The Importance Of The Banking Customer Experience

Providing a superior customer experience is crucial in any industry to stand out from the competition, and the banking industry is no different. While the majority of banks acknowledge the importance of the CX, only 20% of them are actively working to improve on it.

In this blog, we will explore why digital and retail banks should prioritise CX and, more importantly, how they can provide the best experience possible to keep their customers coming back.

Business Impact

Banks that prioritise CX can bring about many benefits such as:

Return on Investment: Banks who prioritise CX can expect a 55% increase in ROI.
Brand advocacy: CX leaders in the banking industry have almost double the recommendation rates in comparison to CX laggards.
Growth: Forrester notes that retail banks that regularly practice customer experience optimisation grow over three times faster than those that don’t.
Share of Wallet: Customer-centric banks have a share of wallet that is 1.9x higher than those who fail to acknowledge the importance of CX.

So, how do you improve the banking customer experience?

Digital Customer Engagement

Digital customer engagement involves using technology to interact with your customers such as via social media, chatbots, and email. It is noted as being a top priority for almost three-quarters of banking leaders. Being able to effectively serve your customers online is more important than ever in the wake of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

According to Statistica, as many as 1.9 billion people worldwide actively used online banking services in 2020 with this figure expected to reach 2.5 billion by 2024.

Omnichannel Support

Siloed systems present a big challenge for banks and can negatively affect CX. Providing omnichannel support to banking customers allows them to move seamlessly from one channel to another without having to repeat themselves (something that the majority of customers hate!).

67% of customers deem the ability to move from one channel to the next while in contact with a customer service representative as “important” while 75% feel it is important to be able to engage with agents using their channel of choice.

Customer Journey Mapping

This is a crucial element of CX that is often overlooked. Customer journey mapping takes into account and acknowledges the importance of each interaction throughout the whole journey from setting up a bank account to closing one.

Looking at the customer journey as a whole rather than each individual interaction allows you to identify weak points where your bank may be scoring lower on metrics such as CSAT, CES, or NPS. Having this insight will aid decision-making in terms of where extra resources may need to be allocated.

Personalisation

When it comes to standing out from the competition, providing a tailored service to your customers is key. A study by Capco found that personalisation is deemed as being “highly important” to 72% of banking customers.

Don’t be afraid to ask your customers for feedback or information – 86% of customers stated that they are willing to share their data to personalize their banking experience. Furthermore, 86% of people who acknowledge the importance of personalization are willing to provide feedback on their experience at least once a year.

Key takeaways for success

Stay up to date with the latest trends in technology to avoid losing customers to newer, younger banks.
Integrate your support channels to ensure agents have all the data they need and to avoid customers having to repeat themselves.
Look at the whole journey, not each individual interaction.
Ask your customers for feedback and tailor your offering based on this data.

Improve your CX and you can bank on happier customers, reduced customer churn, and increased revenue.