Customer-friendly phones; elevator advertising; and interactive web sites.

• Position: Ideas that Work - Brief Article

Here's three marketing-related ideas that have worked for financial institutions:

Interchange Bank, Saddle Brook, N.J., reduced its telephone expenses by approximately $100,000 by installing a phonetic phone system that lets customer call the bank and, when prompted, simply speak a person's name to be automatically connected to the person they're calling.

The savings were realized because the technology allows the system to transmit voice over existing data lines, thereby eliminating the cost of toll calls within the bank's branch network and to much of its customer base.

Even if pronunciation of a name or department isn't exact, the system acknowledges the caller's request by responding with a verification question. "If you wanted to contact our Hillsdale office, but mistakenly said 'Hillside,' the automated operator will first ask if 'Hillsdale' is where the call should be directed before actually making the connection.

What better way to sell your service than by putting a sales associate in the elevator of the office building--the ground floor of which houses your financial services institution. That's what the Washington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU) did in a five-story state-employee office building in Tacoma, Wash.

WSECU associates are positioned inside the lobbies and elevators. The associates converse to employees and discuss benefits, products and services...