Top 10 Banking CX Trends to Watch Out for in 2022
Financial institutions that invest in the customer experience in banking have better rates of recommendation, more wallet share, and are more likely to up-sell or cross-sell products and services to current clients.
This has prompted banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions around the world to take a closer look at their present goods and services to see whether there's opportunity for more client-centricity and personalisation to improve the customer experience in the financial services industry.
Do you want to make some changes in your financial institution? To assist you, we've produced a list of the top banking customer experience trends.
What Is Customer Experience in Banking?
Customer experience in banking refers to a customer's whole engagement with numerous touchpoints, such as online banking systems, emails, call centers, online advertising, face-to-face encounters, and even social media, as the term indicates.
The importance of the client experience in banking may be summed up in two words: First and foremost, customer experience has emerged as the new marketing battleground. According to a Gartner report, 81% of organizations compete mostly or entirely on the basis of customer experience, making CX a critical differentiator for financial institutions in 2021 and beyond. Second, the better a customer's experience, the more likely they are to stay loyal to a brand or institution, implying that CX has the potential to boost customer retention.
10 Trends Reshaping Customer Experience in Banking for 2022
1. Using mobile app data to improve products and services
One of the fastest-growing banking customer experience trends is customer self-service. Customers can now completely access their bank's resources from their mobile device everywhere they have Wi-Fi thanks to mobility, which has turned what was once a faraway fantasy into a simple expectation.
Mobile banking apps are no more a nice-to-have but a must-have in today's market, and banks without them are at a major disadvantage since clients have learned to anticipate the unrivalled ease that a mobile app gives. The good news is that these apps are simple to create, whether using a low-code development platform or collaborating with a vendor.
If your bank has a mobile banking app or has just built one, the next step is to see if you're getting the most out of the data it collects. Mobile apps capture a lot of data, which is useless to you or your customers if it's not used. Data analytics tools and machine learning algorithms can assist you in extracting important insights from this customer data, which you can then use to build new products, enhance existing processes, better empower customers, and improve overall customer experience.
2. Bank Branches in the Future
Customers may not visit physical branches as regularly as they used to, but that doesn't mean banks can afford to ignore their physical sites. Most traditional banks understood early on that internet banking posed a threat to their business model, that little advantages like free coffee and Wi-Fi aren't enough to entice contemporary customers, and that their physical branches will be closed if they don't make a profit.
Brick-and-mortar banks have reimagined what a physical branch may be and what the "branch of the future" should look like in order to compete with digital banks and improve the client experience in banking. Some banks have tried a showroom-style design similar to Apple Stores, with rows of smartphones and other mobile devices loaded with their banking app on display so clients can see it in action. Others have taken advantage of the benefits of one-on-one, face-to-face encounters by converting their physical locations into customer training centers, where customers can get advice and learn how to utilize technology to make their money go farther.
In an ideal world, the future branch would include both of these features, as well as self-service alternatives, communal space, and sophisticated technology, allowing each customer to have a hyper-personalized banking experience.
3. Financial and Banking Advisory Services
Most banking clients want to expand their money but don't know where to start; those who turn to the internet for help will likely find that financial advice is educational but too broad to be of any practical benefit. This provides banks with the ideal chance to improve customer service in the financial services industry by partnering customers with in-house financial advisers who can provide advice suited to each customer's specific needs.
You may gather and analyze data and create extensive client profiles with customer relationship management (CRM) technology, which your in-house advisers can utilize to get a 360-degree perspective of the customer and their specific circumstances. This degree of knowledge is extremely useful because it allows advisors to provide tailored advice to customers at every point of their financial journey, as well as strengthen customer connections and assure loyalty.
4. Artificial Intelligence
Nothing irritates a client more than being kept on wait while phoning their bank's customer support helpline to report a problem. Financial institution contact centers are facing a difficult scenario as the amount of incoming calls continues to rise and there aren't enough personnel on hand to handle them.
While self-service grows in popularity, novel solutions are being created to ease this stress and improve the banking experience. When faced with a problem, users may now consult AI-enabled chatbots rather than waiting on the phone. To answer incoming customer support queries, these chatbots gather and process data from a variety of sources, including the bank's knowledge base and CRM client profiles. If a request is too complex for the chatbot to handle, it is immediately escalated to a real customer support professional who can assist the customer in finding a solution. Best of all, an increasing number of banking apps include chatbot technology as a core feature, allowing customers to swiftly handle difficulties from any location, at any time.
Clients and banks both stand to benefit from AI innovation: customers will no longer waste important time waiting to speak with a person, and banks will save a significant amount of resources that would otherwise be sent to their call centers. Chatbots are expected to save over $8 billion per year by 2022, according to study. Some financial institutions have gone even farther with AI to improve the client experience in banking by creating AI-enabled virtual assistants that offer money management advice.
AI is becoming so common in banking that, according to Gartner research, new technologies such as machine learning apps, chatbots, and mobile messaging will account for 70% of customer interactions.
