Effective communication with lead customers in developing new banking products

New service development (NSD) is an imperative to suppliers in today's highly competitive banking markets. Communication during the NSD process is important if the needs of customers are to be met functionally as well as economically. The results presented in this paper identify communication skills associated with successful NSD. Case research into nine UK‐based commercial banks shows that the most successful developers use special skills for communicating with customers – especially with “lead customers” – throughout the development process. Less successful developers concentrate their communication exchange on the end of the process.