Can technology open customer-centric doors for banks?

A study by Gartner in 2014 found that 89% of companies compete mainly on the customer experience they provide. Three years later, this trend is increasingly playing out across the banking industry, as financial institutions compete to augment end-user journeys in order to retain and attract new customers.

Modern day banking experiences now centre on the ability of financial institutions to deliver convenient, connected journeys that enable customers to do what they want with minimum fuss. Yet, creating seamless customer journeys is about more than just making customers’ lives easier. It’s about listening to their needs, and incorporating these into overall branch strategies as well as at every stage of day-to-day processes.

In fact, our latest research study highlights just how important a customer-centric approach is to the in-branch experience and gaining competitive advantage.

Personalised engagement

Today’s empowered consumers demand services according to their individual preferences whenever and wherever they interact. Customers expect a consistent service across all channels and for banks to achieve this they need to move away from a transactional banking customer relationship to one which optimises experiences.

Technology has a key role to play in the realisation of this goal with innovative concepts enabling the possibility of highly personalised experiences across all banking channels. The good news is that our research found that most consumers are positive about the potential impact of new technologies. In fact, over half agree that it will help them conduct transactions more quickly in a bank branch, making them feel more satisfied as a banking customer. Even more think that improved technology in banks means they’ll spend less time queuing than they currently do. It seems like a win-win scenario.

Value-added services

While providing reliable and accurate transactional services is still critical on a daily basis, banks need to take the opportunity provided by new technology to deepen their relationship and engagement with customers to inform current and future decisions and deliver more compelling interactions.

In fact many customers themselves now expect service providers to be taking the time to understand them more - ensuring a comprehensive, personalised user experience. We found that nearly two in five people expect better services from their bank branch which are more closely aligned with digital banking.

New in-branch journeys, technology and consumer touch points not only provide convenience and keep customers happy, they also open up a world of more intimate customer understanding. Utilising this information effectively can set financial institutions apart from competitors - as we’ve seen in other industries, delivering on experience is increasingly the key to success in the digital world. Evidence suggests the appetite is there for enhanced customer services and it’s now up to the industry to take this opportunity and deliver meaningful, sustainable branch strategies for the future.