5 EFFECTIVE WAYS TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN BANKING

“Gone are the days when people opened a bank account and were customers for life,” – Adobe’s Mike Plimsoll.

Why Customer Experience Should be a Priority for Any Bank?

In today’s digital age, customers are spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing a financial institution to invest their hard earned money. This is why it is integral for banks to improve customer experience for their customers. In a study conducted by Harris Poll, 8 out of 10 (83%) of millennials would readily switch banks that offered products better rewards like cash back, high yields and refunds on ATM withdrawals.

Lesser Scope for Differentiation

With the Banking industry more or less offering similar products, services, and prices, there is hardly any scope for differentiation. With lesser levels to compete on, delivering a great customer experience is invaluable to make your bank stand out.

Why Should Banks Improve their Customer Experience?

According to a study commissioned by Walker, customer experience will become more important than price and product by 2020.

Let’s look at some actionable follow-up strategies that you could use when you find a digital lead:

Stronger Customer Loyalty
Higher Customer Satisfaction
Better Customer retention
More referrals

How is Customer Experience Satisfaction Linked to Better Financial Results?

Customer experience satisfaction happens to be one of the most common reasons for opening and closing accounts, more so than locations, fees, rates, and convenience.
Companies incur losses of $1.6 trillion due to customers switching as a result of poor customer service.
70% of customers will do business again with companies that resolve their problems.
55% of customers will spend more money with a company that guarantees a satisfying experience.

1) Staying Consistent Across all Touch Points

According to a consumer banking survey carried out by Ernst & Young, omnichannel experience was one of the key areas for improvement among banks.

Desktop Banking
Mobile Banking
ATM
Physical Branch Banking

To provide maximum customer experience satisfaction, banks need to deliver on the expectations through various customer channels.

2) Embracing Technology

According to a FIS Consumer Banking Report, 72% of Bank interactions are digital, highlighting that digital is the norm.
Be it young Millennials or Generation X — they now prefer the mobile channel. People heavily rely on their mobile devices over any other retail delivery channel, including desktop PCs, ATMs or physical branches. A poorly performing mobile application is enough to turn off potential new customers.
58% of millennials would abandon traditional retail banks in favor of tech companies like Google or PayPal.

3) Empower Employees

Banks need to update and equip their employees with all scheme and service related queries to deliver better quality services.
According to research, 73% of customers fall in love with a brand because of friendly customer service representatives.

4) Providing Consumers with the Opportunity to Self-Service
Banks must allow consumers to access banking support across web, mobile, and online banking platforms to improve consumer satisfaction levels, customer retention, and increase conversion.

Banks no more have the liberty to stick to old traditional banking methods. Today the competition to retain a maximum customer is not just limited to other banks but also tech companies like Paytm and Google Pay. Hence, it is important to ensure an excellent customer experience for good customer retention.