So there we were, settling into a fairly uneventful Autumn… summer a distant memory and Christmas so far away that the Woolworths ads weren’t even airing yet... and bang the world credit market goes into meltdown.

However, what I will comment on is the UK consumer and how fragile the relation is now with the customer. Would this have happened 20 years ago, would a bank’s customer have lost confidence so quickly? Probably not.

So what’s changed? Communication.

We now live in a rapidly integrating communications world where speed and the consumer’s hunger for information shows no sign of letting up. When once we had to wait for the evening news on ITV or BBC, or read yesterday’s news in today’s paper, we now have the web, mobile web, 24-hour news, and all these channels hungry for the latest news story to fill their inventories. This by its very nature fans the frenzy and I’m sure Northern Rock will not be the last to suffer this kind of treatment – yes their business plan was flawed, yes they had no control over the sub-prime market in the USA, but would this have happened all those years ago, with the same speed? I doubt it.

The need for a touchpoint strategy is essential. As we suffer from floods, postal strikes, exploding batteries and credit meltdowns we must provide information quickly and efficiently in order to inform and retain our existing customers. But why does customer retention matter? Simple – it costs four to six times more to attract a new customer than to retain a current customer. Existing customers are not only less costly to retain, but they also respond four to five times more readily to promotions and e-mail campaigns than new customers. Brand equity must be considered in all these strategies. How damaging is sending out communications that are off brand and tone?

It is important we extract more wealth from existing customer databases by understanding their needs and their lifestyles, and building a marketing strategy based on those needs. We need to know the customer, send personalised messages and be there at every touchpoint (planning, purchasing, service consumption and post-stay). If we deliver this kind of understanding then when the next crisis looms we can deliver the REAL story quickly to customers, muting the media hype.

Whilst this would normally be a part of the comms team remit, it needs to be considered as part of an overall touchpoint strategy. Otherwise the old adage that bad news travels fast could prove more costly than ever in future.