These days customer could be forgiven for thinking that their financial services providers see them as walking pools of money. The traditional language by which many FS organisations measure their success in customer relationship management doesn't help either. Share of wallet, up-sell and cross-sell are hardly conducive ways of looking at a consumer relationship which, now more than ever, needs to be based quite simply on trust.

However, trust implies intimacy; it implies meeting financial needs which have more to do with increasing size of wallet, and less with increasing share of wallet. But how can financial services companies invest in this intimacy in an environment where costs are ruthlessly being cut across the board.

This is where online could play a pivotal role. Far from seeing the internet as a means of providing low cost service to low value segments, the more farsighted companies are providing online services which help people better manage their finances and get a better deal from financial services companies. Companies like justthrive.com and mint.com are being increasingly successful in capturing that customer front end through the promise of better money management. These companies seem to be mushrooming in the US, that's for sure, but whatever happens over there eventually gets to come across over here.

One way, therefore, to start thinking of online is as a lead customer experience management channel, with all other channels both integrated and aligned to an internet led customer strategy. In the UK this space is there for the taking.

Go to Capgemini's Customer Experience blog: http://www.uk.capgemini.com/ceblog/

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