BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES CX GUIDE
Banking & Financial Services Trends for 2022-2023: Why Now is the Time to Invest in Customer Experience (CX)
Why Now is the Time for Financial Services to Invest in Customer Experience
As banking continues to expand more and more into the digital realm, how can financial industry leaders set themselves apart in 2023?
The answer lies within your customer experience. Don’t believe us? Just listen to the research:
According to a recent study, financial institutions that lead in CX have “higher recommendation rates, a higher share of deposits, and a greater likelihood that customers will increase their portfolio of new products and services from their bank.” Conversely, they also found that financial institutions that don’t deliver on customer experience “risk losing up to 12.5% of their share of deposits.”
Customer experience is one of the major ways to adapt to digital transformation in the financial services and banking industry. CX helps companies meet and exceed customer expectations and differentiate their brand as a leader in finance.
At ROI CX Solutions, we’ve been helping financial leaders enhance their customer experience for decades. Use our comprehensive Banking and Financial Services Customer Experience Guide to explore 2022-2023 financial industry CX trends, understand the importance of customer experience in banking in 2023 and find key opportunities for CX growth.
FinTech & The Digital Experience
Traditional banking and finance used to be rooted firmly in the brick-and-mortar world as retail banking. Now, the digital transformation—heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic—has brought the banking and finance industry into the digital realm. As a result, not only are digital solutions necessary for a good customer experience, but they also require customer service to extend from the in-person branch experience into the digital world.
In the past, banking and financial institutions may have been able to compete on the basis of proximity, geographical density, and in-person service and relationships. Now, with more and more consumers becoming accustomed to, or even preferring, online services, the digital world is much more important.
According to a 2021 PwC survey,
61%
OF BANK CUSTOMERS
an estimated 61% of bank customers “interact with their institution’s digital channels on a weekly basis.”
32%
OF BANK CUSTOMERS
Even more, 32% “prefer to avoid branches altogether.”
Now, digital banks make up 20% of all primary bank relationships in the US, up from just 10% in 2019. Competition is no longer the bank down the street, but rather all of the digital banks, national banks, and online fintech solutions. In order to compete in today’s marketplace, it’s essential to usher in a digital-first customer experience.
Changing Customer Expectations
As customer habits and patterns change, so too do their expectations. In today’s world of digital solutions and near-endless options, the best bank or financial institution isn’t the one nearest you: it’s the one that knows you best.
Customers are coming to expect a hyper-personalized, seamless experience that is tailored to them from start to finish. Personalization matters to your bottom line too. Take, for example, these numbers from consumers who had a personalized experience:
will likely become repeat buyers
will be likely to tell friends or family
purchased something they did not intend to buy based on a personalized recommendation from a brand
Consumers still expect support and security from their financial institutions, but their expectations of what that will entail have evolved. Where in-person relationships with branch employees used to be enough, consumers are now expecting real-time service and digital contact methods. In-person interactions will have to be increasingly personalized as well, ideally leading to speedy interactions, seamless support, and overall security.
Differentiate your brand through CX
According to Harvard Business Review,
disruptive competitors, the pandemic-driven shift to digital service provision, and the economic fallout from sharply curtailed business activity” have increased pressure on financial institutions to deliver better customer experience.
Banking and financial services companies who have not already established themselves as leaders in the digital space are likely already feeling the effects of not having done so. Consider that 46% of bank customers under the age of 55 said they would change banks if another bank offered better digital features.
As consumers become more comfortable with digital-first solutions, financial institutions have less to distinguish themselves aside from an incredible customer experience.
And while aiming to increase customer satisfaction continues to be a priority in the financial services industry, only 37% of financial institutions have a formal customer relationship management plan, a recent study found. As a result, now is the time to set your customer experience improvement plan in place and set yourself apart.
Ready to take the next step?
Top Customer Experience Trends in Banking & Finance
So, how can you differentiate yourself in the financial industry? These customer experience trends in banking and finance for 2023 are key areas to focus on if you want to stand out.
Improved digital offerings & services
Expanded digital channels, solutions, and products are a must in the modern finance and banking industry in order to deliver a customer experience that not only meets expectations but meets customers wherever they are.
