The majority of traditional and challenger banks in the UK are currently lagging behind customer demand for an instant account set up, and risk missing an opportunity to attract new customers and retain existing ones.
Recent research (2019) conducted by Censuswide of 2,000 UK banking customers shows that 4 in 10 Brits (43 per cent) expect to be able to set up their bank account instantly. However, under half of traditional and challenger banks are only provisioning
for an instant set up.
The research also shows that almost a third (31%) of higher earners on an income of over £75k would switch banks for a better online experience, and 1 in 5 (20%) would switch if they had a better customer service.
One of the key reasons behind the rise of instant banking expectations can be attributed to the emergence of ‘big tech.’ The likes of Google and Amazon are providing fast, personal, safe and always-available portable solutions to customers. Banks
must ensure that they take the same highly personalised and nimble approach as big tech, otherwise they will risk alienating existing and new customers with lengthy on-boarding processes.
For traditional UK banks to stay ahead of the competition, they need to ditch the ‘death by a thousand cuts’ approach to onboarding which involves the combination of digital and paper processes and digitise their offerings fully.
Banks need to abandon nostalgic ways of working and start placing customer experience at the heart of innovation. This involves championing customer satisfaction across all channels by being more flexible with the products and services they are providing
and aligning with new customer demands.
There is also a clear market opportunity in the UK for banks to target high net worth individuals and the next generation of bankers customers by providing an instant, seamless online user experience.
The only way banks can effectively align with customer demand is to foster a culture of collaboration. By championing ‘Open Banking:’ the opening up of their data to provide access to ‘outlier’ service providers banks will be able to provide products
and services at speed and expand their portfolios to align with these new expectations.
For the majority of banks, it is inertia and fear that is holding them back from capitalizing on the UK market opportunity.