Customer Experience in Banking – The Five Success Steps

The period of transformation is upon us. No matter the industry, organizations are shifting their goalposts in order to meet their customers where they are. Newer innovations, disruptive business models and changing customer needs necessitate organizations to have a well-defined customer experience strategy and transformation roadmap. Such a roadmap not only avoids the risk of investing in the wrong technology, but also saves organizations from designing the wrong experiences.

“Customer experience is the new brand” is a famous quote. This is a reality in the current digital banking revolution and is the single largest priority for banks. The significance and criticality of customer experience transformation is more or less the number one priority in every industry sector. In Banking specially, customer perception plays a phenomenal role in customer acquisition and retention. This is where customer experience transformation adds a substantial value.

Banking on the change

The Banking industry, specifically the part that caters to retail customers, has been on the cusp of digital transformation for a few years now. Improved and reliable internet access has been a game changer – allowing banks to cater to the needs of their digital banking consumers without being physically present. These small conveniences led to bigger ones – now, a prospective customer can open an account and operate it without having to step inside a physical branch for years. Yet, a research by the Digital Banking Report shows that majority of financial institutions that do not have a formal customer experience plan in place.

But customers aren’t expecting less even if they see their bankers less and less. The survey mentioned above reveals that 84% of banking clients want to be treated as an individual person and not an account number. The standards for good experiences are higher too, with 67% of respondents agreeing. A takeaway for banks would be that only 49% are happy with their interaction experiences with their financial institutions – just a little over half the banking population feels there is room for improvement.

The Five Success Steps of Customer Experience Transformation

Almost all leading banking and financial institutions across the world offer some form of digital banking solution. Investing in technology that allows for the digital banking solution. of customer experience with smart solutions and insights, however, can take them a notch above the rest. Here are five steps that can ensure more intuitive Banking services experience to customers:

• Utilizing unified data for 360^o visibility Unified data is the key to delivering relevant personalized experiences, who are looking for connected experiences across all interactions with businesses. By breaking customer information out of the silo, banking businesses can understand the bigger picture better and uncover more points of contact which might not have been apparent in the beginning.
• Shifting to customer-centric offers Financial products, with their ‘one size fits all’ strategy, can alienate prospective customers with their rigid structures. Financial institutions now have the data and means to make sense of it via predictive analytics and artificial intelligence. By using various transactional, interaction-based, and other relevant data, services and products can be customized and shared with the consumers, along with personalised promotional offers.
• Going beyond constraints Life doesn’t stop, and there is no reason for financial institutions to either. With advancements in data analysis resulting in more and more pointed insights, banks can scale their deliveries accordingly. Also, they can make the right offer to the right customer at the right time, through advancements in customer experience technology.
• Offering multi-channel service From mobile banking to digital lending, flexibility is what drives the customer service in today’s financial space. Having a frictionless experience is important, and integrating continuity through multiple channels can help banking financial institutions simplify the lives of their consumers.
• Building digital banking ecosystem With disruptive CX technology, it is possible to use open APIs to build a digital banking ecosystem of products and services to meet the customer needs. Allowing customers to track spends and analyse their budget, for example, can be a useful tool – and partnering with a digital specialist who can engineer this experience can add a significant business value.

The need for change

A radical change in customer experience can vary in regard to the time and resources required, when it comes to banking. A handful of elements and success steps are necessary for such customer experience transformation to deliver impactful results – A consistent focus on value, keeping the customer’s need at the center, and an ability to scale programs goes a long way. By listening to their consumers, Banks can enable relevant change agents that lead to tangible and intangible benefits like overtaking competitors, improved and efficient service, and enhanced working models.

Takeaways

Reshaping customer experience can happen in a multitude of ways, but the financial institution attempting it must take key steps before attempting the same. This can be achieved by partnering with new digital platforms, which allows customers to have a sleek, mobile experience that has now become the norm. Such solutions from digital partners with proven track records, are designed with customer adoption as their first and foremost consideration, along with customer satisfaction and enhancing retention.

Banking financial institutions need to become truly customer-centric in order to attract new and retain existing customers. Changing customer expectations are already creating opportunities for upstarts in the fintech sector, but even the established institutions can take advantage of the digital technologies available for customer experience transformation. By tweaking the already-reliable foundation, Banks can accelerate to the next, while delivering superior and innovative experiences to customers.