The leading challenges of 2020 – COVID-19 and its socioeconomic fallout – are applying unprecedented new pressures on the banking industry. Every institution is trying to make processes more efficient while dealing with newly remote workforces and serving anxious customers from a distance. Let’s be honest: these are stressful times for everyone.
Read More: GlobalFintechSeries Interview with Gerard Griffin, CEO at AnyDay
Yet in my many videoconferencing calls with customers and industry leaders, I’m noticing that the focus on customer experience is intensifying. Although most banks had already deployed customer experience initiatives, COVID-inspired trends such as reduced branch hours, branch closures, and overwhelmed call centers are encouraging banks to do even more. Recognizing that customers expect satisfying interactions with their financial institutions, even during a pandemic, a few banks are taking this time as an opportunity to completely revamp their approach to customers.
Poor Customer Experiences are Bad Business
Digital transformation accelerated the years-long transition from in-person banking to digital financial services. As more of our processes became digitized, banks drove more processes away from person-to-person interactions. That’s good news for the industry since digital channel transactions are much less costly than those requiring human intervention.
Yet digital transactions can be mechanical, or worse, frustrating to customers when something goes wrong. Many banks cannot yet provide a seamless experience for every online transaction, such as mobile check deposits and funds transfers. They have trouble personalizing the relationship with customers using digital channels, and they lack the ability to share data among channels to deliver a truly omnichannel experience for customers. This is especially troublesome for senior customers, who generally are less comfortable doing business digitally.
Without personal interactions, the relationship between customer and bank withers, or worse, becomes toxic. According to Qualtrics, about 70% of customers who plan to leave the bank say it was many minor expectation failures that triggered their decision. That’s not a positive reflection. And in a related statistic, 69% of those surveyed said they would not consider themselves promoters of their bank. Ouch.
The Right Technologies Create a Foundation for Success
The news is not all bad, though. Some 56% of customers planning to leave their provider say the bank could take steps to change their mind.
How can banks focus more on the customer experience so they can deliver more satisfying interactions? Those banks realizing the greatest success are doing so by concentrating on their technology infrastructure and on their ability to measure – and more importantly, adapt – the customer experience.
To help future-proof the bank, competitive companies are building on an omnichannel banking platform that integrates a variety of key technologies. Intelligent technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) help create more personalized interactions. AI enables chatbot channel interactions that realistically replicate human responses for common questions and requests. ML allows the platform to learn about data transactions and support new use cases to meet evolving customer requirements.
Banks are also making more advanced use of Big Data to spot patterns, trends, and opportunities for personalization. Using real-time analytics to correlate events with their effects on customers and banking practices, they can respond faster and with greater precision to changing conditions.
Cloud deployment of the banking platform is also essential. Open, cloud-based platforms allow banks to integrate with technologies that support agility and resilience, such as commercial clouds from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and IBM. They also enable the use of modern container technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
Open, API-centric platforms help banks support innovation by connecting readily with tools from internal developers, partners, and fintechs. When new channels emerge or new functions become essential, banks can adopt them without delay.
Read More: Options Announces Expansion into Gemini Cryptocurrency Exchange
Measuring the customer experience informs decision-making
Of course, these technologies are most valuable when used to improve the customer experience. Some banks are using their omnichannel banking platforms to ensure that customers encounter a consistent experience across all devices – whether using retail, small business, or commercial banking services. New orchestration technology allows customers to start their banking process in one channel and finish in another. And responsive digital technologies help deliver a highly personalized, context-specific customer experience.
But how do banks know when the customer experience is meeting or exceeding expectations? Many firms have very limited insight into customer sentiment, leading to high levels of churn. According to Qualtrics, 69% of customers who plan to leave their bank say it was because of poor service.
Experience management (XM) solutions help banks capture customer experience data and better understand performance and customer reactions. Although many financial firms have long used surveys and other analog measurement methods, XM solutions take these tools to the next level.
By consolidating and normalizing fractured experience data and applying powerful analytics tools, XM solutions identify insights and uncover trends, helping banks understand the total customer experience. This means banks spend less time on analysis and more time taking action – providing enhanced customer experiences that lead to better business outcomes.
Perhaps most importantly, cutting-edge banks are finding that XM solutions help demonstrate value to their customers. By understanding the customer experience and taking steps to optimize every interaction, financial institutions can show that they’re more than just a bank. In moving beyond transactions to focus on meaningful interactions, banks will deliver stronger customer relationships in an increasingly competitive age, evolving banks’ focus from transaction to interaction.
Read More: GlobalFintechSeries Interview with Jill Homan, President at DeepTarget
