Differentiation is difficult in the financial services and banking world. And arguably, until the advent of the banking crisis, new market entrants and competition driving regulation, the industry has quite honestly taken customers for granted. With customer churn at a low level of around 4% per annum, the client’s apathy to explore the market is not surprising.
Take a look at the insurance market and see how the scenario is diametrically opposite. With insurers listed on price comparison sites such as Compare the Market, Moneysupermarket, etc., who does not look at competitors when the renewal quote comes through? The renewal, no matter whether the cost invariable is good or bad, makes us look at alternatives in the market.
An Opportunity and a Threat
Post PSD2, what will be the critical point that makes retail banking customers look at alternatives for better value and services? Price is unlikely to be the key factor for some time to come. As aggregators gain the ability to access the customer’s banking transactions and leverage analytics, they could offer those alternatives directly to the customer either through digital or physical channels. So for the industry, PSD2 is both an opportunity and a threat.
However, such offers will need to be backed up by the very best customer experiences, banks and financial services institutions can offer. Their expectations are increasingly fuelled by the experiences they receive from other sectors and industries. As a result, they expect no less from their financial services providers.
Personalise and more with Analytics
The wealth of customer data that banks can access and leverage should enable them to deliver the very best targeted experiences. While legacy architectures make this difficult for traditional financial services organisations, new entrants and challengers can to some extent accelerate the process, as they do not have the scale or incumbent customer base to win the battle in the short to medium term.
It’s no accident that the financial services sector is increasingly employing executives and management both on the business and IT side of the organisation focused entirely on customer experience delivery and improvement. They realise that they must differentiate, to both win and retain customers against the backdrop of PSD2 and growing competition.
Create a Cumulative Customer Impact
According to Forbes, the customer experience is the ‘cumulative impact of multiple touchpoints’ over the course of a customer's interaction with an organisation.’ Whilst this is true, it is not only the quality of these interactions, whether they be in person, through call centres, via digital channels or a combination, but also the emotional experience and the value derived from that experience that will keep the customer coming back.
If these experiences are designed in the right way to not only deliver the expected transactional experiences, but also non-traditional value added services, they must be underpinned by a platform of intelligently integrated technology that delivers the designed promise.
Extend the Experience to Digital
The digital channel and its reach directly into the customer’s home and hand is the key area where banks must deliver significant improvements. In doing so, they will be able to deliver a service that appeals to the customers physical, technical and emotional experience. The outcomes of those experiences must also be available across the entire enterprise. This will ensure that the customer receives a well-informed and consistent experience regardless of channel, but especially when processes and transactions are split across channels.
At Mastek, we help organisations deliver on the customer experience promise by leveraging our Customer Experience Framework, which is designed to support a full range of capabilities. We are cognizant that some customers will have core platform elements already embedded in their architecture.
Which is why, through innovative solutioning and intelligent integration we not only deliver those traditional transactional experiences, but go beyond and help organisations deliver differentiated enterprise mobile solutions. Thus, providing the experiences customers demand and expect, and also ensuring that it results in the growth and retention of customers with deeper customer relationships.
Don’t lose out on loyal banking customers. Find out how you can retain them with Mastek’s Customer Experience Framework. Get in touch with us at info@mastek.com
