Let’s start with who and what Theresa McLaughlin is not. She’s not Canadian, but she’s responsible for how a significant number of Canadians will interact with one of its largest financial institutions. She’s not a millennial, but she knows they represent her future customers and growth.
This may help explain why, upon taking over as global CMO at TD Bank Group earlier this year from Dominic Mercuri, one of McLaughlin’s first decisions was to undertake a “listening tour” across the organization to get a better sense of how to set its course for success.
“This is a real capital ‘M’ marketing function,” said McLaughlin during a recent interview with Marketing from her corner office in downtown Toronto. “We drive brand, but we also drive revenue for the organization, so it was just important for me to go around and listen.”
McLaughlin shared some of the highlights of what she learned and her priorities for the year ahead. This interview has been edited and condensed.
Were there any common themes in your listening tour?
I asked my partners for a bit of a SWAT analysis to see where the opportunities are, and perhaps what’s even more important is that I got in touch with customers. I went into call centres and listened to calls. I visited branches and talked to colleagues. That was incredibly helpful. I think the themes I heard were encouraging. First of all that we have an incredibly strong brand here — an iconic brand. And the heart of the brand is about customer experience. Many [companies] could say that is true, but I really dug into the data and the numbers, got on social media and looked closely at what customers were saying about us. It definitely began to shape my opinions about the areas where we could continue to develop.
What might some of those areas be?
I think it’s that consumers’ expectations of banks are being set by their iPhone or their Samsung device, or their experience at Starbucks and getting an Uber. That sets what “fast,” “convenience,” “personal service” looks like. For me, it’s how we take this fantastic brand into the future as consumer expectations are rising.
A lot of TD’s work right now focuses on gratitude, such as the “automatic thanking machines.” How does that relate to the goals you’re talking about?
Three years ago when I started I was fortunate enough to be a part of the TD Thanks You program where at the ATM, we thanked our customers in very large and interesting ways. That video as you know, went viral and got some 26 million views. I think what was interesting about that is people found it to be very authentic. You couldn’t just put any bank’s logo in there. It was very much relevant to who TD was. And we told some interesting stories about a small group of customers. What we tried to do this year — in larger ways, with more customers — is demonstrate that we really know who our customers are. As a marketer, you use stories and you sometimes bring those to life in creative ways. In this case, we didn’t have to be that creative because the stories are so amazing. One of my favourites was is Elva in the U.S., who is 97 years old and calls our phone centre in Maine every day at 5:30 in the morning. We went out to our people there and said, “Tell us your stories of how you know our customers.” In this case they had created a book: they had pictures and paragraphs so that when she phoned they could say, “Elva, it’s Jim. Turn to page nine.” And she could say, “Jim! You have a dog! I have a dog too,” and they could connect in this way. No one told the phone centre to do that. It comes from a culture where people feel they understand what the customer experience is about.
Everyone talks about the need to optimize omnichannel. How do you think about what those needs are from a TD perspective?
I think the most important thing is we want to be in a position where you can start in one channel and end in another, whether it’s servicing or sales or just helping you out with a particular situation. The whole notion of omnichannel is that you can speak to us on the phone, you can speak to us 24/7 online, you can walk into a branch. And, we want that experience to be consistent, legendary service regardless of what channel you use, and we’re certainly making investments. Digital is a very important part of how we spend our money.
As you grow in that digital space, how do you think about the resources you need internally, and even third parties such as ad agencies?
I think most agencies now call themselves digital agencies as opposed to ad agencies. There is no digital department in agencies, we’re marketing in a digital world. Everyone at TD needs to have a high digital acumen. That’s the 20/20 marketer we’re trying to develop. There’s lots of shiny objects, so I go back to, what’s most important to my customer? Do they need a lot of bells and whistles? Look at the fintechs — it’s about creating frictionless, connected experiences, and I think that’s my outlook for TD as well.
How are Canadian agencies keeping up with those challenges and expectations?
We have terrific agencies here, including the partners we have today. That was part of my listening tour, and one of the things I asked [agency partners] is what are we doing well and what could we be doing better. Each one of them took the opportunity to say, “This is something you should be doing more of.”
What metrics matter most to you now?
My mandate also includes customer insights and measurement, so I would say the No. 1 thing is customer experience: Are we delighting customers? Do they want to give us more business as a result of their experience? Because if your brand is about delivering customer experience, it makes sense to have your CMO be accountable as the person telling the story about that brand, and then measuring how you’re doing that from an experience perspective. And, being the voice at the management table and informing the leadership team here about, “Is the brand delivering the experience we think?”
