Reach out to customers during a time of economic uncertainty.

"I recently checked out the home pages of a number of local banks ... and was amazed to find no obvious mention of the current financial crisis," observes Andrea Obston, president of Andrea Obston Marketing Communications LLC, Bloomfield, Conn.

She poses this question: "If you're in the financial services business and you haven't contacted your clients directly about the current financial crisis, what are you waiting for?

Now is the time, she says, when financial institutions should be aggressively reaching out to each and every one of their stakeholders, trumpeting their own stability in the face of the current situation--or describing the steps they have or will take to respond to it.

She offers a few ways to cultivate and stabilize customer's confidence in your institution:

* Contact every one of your customers personally. Make sure they know about your commitment to their future. Let them know you know they are scared. Tell them you value their trust and outline specifics that will ensure the safety of their investment in your institution.

* Open up the lines of communications. Set up a dedicated phone number and e-mail address for these concerns. Make a commitment to respond to all phone calls or e-mails within a few hours. If you're worried about a flood of calls or e-mails, set up an automatic responder that, at minimum tells them you've received their message and will get back to them within a specific time. Then deliver on that promise.

* Talk to everyone in a form that ensures delivery of your message. Do include your Web site in your communications vehicles, but don't simply rely on e-mail for customer communications. Older depositors and investors consider letters more personal.

* Create talking points. Develop a limited number of key messages that summarize your institution's stability and approach to risk. These should be simple, easy to remember and responsive to the level of emotional uncertainty consumers are feeling. Craft them carefully with the involvement of your communications staff (and of course the blessings of legal counsel). And this is very important: Make sure your own employees are comfortable with and believe in the truth of these messages.

* Train, train, train. Everyone who is in a customer-facing function must be trained to use the talking points, to recognize a customer who needs more support and to know where to send them next.

* Reach out through your Web site. Use the interactive nature of your site to...