Banks Aren't Banking on Engagement

With dynamic changes and events occurring in the financial services industry from security breaches, to increased transparency, to digital payments, to computer-based advice, it’s more important than ever that financial organizations communicate effectively, connect with, and engage with consumers. How good are financial services brands at engaging the public?

Engagement IQ is a contemporary measure of brand and reputation effectiveness


To understand how financial organizations engage the public, and to provide tools to communicators to improve engagement, we created the Koski Research Engagement IQ . The Koski Research Engagement IQ measures how people engage with companies both emotionally and behaviorally in a modern, forward-thinking way that goes beyond traditional brand tracking or reputational measurement. The Engagement IQ is made up of four key metrics: likeability, postability, lunchability, and readability.

Components of Engagement IQ

Payment companies have higher engagement than brokerage firms and banks


In our tracking of the Engagement IQ for major financial firms we have found that there’s plenty of room for more engagement. Payment companies perform highest on Engagement IQ, compared to brokerage firms and banks. Engagement IQ corresponds to other important business metrics, such as consideration (likelihood to open an account) and net promoter score (NPS). Those consumers who give high Engagement IQ scores can be up to 10 times more likely to be brand promoters and 10 times more likely to say they would consider opening an account. We also have found our Engagement IQ to be a sensitive measure. Engagement IQ falls with reputation damaging events, and it’s high for highly engaging brands—Google shown here as a benchmark for high engagement.

Related: Why Digital is the New Language of Money

Engagement across financial industry

Millennials are engaged, though industry is mixed with Gen X and Boomers


In our latest release of The Koski Engagement IQ we found that Millennials are the most engaged generation when it comes to financial firms. When we break it down further we see that Milllennials have the highest engagement with banks and payment companies but Gen X leads for engagement with brokerage firms. We also find that Millennials are generally more behaviorially engaged — more likely to post or have lunch with the CEO, while Gen X and Boomers are more emotionally engaged. Gen X always a little between Millennials and Boomers is often more engaged via reading articles or lunching with CEOs.

generational engagement across financial firms

Want a prescription for improving engagement? For communicators interested in diagnosing their communication effectiveness and developing a path forward, we look at the impact of core messages on engagement and provide a message optimization tool. Ask us how.

Want to know how you can communicate to build engagement?
Let’s talk engage@koskiresearch.com