Page 23 - Spring 2025

[Hanna, president and CEO] is s�ll o�en the first one to pick up the phone
and directly call a customer with a concern.”

Walking a fine line
Personalized marke�ng is increasingly what customers have come to
expect. Even so, bankers need to proceed with care, advises D’Ambrosio.

“Just because banks can take a look at your Amazon data to deliver more
personalized offers to you, should they?” she asks. “How much is too
much? When do you cross the line?”
For her, the ques�on boils down to one of consent. “Customers of
community banks are happy to have their data used to give them more
personalized offers, but they want to be asked,” she says. “They want to
opt in to that type of rela�onship and not just be targeted willy nilly.”

Kim raises a similar point, warning against the risks of relying on and
overusing digital tools so that marke�ng efforts �lt toward what she terms
“impersonaliza�on.” She suggests that “there’s a real need to balance the
automated personaliza�on experience with true ‘we know our customer’
moments.”
“Our customers are our friends and neighbors, and so community banking
is the essence of hyper-personaliza�on,” says Kim. “Even though we want
to give our customers a full digital experience, we don’t want them stuck
in an automated loop, trying to get hold of a human. Connec�ng with the
customer in a truly personalized way is s�ll essen�al.”

____________________________

Elizabeth Judd is a writer in Maryland. This ar�cle was originally published
in the March 2025 Independent Banker magazine.

reference. Arkansas Community Banker | 23 | Spring 2025