According to recent consumer data:
almost half!— said that “mobile and online banking capabilities were the most important factor when choosing where to bank.”
Financial institutions are making their offerings and services more convenient for digital consumers. They do this through digital solutions such as real-time payment offerings, mobile check deposits, online accounts, the ability to set up new accounts online, and automated onboarding processes.
To win in the digital space, banking and financial institutions should focus on improving their digital offerings—both when it comes to digital products and online customer service options—while still keeping a human touch. Having a personal, human element to digital products or services is a great way to stand out, build trust, and foster loyalty even as more and more banking institutions move to the digital world.
Increased real-time support through self-service options
Many financial institutions regularly deal with an influx of repetitive and highly technical or product-specific questions. Unfortunately, these same institutions also often have an outdated or inefficient call center or call routing systems, meaning that customer service is not only delayed but inefficient for both the caller and the company.
This is why self-service options continue to be a growing customer service trend in the financial industry in 2023. Self-service options improve real-time support for customers while also providing a scalable, efficient option for growing banks. Benefits of improved real-time support for financial institutions include:
Reduce the volume of common questions routed to an agent
Save time and increase efficiency among call center staff
Provide 24/7 support to customers at scale
Allow customers to get questions answered digitally
AI chatbots and live-chat support are two self-service options that provide real-time support to customers. In fact, 79% of customers prefer live chat (to other support options), so they can get immediate answers. Prioritizing this element of the customer experience goes a long way in supporting customer needs.
Expanded uses of AI
Self-service support options are just one way AI is becoming a major player when it comes to improving customer experience in banking. Financial institutions also have the opportunity to use AI to transform the customer experience (and the bottom line!) in channels such as:
Providing personalized insights and advice based on user data and AI modeling or predictions.
Increasing proactive consumer security through AI-powered alerts about overspending, low account balances, potential fraud, and so on.
Using AI and machine learning to better predict and assess loan risk.
Automating repetitive tasks—for both the customer and employee.
For example, Chase has created and implemented an AI algorithm to detect fraud patterns based on high-level data from every credit card transaction. The improved security and reliability of Chase’s fraud-protection services, backed by AI data processing and pattern recognition, has earned them top recognition in Banking Digital Trust surveys.
Seamless personalization
Consumers don’t want to hear what you have available—they want to hear what you have available that will solve their current problem.
As the data shows, customers are ever-increasingly willing to help create personalized experiences. 65% of consumers and 82% of businesses are willing to share information with banks to receive “more tailored solutions and a better overall experience.”
Creating a hyper-targeted and personalized experience is a way not only to meet customers’ expectations but also to create a top-notch experience that leaves them coming back for more. Boston Consulting Group found that banks can see annual revenue uplifts of 10% or more if personalization is done well.
Using data from purchases and income, banking activity, website or app usage, products and services used, interactions at their physical branch, and more–banks can:
Predict customers’ needs (home loans, credit cards)
Offer personalized products or services
Provide personalized insights and financial advice based on spending, income, etc.
Deliver personalized content or recommendations
In order for personalization to work, you need to have a clear view of your customer data and a connected consumer history. Digitization delivers personalized experiences. However, once you do this, you also have the foundation needed for omnichannel support.
Commitment to omnichannel experiences
In general, consumers interact with a brand 6-8 times before making a decision or purchase. By the time a customer makes their way to your website to open an account or apply for a loan, you should already know something about them. You can then use that to personalize and streamline their experience.
Similarly, if a customer walks into a physical branch, they don’t want to have to explain their situation from the beginning—and if they’re already a customer, they shouldn’t have to.
Omnichannel support allows you to connect customer data across all touchpoints—online, mobile app, phone calls, in-person experiences, and so on—into a single source. By centralizing everything, you always know where each customer is in their journey.
While omnichannel experiences have been a “nice-to-have” for some time, they’re only becoming more important in today’s digital world. Even as more people shift to online-first interactions with financial institutions, physical spaces and a human connection still matter. The key is tying all of these different touchpoints together into a cohesive experience.
