Customer experience is the most critical driver in enhancing loyalty within the banking industry. About a third of all customers who have an unpleasant customer experience close their accounts. As the world becomes increasingly more digital and consumer expectations shift in a highly regulated and competitive industry, banks need to identify where they can improve customer loyalty.
While banks have made great strides in providing innovative digital customer experiences across mobile and social platforms, most Americans do not utilize these solutions to their full potential. To drive brand loyalty and increase customer satisfaction in today's digital age banks need to innovate their digital customer experience. Here's a roadmap for banks to improve by listening to what their customers say and acting on these insights.
Break Down Operational Silos
Financial institutions have valuable customer feedback from social media, call center, digital chat and email conversations at their fingertips. Instead of keeping it siloed within the customer care team, banks should operationalize this feedback throughout the organization and deploy the insights to drive product innovation and customer satisfaction.
For example, less than 30% of American consumers use mobile wallets as a form of payment. In China however, mobile payments accounted for over $9 trillion of consumer spending in 2016. To uncover why Americans are so hesitant to replace physical payment cards for digital ones, banks can use AI-driven technology to shed light on emotion, sentiment and effort from social, call center, chat and email interactions. Instead of siloing these insights within the customer care team, banks should distribute vital information to the product team. Armed with specific insights the product team can make changes that drive user adoption for a multitude of services within their banks' mobile app, drive brand loyalty and transform mobile banking habits.
Operationalizing customer experience data can also help banks prevent regulatory fines. In the United States the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) analyzes customer feedback to identify violations and penalizes banks that do not resolve complaints in a timely manner. When banks spread CX data throughout their organization, the appropriate teams can adjust products and policies to prevent non-compliant experiences and save the organization billions.
Bridge the Knowledge Gap
Banks have invested time and resources in developing advanced capabilities like digital money transfers, real-time loan requests, and financial planning services. However, there is a disconnect between the services banks offer and those consumers actually use.
For instance, of the 64% of Americans who have downloaded their bank's mobile app a majority of those individuals only use the app to check their balances or pay their bills. To bridge the gap, banks should look internally to the contact center where customer preferences, desires and pain points are all clearly expressed. Banks can then spread that feedback within their organization to better market new products and services, and also help create a more engaging end-to-end experience from education through adoption.
Take money transfers for example. A majority of American consumers send money through third party apps like Venmo and PayPal, instead of using an in-app option such as Chase QuickPay with Zelle. This preference is consistent among generations from millennials to baby boomers. With an understanding of why customers are reluctant to adopt a seemingly more streamlined process banks can tailor email marketing, social media ads and even live streaming video tutorials to increase adoption rates of the bank-generated options.
Enhance Customer Care
In addition to overlooking the functionality of their banks' mobile apps, consumers are also missing out on new digital customer support channels. Less than 10% of Americans have used Twitter or Facebook to surface a complaint to their bank. Of those who have though, 80% of problems were resolved. When banks master communication through digital messaging and social media platforms and encourage broader consumer adoption, they will increase happiness and enhance brand loyalty.
As banks evolve digital customer care solutions, the local branch experience should also become more digital to create a consistent omni-channel experience for today's consumer. Though the volume of brick-and-mortar bank branches has declined, 63% of Americans have visited their local branch in the past month and it remains the most preferred channel when applying for new products. To elevate the in-person experience banks should incorporate cutting-edge technology such as digital self-service with as-needed assistance, virtual video meetings, and personalized data-driven service from branch representatives.
Banks that create exceptional customer experiences across all platforms will ensure that consumers are not only implementing more digital services but also enjoying them. Operationalizing customer feedback throughout the organization will increase customer satisfaction at every touchpoint, driving loyalty and NPS scores up to impact the bottom line for business.
