Big Banking and the Customer Experience Struggle

Many of us have read the headlines about all the big box retail closures, the growth of online sales and the death of brick and mortar. This can be attributed to you and me, the consumer, demanding a much more personal experience from our favorite brands.

These customized experiences are becoming more and more expected. This can be see through the use of proximity engagement throughout retail, such as in Rite Aid and Urban Outfitters stores, to the new and improved Hilton Honors app that allows guests to have a personal concierge at their fingertips.

After reading a recent article from The Financial Brand, I thought: “but what about banking?” Like it or not, we all have to deal with banks. And yes, a mortgage calculator can be helpful at times and QuickPay accessibility is a benefit to some, but can’t banks be doing more?

Shouldn’t the banking experience go above and beyond just checking the minimal personalization box and moving on? They are the key holders to our financial future after all.

According to Forrester, 77 percent of consumers have chosen, recommended, or paid more for a brand that provides personalized services and experiences. This seems like an opportunity for banks to outperform one another and gain the competitive edge by being the one who provides more personalization.

There’s one crucial part of extremely effective personalization. Customer data and lots of it. The more customer data, the better the individualized content can be. But it doesn’t end there. Big data needs to be backed by big strategy, according to American Banker. You can have access to a great deal of information, but if you don’t have the systems in place to operationalize, then it’s really not beneficial.

What if banks took that data and became a true content hub, using our personal data to determine what content to deliver to us and when. Now, that might be a lot to take on for a big bank focused on securely managing our money. But big banks should leverage their relationships more.

Better yet, imagine if Chase knows when a customer recently purchased a plane ticket to Hawaii. A few months out, Chase sends an alert about how to save for the upcoming trip within the Chase app, a welcome to Hawaii email the day you arrive and helpful information on keeping your money safe while on vacation.

I could go on and on. There are endless opportunities for what banks could provide their customers. Even little things like knowing someone is looking to purchase a house or open a new credit card in the upcoming year based on a survey. Now banks could serve you the latest housing market news and new information on reward earning credit cards.

Taking banking to the next level and to a new generation of thinking will one day be required. It will be necessary to stay relevant and necessary to continue to keep customers happy.