While 32% of customers may prefer to avoid branches altogether, another 35% of total consumers prefer to have an in-person experience or connect with a real person for questions or financial advice. As a result, it’s essential to have connected, hybrid solutions and deliver a seamless experience anytime—and anywhere—a customer meets you.
Omnichannel solutions allow you to provide a quality experience wherever customers meet you and provide an interconnected, seamless experience for your customer.
Innovation in security and compliance
Fraud attempts increased by 41% in 2021, and other forms of cybersecurity or financial attacks are on the rise. To respond, banks and financial institutions need to redouble their efforts to target and prevent fraud and improve consumer security.
Unsurprisingly, as more banking and financial services happen online, increased security is necessary to solidify consumer trust and deliver an exceptional customer experience. After all, getting your credit card hacked is, obviously, a subpar experience.
However, a recent study by Featurespace found that while 66% of financial executives thought improving fraud detection and AML compliance was a high priority, a much smaller percentage were actually acting on such innovations.
As a result, banks and financial institutions that do adopt innovative solutions to fraud, security, and compliance have more to gain in terms of reduced fraud rates, improved consumer trust, and enhanced customer experience.
Take, for example, data from the same study that showed 59% of executives preferring to “wait and see” newer fraud prevention technologies become widely accepted before adopting them. That’s true even though companies that implemented innovative solutions first saw the lowest fraud rates overall.
Outsourced customer service
For banking and financial institutions looking to set themselves apart from the crowd, outsourcing customer service is set to become increasingly popular in 2023 and beyond.
Already, 71% of financial executives say they outsource some services, while the outsourced customer experience market is set to grow to almost $82 billion by 2023.
Smaller banks, in particular, can benefit from outsourced customer service, allowing them to provide expert customer service agents to compete with larger banks at a fraction of the cost of hiring in-house.
For large or small institutions alike, outsourcing can improve customer experience metrics like speed to answer, first-call resolution, and overall customer satisfaction rates. Customer satisfaction rates can be improved by direct customer support or by tangential offerings from outsourced customer service teams. These offerings could include implementing and managing omnichannel solutions, providing digital upgrades, or creating real-time self-service solutions.
Why Outsource in the Financial Industry?
With so much resting on customer experience in the finance industry, it may seem like it would be best to keep customer experience management in-house. However, unless you benefit from having a dedicated CXO or similar role alongside a team of customer experience agents, outsourcing is the best way to upgrade your customer experience at scale.
When you outsource your customer experience, you benefit from:
- Partnering with customer experience experts, gaining the best expertise without having to hire an in-house expert.
- Getting the best strategy built for you without draining resources or requiring training for your team.
- Access to advanced analytics and CX technology and a team trained to use it.
- Integrated, state-of-the-art technology and systems that make seamless, omnichannel experiences easy and provide real-time solutions customers expect.
- Instant solutions for customers, with round-the-clock service and self-service options, all managed by your team of experts.
Of course, it’s essential to find a proven partner whose expertise in customer experience you can trust. ROI CX Solutions has decades of experience with customer experience management and knows how to deliver fast, high-touch financial customer experiences that create happy, lifelong customers.
Conclusion
As banks, digital financial apps and institutions, and online banking services continue to gain more space in the financial market, offering brick-and-mortar services isn’t enough to compete anymore. In today’s world, customers have come to expect a true omnichannel experience, including digital products, real-time support, and a seamless experience across all stages and channels of their journey.
Positioning yourself as a leader in customer experience will set you apart from the crowd and foster brand loyalty and retention for years to come. That means meeting customers where they are with the solutions and experiences they’re looking for.
To learn more about the leading financial CX solutions that support growth, security, and brand loyalty, follow our blog to learn more, or contact ROI CX Solutions today to partner with the leading customer experts.
About ROI CX Solutions
ROI CX Solutions drives customer satisfaction and business success through outsourced customer service and global sourcing management. With decades of experience across our expert team, ROI CX Solutions has innovated results-driven performance and improved customer experiences for brands across a variety of industries. With flexible, customizable solutions, state-of-the-art technology, and world-class customer service representatives, we deliver results for your business—and your customers.