5. Automating Onboarding for Customers
A strong first impression is crucial to a successful customer experience, and for most banking clients, that first impression happens during onboarding. New customer onboarding has traditionally involved filling out and signing stacks of paper, which adds to the administrative load on onboarding teams and raises the possibility of process bottlenecks, which puts customers' patience to the strain. Banks make it easier for their clients to supply critical onboarding information from the comfort of their own homes by making onboarding an electronic process rather than a laborious, paper-based one. Banks may then employ automation to speed up crucial sections of the process, allowing customers to create accounts even faster and improving the entire customer experience.
6. Digital Transformation & Remote Service Support
If 2020 has taught us anything, it is the necessity of digital channels and remote services.
However, many banking clients, particularly older generations with poor digital literacy, have found it difficult to make the switch to digital. Rather than abandoning these customers, banks will need to step up their efforts in 2022 to ensure a smooth transition to online banking services. This will need banks providing extra instructional information to clients, such as step-by-step instructions, interactive videos and webinars, customer knowledge bases, and so on. The more at ease and confident a client is using digital channels and remote services, the better their entire financial services customer experience will be.
7. Digitization for Humans
Although artificial intelligence (AI) and digital channels are expected to drive banking customer experience trends in 2022, there is still a place for human engagement. To that end, an increasing number of banks are combining AI with live customer care to increase efficiency while still offering clients the human touch they seek. Some financial institutions have taken this concept a step further, experimenting with various methods to make their chatbots and other AI services feel more human; for example, giving chatbots personalities, using customized conversation openings, and using sentiment analysis to detect emotion and respond appropriately are just a few examples.
8. Personalizing Interactions with Customers
It's no secret that banking clients value personalization; after all, it's been at the top of CX trend lists for years. Banks profit as well: Personalization at scale, according to the Boston Consulting Group study, may result in yearly revenue increases of 10% if done correctly.
As we approach 2022, financial institutions, particularly fintech businesses, will likely be investigating the next frontier of personalization: hyper-personalization. Hyper-personalization, as opposed to ordinary personalization, which employs data analytics to offer tailored marketing and sales messaging to various consumer categories, focuses on the individual customer. Banks may accomplish hyper-personalization by monitoring individual customers' real-time use data, such as which terms they often search, what material they prefer to read, their geographic location, and so on, using a mix of predictive analytics, AI, and machine learning.
Banks can use this information to create more personalized, one-to-one marketing campaigns and offerings. For example, if search data indicated that a customer often searched the keywords "homes for sale in my neighbourhood," "how to apply for a home loan," and "mortgage rates 2022," you might reasonably assume that the client was interested in purchasing a house and so a suitable candidate for a home loan. Based on that information, you may make an offer to that consumer for a low-interest home loan. You may even contact the consumer about prequalifying for a house loan if they were in excellent financial condition and had a decent credit score.
9. Proactive Engagement and Support
One of the most appealing aspects of advanced analytics is that it gives financial organizations access to previously unattainable levels of client intelligence. Banks may now track their clients' financial health and give proactive financial advice or recommend ways for them to enhance their money. This form of proactive involvement may occur via a variety of channels, including in-person, over the phone, through their banking app, by email, and so on, depending on the preferences of each client. In 2022, we may expect to see more banks going above and beyond to protect their clients' interests in order to demonstrate their value and improve the overall financial services customer experience.
10. Protecting Your Customers
As we near the end of a very difficult year — one that has put substantial financial hardship on many individuals — it's critical that banks make even more of an effort to treat their clients fairly in 2022.
Although this may appear vague, it is actually rather straightforward conceptually. Being completely upfront with your consumers about how you process, utilize, and safeguard their data is a smart place to start. Banking clients are concerned about data security, and being open and honest about your data rules and procedures is a simple approach to demonstrate goodwill and win confidence. In fact, 69 percent of consumers believe that being honest and transparent about how personal data is handled is critical to creating confidence, while another 42% believe that clear communication about data regulatory compliance is essential.
There are a few more ways that banks may provide excellent service to their consumers. You may, for example, rethink your institution's marketing approach so that you only target clients with items and services that are relevant to their wants and aspirations; hyper-personalization plays a key part here. Returning to financial advising services, they may be an excellent approach to assist consumers in regaining their footing after a difficult year and to demonstrate that you are concerned about their long-term well-being.
Doing the right thing boils down to proving to clients that you plan to put their best interests first, whatever that may entail.
Sitech: The Ideal Financial Digital Transformation Partner
The financial services business is quickly evolving, with a focus on high-quality client experiences rather than high-quality products. Is it possible for you to keep up with the rate of change? What words would your consumers use to characterize their interaction with your company and overall effort across all channels?
Sitech has seen — and done — it all when it comes to assisting banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions in achieving digital transformation by leveraging the power of the open and digital banking platforms. We're the right partner for your journey because of our data science experience and range of industry-specific solutions.
We hope you found these customer service trends in banking useful. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require support in reforming your institution.