Despite the challenges social media presents to financial services companies, one thing is becoming clear: banks and credit card issuers are taking social conversations about their brands more and more seriously. Last month, we wrote about the Social Media Command Center at Chase, a high-visibility location for its social media team, which seems to elevate social media as a priority for the bank. And now, Wells Fargo has plans for social command centers, as well.
According to the Charlotte Business Journal, the bank will build two social media command centers: one at Wells Fargo headquarters in San Francisco, the other in Charlotte, North Carolina, where it employs the most people. The article includes information from Renee Brown, Wells Fargo’s senior vice president and director of social marketing, who indicates that “the command centers will help the bank react to specific issues or concerns that arise, but they’ll also help the bank understand how its messages and activities are being received, where it can improve and what resonates with customers.”
Employees at both Wells Fargo command centers will monitor social platforms for brand mentions and take action on what they find – both from a customer service standpoint and to inform the overall marketing strategy.
As this MediaPost article on the Wells Fargo centers points out, the news comes at a critical moment for the brand, which faces a lawsuit filed by New York state over mortgage settlements, and for the financial services industry as a whole, which continues to struggle to regain consumer confidence. Wells Fargo is likely trying to stay ahead of negative feedback, not only by responding to and acting upon complaints but also by building its reputation via positive interactions with consumers.
At present, customers broadcast these experiences throughout social networks, and so it’s no surprise that companies like Chase and Wells Fargo are making such concerted efforts to tap into these conversations in a way that goes beyond basic monitoring. In addition to being great resources for gathering customer data, these social command centers seem to be part of a growing trend of financial institutions taking more integrated and strategic approaches to listening and responding; they’re beginning to use what they learn in social across other parts of their businesses.