5 ways psychometrics can help banks deliver an outstanding digital banking experience

As consumer expectations towards their digital user experience are increasing, banks are striving to provide outstanding customer experience on their online and mobile banking channels. According to Gartner, 89% of companies will primarily compete on the customer experience they provide, and banks are not an exception.

With an unprecedented amount of data available from mobile devices, banks have the opportunity to provide a truly excellent customer experience via digital banking. By combining the customer’s digital footprint with predictive analytics and psychometrics − the science of measuring personality traits − banks can accurately predict their customers’ personality traits based on their digital banking behavior patterns, and then tailor the customer’s omnichannel experience on an individual level based on his or her personality.

A good example is Extra Space Storage, the second-largest self-storage facility operator in the USA, which has built a website that − using real-time data − intuitively responds to particular types of customers by highlighting different actions for different customers. For example for a "fast and logical" customer, the "call now" action is made more prominent, whereas for a "slow and emotional" customer, who needs more human connection and affirmation during the buying process, the online chat box appears. The more confident the site is about the visitor’s personality, the more it will respond according to that customer personality type. This approach resulted in a 24% increase in mobile conversions for Extra Space Storage.

In much the same manner, personality information can be used by banks to better service the customer via digital banking. Besides online behavior, banks can also use other information, for example, the customer’s buying patterns, location information, or social media interactions to further refine the personality information for better service and targeting. 

Utilizing this personality information, banks can tailor their digital banking customer experience by:

1. Tailoring digital banking functionality: e.g. a highly analytical person will be more interested in using calculators and financial analysis tools.
2. Tailoring the user interface (UI) based on customer personality: different personality types respond better to different UI layouts, menu structures, or UI colors.
3. Tailoring the next best actions and call to actions based on user personality types: e.g. speed of decision making, and customer context, e.g. customer location, time of the day etc.
4. Tailoring the language and communication: e.g. banks might want to communicate differently to a highly extroverted person compared to an introvert.
5. Tailoring marketing to align with the customer personality and values: e.g. a highly organized person who values safety will be more interested in insurance products, compared to people who are more open to risk taking.

Following this approach banks can provide an outstanding customer experience via online and mobile banking, not only to retain, but also to increase their customer base, and to see significant gains in online advertising and customer lifetime value.