Money Moments
Money Moments — from Emotional Banking: Fixing Culture, Leveraging FinTech, and Transforming Retail Banks into Brands (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-75652-3) by Duena Blomstrom.
Money Moments are the emotionally charged moments in a customer's financial life where banks either build or destroy trust. They are the measurable units of the trust-as-balance-sheet framework — every customer interaction either deposits into or withdraws from the emotional account.
Banks that cannot identify their Money Moments cannot design for trust. And trust, once lost, does not return through product features or marketing campaigns.
The trust-as-balance-sheet framework
Deposit Moments
Interactions that build emotional trust — when the bank demonstrates understanding, removes friction, or shows genuine care for the customer's financial wellbeing.
Withdrawal Moments
Interactions that erode trust — opaque fees, impersonal service, broken promises, or moments where the customer feels the bank is working against them.
The Trust Balance Sheet
Every customer interaction either deposits into or withdraws from the emotional account. The cumulative balance determines loyalty, advocacy, and long-term brand equity.
Measurable Units
Money Moments are not abstract. They are identifiable, categorisable, and designable. Banks that map their Money Moments can systematically build trust rather than accidentally destroy it.
Money Moments and the Four EB Methods
Money Moments is one of four methods introduced in Emotional Banking™ (Palgrave Macmillan, Springer Nature imprint, 2018, Print ISBN 978-3-319-75652-3, eBook ISBN 978-3-319-75653-0). The complete set:
- Money Moments — mapping the emotional touchpoints in banking
- Build a Voice — creating authentic bank-customer communication
- Everyone's a Designer — democratising design thinking in banking
- Intrapreneur Warrior's Guide — enabling innovation from within
This is also where Human Debt™ was first conceived — the idea that organisations accumulate invisible costs from misalignment and emotional friction.
Emotional Banking™ 2.0
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