Articlr

We briefly touched on the role that the Internet has played in the area of finance today in my finance class.  This is especially important for the students here that are thinking of becoming financial advisors - in some respects, the Internet is the toughest competition to people with those types of jobs.

There are definitely some things that the Internet does better than a visit to the bank.  For example, if I am a banker, I can compare bank accounts that we offer.  But, the Internet can show you the bank accounts we offer and what our competition offers, all right in front of you.  Looking for a credit card?  Well, at the bank we can show you our best credit cards, but if you were to go online, you could find the best ones from every financial institution - something we wouldn’t show you.

That makes it tough for some of the financial service industry jobs - the Internet can do a better.  That is where we have to step in as a company, and be unafraid to show what the competition is offering - and prove that what we offer is better.  A good example would be the car insurance industry.  We seem to be inundated lately with cheap car insurance commercials - and if you visit their websites, you will find that they show their rates and the rates of their competition right on their site.

We learned that this model lets you both highlight your companies strength and weaknesses for financial offerings.  It also helps you to build credibility as you are not hiding the facts from your customers.  In fact, even if they were to buy from your competitor this time, chances are that they would be back because of your customer service and honesty.

So, I guess today’s class was about finance and business as well.  I can’t wait till the next class - I love this stuff!