Why the Second Customer Account Is Harder to Win Than the First
By Caroline Hroncich, Contributor at The Financial Brand
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The average retail bank checking customer now maintains three deposit accounts at different institutions, according to JD Power’s 2026 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, which surveyed 107,059 customers of the largest U.S. banks from January 2025 through January 2026. 20% moved money away from their primary bank in the prior three months, up from 17% a year earlier. Each of those accounts is business the primary institution could have won.
“If you’re not relevant when a customer’s need arises, you’ve opened the door for them to think about whoever was relevant in that moment,” says Jennifer White, senior director of banking and payments intelligence at JD Power.
Key insight: The institution that gets the paycheck can know what a customer needs next before any competitor does. Yet, many don’t act on what they know. They send one offer after the account opens and stop there. The banks and credit unions that are winning the second product keep offers running for months and train branch and contact center staff to close the sale.
Need to Know:
- Affluent, financially healthy and under-40 customers are the likeliest to move money away from their primary bank, according to JD Power.
- Only 9.7% of bank marketers use data to tailor interactions to individual customers, according to an American Bankers Association survey.
- Roughly half of offer redemptions happen through branch and contact center staff, according to Movemint CEO Brian Bodell.
- People rank second only to trust among the factors that drive bank customer satisfaction, according to JD Power.
Most Signals Arrive Too Late
Banks and credit unions usually find out a customer or member has opened an account elsewhere only when money starts leaving. By then, they’ve already chosen the other institution. “So many of the indicators that you’d have, even in transactional data, are going to be lagging,” White says.
Spotting those warning signs earlier depends on data many marketing teams can’t easily reach. A customer’s transaction history usually sits in the core, while loan and digital banking data sit in separate systems.
In a November 2025 American Bankers Association survey of 130 bank marketers, respondents named integrating data across systems as their biggest barrier to data projects. Only 9.7% said they use data to tailor interactions to individual customers.
“Some banks are doing a better job than others,” White says. “A lot of it has to do with the modernization of their data infrastructure and where they stand along that path.” Neobanks and direct banks started with newer systems and don’t carry legacy data infrastructure, she says, which gives them a head start.
Staffing adds to the problem. Nearly half of the marketers in the ABA survey said their bank has two or fewer employees dedicated to data.
What to do:
- Map where customer data lives, from the core to loan origination and digital banking, and name an owner for each source.
- Build a first campaign around two or three products using the data you can reach today.
- Train at least two people to pull and use customer data, so one departure doesn’t stall the work.
Your Best Customers Are Spreading Their Money Around
The customers most likely to move money are affluent, financially healthy and under 40, according to JD Power. Most open a second checking account with one of two goals. “Very often, they are looking to either maximize the way they can benefit their financial lives, or organize their financial lives in a way that makes sense to them,” White says.
Maximizing can mean a promotional rate, a balance threshold that avoids fees, or a discount such as a quarter point off an auto loan for opening a credit union checking account. Organizing usually means keeping everyday spending apart from emergency funds or savings for goals as close as a year out.
Spreading money across institutions is changing what primacy means. Banks have long measured it by deposit growth, but a customer’s balance can grow at one bank while most of their money goes to another. Customers still think of one institution as their primary, says White. It’s usually the one that receives their direct deposit and handles most of their transfers.
What to do:
- Match competitors on rates and promotions for existing customers and members.
- Let customers and members open goal-based savings accounts inside digital banking.
- Measure primacy by where the paycheck lands. Track direct deposit and outbound transfers alongside balance growth.
The Institutions Winning the Second Product Keep Asking
Many cross-sell efforts end after a single offer. “You can’t just set it and then try once and then punt. You’ve got to keep playing,” says Brian Bodell, CEO of New York-based fintech Movemint.
The institutions seeing results run longer campaigns, typically 60 to 90 days, with a new touch every two to three weeks, mostly through email and digital banking, Bodell says. Each customer or member sees two or three offers. Preapproved offers tend to perform best, since they redeem at higher rates and carry lower delinquency than invitations to apply, he says.
Between campaigns, trigger-based offers reach customers when something in their finances changes. Institutions can check core data daily for those changes. A large incoming deposit can go to the wealth management team, and a new recurring payment to another lender may signal a mortgage held elsewhere.
Key insight: Both approaches depend on the people who run them. When a small team loses one or two of the employees managing campaigns, the work can stall, Bodell says. Mergers and core conversions can cause a similar pause. “Your members, or your customers, really don’t care about your merger,” he says. “You’ve got to keep feeding the funnel.”
What to do:
- Plan campaigns in 90-day cycles, with a new touch every two to three weeks.
- Lead with preapproved offers on two or three products.
- Rerun offer eligibility often so new customers and members see current offers.
- Keep campaigns running through staff turnover, mergers and core conversions.
Branch and Contact Center Staff Close the Sale
Digital channels deliver most offers, and staff close a large share of them. Bodell says roughly half of the offer redemptions he sees happen through branch and contact center employees. A member who calls about something else can learn they’re preapproved, and the employee can redeem the offer during the same call. Frontline staff are well suited to it, he says. “They really want to help people.”
That only works when employees know the offers exist and have a reason to bring them up. Bodell suggests paying branch and contact center employees a set amount for each redeemed offer.
Customers weigh those conversations heavily. In JD Power’s study, people ranked second only to trust among the factors that drive retail bank customer satisfaction, and satisfaction with personal service interactions declined over the prior 12 months.
Key insight: Training also shapes how the offer comes across. White says frontline employees should recommend products based on a customer’s behavior and walk through the tradeoffs. “Are you explaining the pros and cons of those products or just saying product X is perfect?” she says. “That’s what personalized means.”
What to do:
- Put preapproved offers on teller and contact center screens.
- Pay employees for redeemed offers that fund.
- Train staff to recommend products based on each customer’s behavior, including the tradeoffs.
