Against scepticism and misunderstandings – how explainer videos can inspire greater trust in banks

My bank adviser is sitting next to me. He has a few folders spread out in front of him, including my banking records and he’s trying to explain an investment opportunity to me – it’s already the third one within the last hour that I’ve been sitting here. I’m not sure what exactly he’s talking about, I’ve drifted away briefly, lost in my own thoughts – thinking about questions like what I could cook for dinner tonight and what I’ll need to buy for that. Something completely different than banking.

Why? Because I got distracted somewhere between returns rates and taxation. And also partly because I don’t really trust him.

It would seem that I’m not the only one – Most people believe that bank advisers act in their own interests, rather than those of their clients. It seems that there is a huge lack of trusts in the banks.

For me, it’s also partly because I don’t really understand what he’s trying to explain to me. The possibilities, risks and opportunities are thus too complex and incomprehensible. Sometimes I kind of get the feeling that he’s taking advantage of my lack of knowledge. And I don’t want to ask for the fifth time about the difference between investment X and Y and how it all works with taxation. If anything else it’s because his dryness is slowly making the topic quite taxing. If you don’t know your way around the industry, you can feel quite left out in the rain.

But somehow the banks have been left out too as they currently face huge challenges, including:

● the dryness of the topic,
● its complexity,
● the lack of trust,
● and recent digitalisation, allowing customers to find information by themselves online instead of relying on their financial advisers or even to quickly switch to alternatives that they trust more.

These all mean that the banks need to find ways to make their products and services easy to understand and explain these in an entertaining way in order to restore faith in banks and win back their customer’s loyalty. After all, it’s really quite easy – I only believe what I can understand.

It’s not for nothing that Number 5 in our simpleshow rules for simple communication is “Build confidence. Give your audience the feeling that you understand them and know what their problem is.”

This is where explainer videos come into play. The format is perfect for explaining financial products and special services.
For the layman (like me), they are thus the perfect way to quickly get an overview of any given topic; which building loan contract is right for me, why are interest rates so low at the moment or when will the real estate bubble burst?
If a good explainer video can create the feeling that my bank is clearly explaining a product to me, without any extra confusion, this can help establish trust.

It only takes around three minutes – clearly not enough time to get distract by my shopping list, but still enough to understand the product.

And, has already been said or written, I believe what I understand. That much is clear.

After two hours, another thing is also very clear – my bank adviser definitely isn’t an explanation expert 🙂

(Sophie)