Within the banking industry, Customer Experience (CX) has become one of the defining characteristics for banks to thrive above their competitors. Financial Institutions (FIs) that invest in customer experience can gain an increased rate of recommendations, which leads to a greater market share. Banks with higher quality of CX are more likely to up-sell or cross-sell their products and services to their existing customer base.
However, the potential of CX within the finance world is yet to be fully realized, as up to 63% customers still believe that banks do not have a thorough understanding of their needs and preferences.
Customer Experience (CX) in banking
Essentially, CX encompasses the overall combination of how bank customers perceive, feel, and believe regarding the bank’s brand throughout their entire customer journey. It covers many elements that make up the customers’ entire impression of the bank – from the different types of banking offered (such as mobile banking, retail banking, digital banking, Islamic banking, etc), onboarding processes, UX designs, customer support, and the many channels that the banks provide to interact with the consumers.
Why should banks improve their customer experience (CX)?
Recent studies have asserted that FIs with a customer-centric culture are 60% more profitable than those who are not. Digital Banking Report has also found that “improving the customer experience” should be the first goal for banks and FIs to prioritize. This is especially crucial considering customers are filled to the brim with choices, allowing them to easily switch banks for every six to 12 months.
Hence, it is imperative for banks to understand the exact customer expectations for an excellent banking experience and maximize their effort to deliver it. High quality CX will not only ensure high rates of customer retention, but also guarantee greater capability for banks to target a specific market segment and find the hidden opportunities within.
The latest CX trends in banking
1. Mobile banking enhancement
Mobile phone usage is surging all across the globe, with an estimated 91.6% of the world population owning said device. This high mobile penetration leads to high demand for mobile banking. Combined with the unparalleled convenience that mobile banking apps offer for its users, it is crucial for banks to further improve their mobile experience in achieving greater CX.
This can be done by utilizing embedded analytics and AI (Artificial Intelligence), as not only can it intelligently automates processes for customers, it can also allow FIs to gain valuable information on consumers’ spending habits and credit scoring, which will then be extracted for an accurate predictive analysis on their financial health.
It is also important to consider how the UX designs for the mobile banking app will be planned. Small details that may seem insignificant can lead to great impacts. Simplified yet intuitive interface (ie. Minimalism), and user-friendly layouts will lead to higher time spent on the app, which then improves the overall customer journey.
2. Automated onboarding
When it comes to any customer experience, first impressions matter. As for the banking industry, first impressions usually entail the onboarding process which can be painstakingly slow and taxing. Following the conventional route, onboarding new customers tends to come with countless forms needing to be filled in. This can become an administrative burden and increases the chances of human error.
By automating the onboarding process, banks provide the option of customers providing personal information from their own homes. This reduces manual labor and headcount needed to process the registrations, while at the same time reducing the need of opening new branches to reach customers in rural areas, giving banks more access to unpenetrated markets and demographics.
With a smarter customer onboarding process, banks can use automation to expedite key parts of the process, enabling new customers to open their accounts with more efficiency. This can be seen from INFOPRO’s eKYC Customer Onboarding feature, which allows customers to simply submit a photo of their identity card (IC) and let the facial recognition technology do the rest.
3. Ensuring an omnichannel customer experience
At its core, customer journey is a different experience for every bank. There are many different touchpoints that customers use to interact with the bank – from voice banking, ATMs, mobile banking apps, face to face interactions, and chatbot feature on the websites. With such diverse channels, FIs need to ensure that they are integrated and interconnected, guaranteeing a truly omnichannel experience at the customers’ fingertips.
It is worth to remember that simply integrating the touchpoints are not enough, high quality customer service is to be expected at every point of interactions. Solely relying on manual labor would not suffice too, hence it is vital for banks to intelligently automate processes to ensure consistent, high quality customer experience can be achieved at all times, allowing them to sow trust and loyalty more effectively
4. Providing advising services through strong customer analytics
By investing in strong customer analytics, FIs can have a holistic, multidimensional view of their customers as they can obtain detailed insights on the customers’ behavioral patterns and lifestyles. Such data is essential for long-term improvement of the bank’s CX as they can innovate processes that ease the customers’ day-to-day transactions. Additionally, these valuable data can be used by the in-house experts to offer a more tailored and accurate advice for customers at every stage of their financial journey, therefore building stronger rapport with them and increasing customer loyalty rate.
5. Rapid transformation for digitalization and remote services
With the ongoing pandemic, the importance of having various digital channels and remote services has become more apparent than ever. However, the transition towards digitalization poses its own challenges for banks, especially for the older customers which may have limited digital literacy.
To overcome this, FIs need to not only maximize their efforts in undergoing their digital transformation, but to also translate said effort to the customers by providing a complete guidance. Learning materials such as webinars, tutorial videos, or educational content can be used as support for customers that may need more time in understanding the bank’s ongoing digitalization. The more confidence a customer has in using the bank’s digital and remote services, the better their overall CX would be.
Come onboard and join the full force of digitalization with INFOPRO
Improving customer experience will generate higher returns in the long term – this statement is especially applicable within the financial services industry as poor customer quality had become one of the top reasons why customers switch their banks easily. This factor has incentivized banks and FIs alike to gain a deeper understanding at their products and service offerings in order to determine whether there is room to provide a more customer-centric and personalized CX.
It goes without saying that FIs need to adopt new trends and revamp their current strategies to stay ahead. Great customer experience comes with measurable business results and leaves a tangible impact on the business’ revenue. To propel towards a future-proof ecosystem, consider partnering with INFOPRO as we can assist you with your digitalization seamlessly.
At INFOPRO, we provide a full suite of digital solutions customized for banks and FIs alike, with over 50 modules delivered at a 100% success performance rate. Contact our team of experts for more information.