Banks Need More Than Lollipops and Branded Pens to Keep Customers
By Frank Schneider, VP Customer Experience Solutions
Don’t get me wrong. My four year old clearly choses my dry cleaner, bank and barber shop based on the probability of a lollipop or a sticker. However, when it comes to customer experience and banking, handing out trinkets dazzled with warm and fuzzy sentiments is not a critical factor in motivating consumers to switch banks -so says a recent study conducted by Novarica.
Novarica launched a website called FindABetterBank and received input from over 50,000 active banking shoppers. What they uncovered was surprising, especially in three areas.
- 14% left a bank because of a bad customer service experience. Given the propensity for customer experience to now include multi-channel interactions with a brand , there could be a lot of gaps to fill for banks, as well as key opportunities for banks to retain more customers.
- 15% left because there weren’t any convenient branch locations. Hmmmm! Without a physical branch, what can banks do to provide convenient, readily available options? Technology can help fill this gap with web and mobile accessibility that can thwart the need for a retail outlet. Self-service plays a key part in helping customers fulfill their needs around account access and customer service. If you can resolve most of those needs online or from customer’s smart phone, ATM access can become your primary focus.
- 8% left because features and services were missing from the bank’s arsenal, like mobile banking. Insights from the Mobile Banking and Commerce Summit held this past June revealed that banks will spend $118 billion on technology and mobile banking this year. In fact, 81 of the top 100 banks already offer some form of mobile banking. Banks behind the curve need to promote strong digital strategy that authentically meets the mobile needs of customers.
I recently read that “banking is something you do, not somewhere you go.” This is definitely at play with some of the trends uncovered in the Novarica study. Consumers want to perform tasks and access personalized content at their convenience. Banks need to start with what customers want, then build a customer experience strategy that will support customer needs beyond their sweet tooth.
Below is the full chart from the Novarica study. We’ll also be at the BAI Retail Delivery show on November 5-7. Visit us in the Innovation Showcase center and watch our technology in action.
