Many customers will stick to the changes in banking behavior induced by the pandemic, while some may revert to earlier preferences, such as in-person banking. But what is certain is that banks will need to deepen customer engagement to deliver greater value to customers, and also to ward off next-gen competitors, such as Fintech firms and neo-banks. We believe that in 2023, banks will begin to recompose customer engagement by focusing on omnichannel journeys, hybrid personalized experiences, and continuous transformation at the core.
Omnichannel Journeys: Omnipresent, Consistent, Connected
76 percent of customers prefer different channels for different types of messages, while 90 percent want an absolutely seamless experience when moving between channels.
Hence “truly” customer-first banks will offer highly personalized, seamless services, accessible anywhere, anytime and on any device. To balance the needs of millennials, who will continue to adopt social, conversational, and other advanced channels of banking, and that of older generations, who prefer assisted in-branch service, banks would need to provide a choice of hybrid connections.
Omnichannel engagement through personalized, consistent, and real-time interactions will be critical, not least because it will provide data from multiple touchpoints that can be leveraged to enhance customer engagement further.
Hybrid Experiences: Unique, Personal
Banking consumers also expect their experiences to be smart, quick, visually attractive, and unique across the channels they use. Cloud, Data, AI, and other technologies will be key to enabling this. While engagement will be driven by data and digital, it must also be human-centric, completely tailored to the user’s context with the aim of creating delight.
A recent study commissioned by Infosys Finacle shows that 71 percent of respondent banks are running personalized communication campaigns, and nearly 60 percent offer delivery across traditional, contemporary, and emerging channels. But less than half are: leveraging enterprise customer data management, providing proactive recommendations, data-driven micro-segmentation, and Human augmented sales leveraging AI & machine learning recommendations.
To personalize customer engagement to the fullest, banks must create an integrated technology stack, including a customer data hub for a 360-degree customer view, self-help chatbots, auto-routing to agents for faster resolution, and so on.
Continuous Transformation at the Core – People, Process, Technology
With banks scaling back branches and restructuring staff, bank talent cannot be tightly boxed-in like before. Banks are therefore grooming employees into universal bankers, capable of fulfilling multiple roles.
It is required to augment the workforce to improve engagement, by investing in contemporary skills training, a cultural reset, and intelligent technologies. To simplify complex engagement processes, business processes must be transformed for customer-centricity, ubiquitous automation, and a digital-first approach.
Finally, banks should leverage modern technologies and data-driven insights for superior customer experiences.
By aligning people, processes, and technology in this manner, banks will drive financial empowerment and well-being among their customers. Our research reveals encouraging findings in this area, with 85 percent of banks expressing confidence in their progress in customer experience and engagement, and about 70 percent expressing confidence in improving digital talent and skillsets, as well as processes.
A recent U.S. retail banking satisfaction study reports that banks are falling short of their customers’ expectations for personalized support and that almost one in two customers has switched to a predominantly digital-centric banking relationship. Therefore, engaging better with customers should be a top priority of U.S. banks in 2023. Omnichannel engagement, highly personalized experiences, and transformation of people, processes and technologies, are the areas to focus on.
This article was previously published in the Global Fintech Series.
