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November 30, 2011 | Ron Lee: Bankers, just how good are your online marketing efforts?

Banking consultant Ron Shevlin has a hunch: Banks and credit unions need a better way to assess their online marketing capabilities, to know how they are doing, and to create an investment and priority roadmap to improve online marketing capabilities. Find out how Shevlin developed a two-part assessment model to do just that.

October 31, 2011 | Shawn Tennyson: New Kiosks in the Battle Against DUIs and STDs

New kiosks allow consumers to test their Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) at participating bars and, in L.A. County, get a free home-testing kit for STDs.

October 31, 2011 | Ron Lee: Debit Card Fees Translating to Consumer Backlash

“A checking relationship with rewards – and no monthly debit card fee.” That’s the online promotion Citi is running right now. No doubt other financial institutions soon will be spinning similar themes, as big banks rush to abandon planned debit card fees in response to growing and vocal consumer frustration, much of it playing out via social media.

October 26, 2011 | Alyssa Dahl: Facebook and Salesforce Leading the Direction for Businesses

I read an inspiring article the other day, Salesforce CEO: Facebook is Leading the Direction For Where ‘We’re Going As An Industry, by Rip Empson of Tech Crunch.  For those of you that don’t know what Salesforce is, it is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solution. But it’s more than just a CRM solution. As one of the leading software platforms in the cloud, Salesforce is changing the way businesses interact by making things more effective and efficient through lead management, chatter and social enterprise. Salesforce will help redefine the future of business through its focus on social enterprise.

October 22, 2011 | Alyssa Dahl: #mayoragan Social Media Healthcare Conference – Part 1

This past week, I attended the Third Annual Social Media for Healthcare Conference in Rochester, MN at Mayo Clinic. This is my second time attending this event. The conference was a gathering for mostly Marketing and PR employees from hospitals and clinics. Social Media Healthcare leader, Lee Aase, kicked off the conference, while Mayo Clinic CEO, wrapped up the event.

October 17, 2011 | Alyssa Dahl: Facebook Launches iPad App

For the past two years, I’ve waited for Facebook to launch an iPad app. I was beginning to wonder if they were ever going to create one! Sure enough, last week, Facebook finally released a fully-developed iPad app. I initially felt the delay was attributed to a lack of innovation, but the execution of their app has left me with nothing but positive reviews. In hindsight, I would rather have a product take longer in development in order to a full launch, rather than be rushed into creation with multiple upgrades in the future.

September 29, 2011 | Ron Lee: Bankers Better Embrace the Social Enterprise

“It’s time for banking to completely embrace social technology. We need to move beyond paper, phone, and email folks.” This plea was not from an industry consultant, but from banker Bradley Leimer. He manages the online services group for Mechanics Bank in California. Leimer recently expressed his views in an industry blog Bank Think.

September 18, 2011 | Alyssa Dahl: The Future for Every Business: Social Enterprise

A few weeks ago, five people from the Sundog team got the opportunity to attend Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference in San Francisco. One of the big ideas brought back from the conference was social enterprise. In our tech talk on September 15th, the team shared a few, great videos that demonstrate what social enterprise is.

August 31, 2011 | Ron Lee: Texas Bank SWARMs over Customers

In this time of intense competition, earnings pressure, customer attrition and declining branch traffic, how can banks truly reengineer the customer experience? $1.2 billion Extraco Banks, Temple, Texas, is a great example of how a financial institution can transform its retail operations and culture from top to bottom.

August 22, 2011 | Brent Teiken: What an Honor

When the North Dakota Young Professionals (NDYP) chose Sundog as the “Best Place to Work in North Dakota” earlier this year, we were thrilled. And we continue to be proud of the honor.

Now our distinctive company culture is being noticed throughout our industry. Sundog has been named to Advertising Age magazine’s list of Best Places to Work. We’re among 30 companies featured in the August 22 print edition and you can find the full list on their website.

July 30, 2011 | Ron Lee: Startup WePay sets sights on competing with PayPal

Flush with venture capital, payment site WePay in late July launched its new WePay Stores. In doing so, it is setting its sites on competing with giants PayPal, Yahoo Merchant Solutions and eBay for a piece of the online payments and e-commerce pie.

June 27, 2011 | Ron Lee: Online application process scaring off bank customers

When it comes to pressing the proverbial “easy button” to complete a bank’s online account application, a majority of customers are saying “see ya later” to the sometimes 15 or more screens required to complete the online app process.

For those already using an online channel, tasks such as making payments, transferring funds and looking at account balances are working just fine. But, as reviewed by consultant Adam Bookman for an article in BAI Banking Strategies (Losing customers at “NEXT,” June 21, 2011), research by Javelin cited fewer than half of people who tried to open an account online were able to do so, while the majority actually abandoned the effort.