and feature studies
• Product and service line opportunity research

“We have to be agile, we pull together information from our business partners to build our research roadmap but flexibility is important. New priorities pop up and our community access allows us to pivot” says Kimberly.

Results

EverBank has turned to the community for feedback on the roll out strategy, consumer-facing products, new website and app, and market feedback in expansion regions.

By utilizing the community, it has allowed them to examine new services, assess customer expectations, and present findings in a digestible way. They communicate results through monthly knowledge shares and hold 1-hour sharing sessions with stakeholders across the business allowing for validation on current and upcoming business strategies.

Feedback has highlighted potential pain points with the brand and online platform migration that, without being addressed, would have resulted in a less positive client experience— mitigating possible NPS score decreases and increased service call volumes.  

See how Alida’s Community platform can help you level up your research.

Watch a 3-minute on-demand demo recording.

Watch Now

Alida is a Community Research platform that helps the world's biggest brands create highly engaged research communities to gather feedback that fuels better customer experiences and product innovation.