Would you open an account at the same bank as your parents? That used to be standard. Now, digital account management offered by traditional banks, purely-online banks and comparing interest rates and fees easily have disrupted the traditional banking landscape. It is all the more important to offer customers a positive experience in order to compete.
Purely-online banks, sustainable banks, private banks or classic retail banks - the financial market is becoming increasingly complicated for customers. To whom should you entrust your money? In a completely rational world, you would choose the institution with the best rates and lowest fees, but money gets mixed up with emotions - including when choosing the best bank for you. Here, we pinpoint the three reasons why banks need to make a positive impression more than ever.
- Digital is not an add-on
Many of the large retail banks have let the first wave of digitization pass them by, which has paved the way for young, digital financial service providers. Start-ups like Ally Bank, Chime, Wise/Transferwise or Revolut have gotten traction because they have made it easier than ever for customers. Want to open an account? It’s free and can be done via an app. All you needs is a smartphone and 15 minutes to apply. This has now become the standard at many banks. At a basic level, customers require a user-friendly, intuitive app and free online transfers. If the app is disappointing, switching to a more innovative bank is quick and easy.
- Mistakes are costly
Customer service is unavailable, the bank has not answered your email for three days or you’ve been hearing the same song while on hold for 45 minutes with the call. Sounds familiar? Let's be blunt: if these situations happen frequently customers just don't forgive their banks. Why should they? They can open another bank account online within 15 minutes and use it. But errors don’t only happen in digital channels: Many people choose a bank or a financial service that gives them a good feeling when they walk into a brick-and-mortar branch. For example they decide to become a customer because the reception when they walked in the door was friendly or the account manager answered all of their questions without seeming rushed.
- The solution is quick and simple
So how can a bank offer a (new) customer a positive experience? After 17 years of working with banks around the world on measuring and improving their customer service, our CX professionals offer this advice:
- Offer different channels for customers to contact you and make sure regardless of how they contact you, they receive information or problem resolution. As quickly as possible.
- Make sure that all types of banking transactions work seamlessly online 24/7 e.g. applying for credit cards, opening any kind of account, transferring money, etc.
- Provide professional and knowledgeable support when customers contact you. Outsourcing to a call center may seem cost-effective, but it annoys customers when outside call reps are not as empowered and effective as internal company employees.
To ensure that all of your customer service procedures are implemented perfectly, a customer experience program utilizing professional mystery shoppers is recommended. ISC-CX mystery shoppers are trained and selected by us—they can give you an objective report about their customer experience. You can also easily analyze your customers’ experience on your online channels with a Voice of Customer survey program. Banks that deploy these programs can discover service exceptions, fix them quickly and offer their customers a positive experience. Customer retention and acquisition improve!
