In 1963, American Express rolled out an initiative of embossing “Member Since xxxx” on its credit cards and marketing material to signify customer loyalty, relationship longevity, and prestige of brand. Several other banks, including Wells Fargo, have followed suit with similar success. A member tenure program signals recognition, belonging, and continuity. In this article, we will discuss how any bank can use this proven concept to increase profitability.

Making Relationship Value Tangible

While “service” and “relationship” are often central tenants of a community bank’s strategic value, a surprisingly few numbers of banks take the time to create tangible articulations of those concepts to reinforce a bank’s brand proposition. A loyalty points program has proven the best way to do this in banking, however, unless your bank issues a credit card, it’s unlikely that your bank provides any points for transactions or balances.

One near-cost free and effective way to create tangible brand value around the relationship is to record, and market, around the customer’s longevity and relationship with the bank. A straightforward way to do this is to promote a customer’s time with the bank and celebrate their anniversaries.

What Customer Tenure Status Looks Like

Like Amex, printing “Member Since xxxx” or “Customer Since xxxx” on bank materials is the place to start. Not only does it start to record the years the relationship has been in existence, but it is also a tangible acknowledgement that your bank is not just a vendor, but a community unto itself.

Recording tenure can be done by inserting the year when the relationship first started or the years since the relationship was opened on the following bank collateral:

  • Home screen of mobile and online banking app
  • In the profile/account page
  • On their debit and credit cards
  • Electronic and printed statements
  • In customer information files (CIFs) or customer relationship management (CRM) systems so that customer service or business development can recognize the longevity with every interaction.
  • Renewal and repricing notifications and screens
  • Transfer-out/close account flows.
  • Customer service screens

In addition to passive recognition, banks should consider actively recognizing every relationship anniversary by at least an email notification if not a gift. Some anniversary gifts that we like starting from early to late stage:

  • Personalized handwritten thank you notes.
  • Personalized corporate gifts (mugs, pens, fidget toys, chargers, RFID blocking card sleeves, etc. with customer’s name and bank logo)
  • Plants
  • Food items
  • Banking-themed puzzles
  • Educational or health memberships (Calm app, Masterclass, etc.)
  • Gift certificates to other customers’ businesses (restaurants, hotels, gift stores, dry cleaners, etc.)
  • Premium Accessories (Bluetooth speakers, Yeti mugs, shirts, etc.)
  • Curated gift baskets
  • Fee waivers or skip-a-payment

Recognizing a customer’s longevity provides a mental cue to increase a customer’s sense of belonging and satisfaction. Engagement tends to increase as do scores around satisfaction, trust, service quality, commitment, perceived value, image, and experience. In short, when you recognize a customer’s loyalty, they tend to reward you with higher experience scores and economic value.

In Accenture’s 2025 Consumer Banking Study (worth a read in its entirety), the Company found that banks in the top 20% for customer advocacy grew revenue 2.6x faster than banks without similar scores. Turning customers into advocates through recognition was found to increase cross-sell by 17% and wallet share by 5% to 30%. The study goes on to report that 72% of consumers say personalization influences their choice of bank and starting off each interaction with a recognition and “thank you” for a customer’s tenure is an effortless way to show a more personalized experience.

JD Power found that for banks that build more personalized and engaging relationships, overall satisfaction rises 11 points, and Net Promoter Score increases three points.

The Benefits of a Customer Tenure Program 

Codifying and rewarding tenure increases the salience of the relationship, makes switching institutions less likely, and reinforces a “this bank knows me” narrative. Showing and acknowledging loyalty is a self-reinforcing gamification tactic that increases performance with every usage. Most customers appreciate being acknowledged and thanked.  This creates a sense of customer cohesion with a bank’s brand.

This feeling of belonging is inversely correlated to churn. Lower customer defections and churn is a result of higher switching barriers, trust, and satisfaction. In practice, the effect should be strongest for multi-product customers, premium segments, and long-tenure households, and weakest for pure rate shoppers or already-dissatisfied customers.

Increasing loyalty by tenure recognition also has an impact on interest-rate sensitivity. Loyal customers are generally less price-sensitive and visible tenure cue can push customers to evaluate the full relationship bundle, to include what a bank does for its community, trust, convenience, app quality, rewards, service, dispute handling, and branch access, rather than optimizing on rate alone.

On customer value to the bank, the main upside is higher cumulative lifetime value (CLV) through longer retention, higher wallet share, more cross-sell, and better response to relationship-based offers. In financial services, perceived benefits can strengthen perceived relationship investment and drive both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty; banks also routinely use customer relationship lifecycle, profitability, transaction history, and digital interactions to prioritize customers by propensity and value. So, the best use of “Member Since” is not as a decorative badge, but as a low-cost reinforcement layer around anniversary moments, relationship pricing, onboarding milestones, save offers, and cross-sell journeys.

Putting This Idea Into Action

While recognizing customer tenure is likely not enough to optimize a feeling of loyalty at your bank, it is an easy and solid start to setting yourself apart. Acknowledging tenure clearly communicates appreciation for the customer, strengthens that sense of value among employees, and establishes a foundation for further loyalty programs.  Putting “Member/Customer Since xxxx” on a bank’s app, website, statements, and service screens is an inexpensive way to turn forgotten about raw tenure into a visible relationship asset.

Tags: , , , Published: 03/26/26 by Chris Nichols