Chase to reach business owners through ‘business advice center on wheels’
JPMorgan Chase is taking a new twist on meeting customers “where they are:” A 27-foot trailer at business events across the U.S., offering free one-on-one advice sessions on marketing, business insights and small-business financing.
The trailer, which is called Chase BizMobile, is the latest iteration of the bank’s plans to grow face-to-face connections with business owners, alongside conferences and seminars it’s organized for the last two years. The objective is to connect with clients and prospects who may consider taking taking up service offerings from the bank in the future.
“Our strategy is to have a human presence everywhere we do business,” said Brent Reinhard, chief marketing officer for Chase Business Banking.
After the recession, large U.S. banks pulled back on most of their small-business lending activities, creating fertile ground for startups like OnDeck and Bond Street to grow market share. But now, banks, including Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America are looking to the small-business market as a growth area, adding pressure on institutions to find new ways to reach customers. Chase has modernized its small-business product tech stack and is using OnDeck’s technology to make the approval process simpler and faster. But in a competitive field of banks offering small-business products and services, face-to-face relationships are big differentiators. Chase is the fourth-largest lender of Small Business Administration loans; as of March 31, 2018, the bank approved 1,307 loans valued at $323 million.
The emphasis on face-to-face connections with business owners is a way to build trust among clients who know they’re entering a long-term relationship with a financial institution. Aite senior analyst David O’Connell said surveys he conducted of small-business owners seeking credit showed that while interest rates and repayment terms were important, relationships also figured prominently among their considerations, including the ability to turn to someone when problems arise.
“Chase is smartly setting itself up as a trusted adviser among its small-business borrowers,” he said. “They want to take advantage of their ability to deliver on that relationship as a way to acquire more customers.”
More in Marketing
Marketers are keeping a close eye on Amazon’s shoppable Prime ads this Thanksgiving
Media buyers will be experimenting with new formats over the long weekend.
‘You don’t want to be discounting so much’: Confessions of a media buyer on the challenges of an extended Black Friday Cyber Monday
In the latest edition of our Digiday Confessions series, in which we exchange anonymity for candor, we hear from a media buyer on how the extended sales window means brands need to get more creative and the challenges of deeper discounting.
Google uses search remedies trial to subpoena OpenAI, Perplexity and Microsoft over their generative AI efforts
In an attempt to show AI has created a more competitive search industry, Google is trying to get OpenAI, Perplexity AI, and Microsoft’s strategies to defend its own.