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How Suntrust Uses Social Media to Engage Customers and Comply with Regulation

Financial institutions are bound to rules and regulation than other companies experimenting in customer engagement, specifically in social media, can ignore. Over the years, SunTrust has stood out as one of several examples that understand how to use regulatory boundaries to inspire a new generation of customer engagement. The result is finding balance between risk and reward to meet customer expectations and improve customer experiences now and over time.

As I’ve always believed…constraint forces creativity.

Bianca Buckridee, AVP of Social Media Engagement at SunTrust shares her story with us on this episode of Revolution.

This episode was recorded during the Salesforce Social Advisory Board meeting in San Francisco. Participants included brand managers from the likes of Disney, Livingsocial, P&G, Nissan, SunTrust, Dunkin Donuts, Get Satisfaction, and VW, we address the need for businesses to not only react to conversations but also lead them.

Season Two:

S2E1: How Mercedes Benz Successfully Uses Social Media to Engage
S2E2: Technorati’s Richard Jalichandra on the State and Future of Social Media
S2E3: Guy Kawasaki on the Art of Enchantment
S2E4: Adly CEO Arnie Gullov-Singh on the Social Era of Celebrity Endorsements
S2E5: Filmmaker and Webby Awards Founder Tiffany Shlain
S2E6: Jim Louderback, Revision3 CEO on the Future of Broadcast and Web Television – Part 1 of 2
S2E7: Jim Louderback, Revision3 CEO on the Future of Broadcast and Web Television – Part 2 of 2
S2E8: Marcel LeBrun of Salesforce Radian6 on the Future of Social Media Monitoring
S2E9: Our Digital Society in the Next 30 Years: An Interview with John Battelle
S2E10: How Social Customer Service is Changing the Culture at Comcast
S2E11: Dunkin’ Donuts Uses Social Media to Improve Customer Relationships and Experiences
S2E12: USA Today’s Jon Swartz on Disruptive Technology’s Impact on Business and Culture
S2E13: Ford’s Jim Farley on the importance of putting your brand in the hands of customers

Season One on YouTube

Now on iTunes!

10 COMMENTS ON THIS POST To “How Suntrust Uses Social Media to Engage Customers and Comply with Regulation”

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  5. Extreme John says:

    Speaking from personal experience, and as a long time SunTrust small business and personal banking customer, all I can really say is that it’s been a surprise having SunTrust respond on Twitter when I had issues. On the flip side, there’s really no benefit to it from a customer stand-point, the last time they responded they said someone would get back to me before the end of the business day, it took four days. Not only did it take four days, but SunTrust never explained or solved the problem, ultimately making the nice social media connect nothing more than a buffer.

    I can’t really blame SunTrust social media for the issue, they can only resolve situations to a certain point before just being a buffer.

  6. Brian – really appreciate you sharing this!  I wanted to provide additional clarification on our @askSunTrust service strategy.  Our goal is to analyze what’s occurring and to proactively address any identified issues. For example, with Retail inquiries such as questions related to the servicing of a Checking account, we are able to help resolve these inquiries quickly. Other issues involving third parties/stakeholders may require more time, as we may not have access to those client systems.    When we do route an inquiry to a stakeholder the client that we are working with is notified and we make every effort to update them based on information we receive.  While the goal is always to do this as quickly as possible, sometimes the length of time is more than 24 hours due to the complexity of research required or what stage an issue is in.   Also with inquiries involving third parties/stakeholders,
    while @askSunTrust is responsible for observing the brand mention & starting the conversation online we are not always responsible for the resolution of the issue particularly if it is in another area i.e. Merchant Services.

    We can only hope that that right actions will ultimately bring the right results.  We believe we made every effort internally to work with John and are sorry to hear that he has a differing opinion.  Social has provided us an invaluable channel to connect with our clients and help resolve any issues as quickly as we can – we will continue to work hard to earn their confidence. Thanks again!

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