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In about 20 words, NetBanker takes a machete to PFM, cutting it down with three swipes:
- It’s hard to get started
- It’s a pain to keep up
- It’s disconcerting to view spending summaries
But, as NetBanker notes — and I agree with both the swipes and the rebuttal — there are “obvious benefits” to PFM use.
NetBanker goes on to say that “one way to tackle the first problem is to offer a sweepstakes or bonus to induce trial,” and highlights Truliant Federal Credit Union’s attempt to do just that by giving away iPads to members who sign up for using PFM.
My take: Truliant is wasting its money.
If you need to lose weight, you can: 1) Read up on which foods to eat; 2) Eat those foods; and 3) Exercise more. Doing only #1 — reading up on which foods to eat — will do little good in actually reducing your weight. Step #1, without #2 and #3, is a failed strategy.
This is analogous to what Truliant is doing: Trying to solve the three-pronged PFM problem by addressing just the first prong.
PFM is the new New Year’s resolution. It used to be that when the new year came around, we resolved to lose weight and/or stop smoking. Now we resolve to get our financial lives in order. And just as we used to join a gym to realize our weight loss resolution, we sign up for a PFM to to realize our financial resolution.
When March rolls around, we’re not going to the gym as often, and not long after we start using a PFM tool, our enthusiasm and commitment wanes, and we stop using it.
Realizing the “obvious benefits” of PFM requires committed use of the tool over some period of time. Simply incenting people to sign up for using the tool does absolutely nothing to encourage or ensure continued use.
In fact, if you read the fine print of Truliant’s contest, members don’t actually have to enroll in PFM to participate. (I’m tempted to enter the contest to see if they even really limit it to members).
My prediction: A large percentage of Truliant’s online banking members will enter the contest and sign up for PFM. Truliant will then boast about their high PFM enrollment numbers. And then we’ll never hear again whether or not those members continued to use the tool and reaped the benefits.
What should Truliant do?
Think Foursquare for PFM.
Despite what a lot of people think, Foursquare isn’t about location awareness or the mobile channel. It’s about gamification. It’s about earning badges and becoming mayor. And if there are rewards for doing those things, great.
People like to play games. We like friendly competition, and we like to turn routine things into games to spice them up, and make them more interesting.
And that’s what banks and credit unions need to do with PFM — make a game out of it. Points for setting up a budget, points for categorizing your spending, even more points for keeping to your budget. Points for sharing tips and tricks regarding the management of one’s financial life with other PFM users. And giving away iPads to the people who amass the most points.
In other words, incenting customers and members to deal with the “pain of keeping up” with the use of PFM.
If you can address challenge #2, challenge #1 takes care of itself.
As for the disconcerting nature of seeing your spending patterns, I can’t help you. I’m a consultant — not a miracle worker.