The customer journey is the complete sum of experiences a customer goes through when interacting with a bank. Creating insightful and valuable experiences for customers is proven to increase customer satisfaction. According to a McKinsey report,
“The lifetime value of a satisfied customer willing to actively recommend the bank to his or her friends was five to eight times greater than one who had a negative perception.”
This only clarifies how important creating an omni-channel, intuitive and personalised customer journey is.
How can banks perfect the customer journey?
In order to introduce a strategy that provides customers with a transparent and uncomplicated journey and experience, there needs to be a strong focus on the customer coming from the top-down. Promotion of customer-focused programmes should come from the c-suite and leaders across all teams and departments in the organisation. Without their support and the prioritisation of the customer experience, programmes will be disjointed and ineffective.
Added to that, the customer approach needs to spread horizontally across a range of departments in the business in order to ensure the experience is consistent and user-friendly at every touchpoint. The customer will usually come into contact with the bank at four main stages, each of which is usually managed by one or a number of different internal teams. These stages include:
- Onboarding
The process for signing up for an account or adding new products or services.
- Transacting
The point where the customer is using the banks products and services.
- Administrating
How the customer receives and manages updates on their account activities.
- Resolving
How the bank deals with and resolves any problems that arise with your account.
Not having a consistent message across all of these stages will lead to disruption across the journey which in turn will lead to frustrated and disengaged customers.
At the same time there needs to be a constant loop and supply of feedback coming from the bottom-up in order to continuously refine the customer journey. With each change and amendment to the journey, customers should be asked to give feedback, which is then communicated up through the organisation, so everyone has a view of what is working and what isn’t.
When a bank has implemented a customer-focused culture, they can begin implementing changes and processes that lead to positive reactions from customers.
Whatever type of journey is designed, banks should consider following these three basic rules for creating experiences that delight customers.
- Ease and Simplicity
A key to delivering exceptional customer journeys is ensuring that the processes and interfaces are simple and easy to use. Customers rarely have the time to look into their finances in-depth. Reducing the number of fields or buttons needed to carry out a task or including pop-up information that explains current financial situations makes interacting with banks a lot easier for customers.
- Personalisation
Banks have a wealth of data at their disposable which can be used to create personalised experiences for customers. Showing customers that you understand their particular situation and providing them with advice and options that work specifically for them will greatly enhance the customer journey.
- Education & Guidance
A key focus for banks should be ensuring the financial wellbeing of their customers. At every stage of the customer journey, there should be options for customers to get advice and guidance on improving their financial situation. Technologies like AI and natural language processing have allowed banks to provide 24/7 personalised chatbot support and advisory services to their customers.
Introducing a customer-centric culture that comes from the top-down, spans all departments and has a strong focus on feedback, will help to ensure that all departments play their part in delivering exceptional customer journeys that are simple and personalised.
Blog post updated October 2020
