A recent report by 10x Banking has revealed that banks across the globe are witnessing as much as a 20% drop in customer retention rates. This is mainly due to slow digital transformations leading to poor customer experience in banking.
And guess what? The churned customers are heading to Neobanks – the banks that offer digital banking services and great customer experience. So, legacy banks, at this point, have to start improving banking experiences to stay competitive with the new-age banks.
This is something that we’ll be discussing in this article – how to improve customer experience in banking. Now that you know what this article is about, let’s cover some basics first.
What Is Customer Experience In Banking?
Customer experience in banking! Well, if you say it this way, it might sound a bit overwhelming. We’ll break it down and make things simple for you!
CX in banking (or any other industry for that matter of fact), is a wholesome representation of all the interactions a customer has with the bank online and in person.
A good banking experience (though it cannot be easily defined) in the modern age, can be defined as delivering seamless customer service & experiences across all channels – both on digital and offline channels.
Ideally, today’s modern banking customers want,
- Instant responses
- Personalized support
- Self-service options
- Connected journeys across channels
- Great customer experiences
Though customers’ needs change constantly, good experiences are non-negotiable.
Now that we’ve talked about customer experience in banking, let’s look at why this is important.
Why Should You Deliver Great Banking Experiences?
The statistic we saw at the beginning of this article should have given you a bit of a scare. But ideally, when you figure out how to improve customer experience in banking and have the system set up in place, the benefits are hard to miss out on.
Here, we’ll look at four reasons why you should offer great banking experiences to customers.
1. Increased Customer Satisfaction
Let’s look at a scenario!
Tim, a customer of a reputed bank faced login issues with his banking application and reached out to an agent via email. But, unfortunately for Tim, it was taking more time than expected for the response.
Tim reaches out to a banking agent for the second time following up on his previous query. Only this time, it was via call. To Tim’s surprise, the new agent has a complete context of the issue and provided personalized proactive responses plus a solution. This left Tim completely satisfied.
Even though Tim had to reach out for the second time, Tim
- Spoke to an agent who was aware of the problems.
- Was offered personalized support & responses.
- Was given a solution on the spot.
Now, put yourself in the shoes of Tim. Wouldn’t you be satisfied with how things panned out, thanks to modern CX solutions (we’ll break it down later for you)?
When you have satisfied customers, it paves the way for what’s following.
2. Better Customer Loyalty and Retention Rates
Customers stay loyal to a brand that keeps them happy. And “HAPPY” in banking to start with is instant responses, connected experiences & personalized support.
With a little effort and a switch to modern CX solutions, customers will eventually realize that they’re getting the best support they can. They’ll be satisfied, you’ll enter their good books, and switching to another banking service provider is the last thought they’ll have.
When a customer chooses to switch banks or look for other financial providers, it’s a sign that your customer support is at its lowest point.
3. Increased Word-of-mouth Marketing & Reputation
Customers are your cost-free marketing agents!
Satisfied and loyal customers go on about spreading the word about your bank. This will eventually improve your bank’s reputation at large and pave the way for more customers at the cost of you doing simply nothing.
That’s how powerful WOM can be!
4. Better Revenue Figures & Profit
At this point, you’ll have more customers and existing customers have great confidence & trust in your services. They’ll be naturally inclined to avail the services you offer without second thoughts if they need it.
This only means better profit & revenue. Remember where it all began – improved customer experience in banking.
Those are some of the reasons why you should ramp up your banking experiences (and why it’s non-negotiable).
So far, we’ve discussed the “What” and “Why.” Let’s look at the “How” part of things now.
7 Ways to Improve Customer Experience In Banking
Improving customer experience in banking is not a one-time process. It requires a lot of planning, strategizing, and careful execution.
Here are seven ways you can improve banking experiences for your customers.
1. Stay Connected With Customers By Going Truly Omnichannel
Today, customers use not just one but more than three channels to get in touch with a business. And it goes for the banking sector as well.
When a customer gets in touch with a bank, it could be because they are facing some account/transaction related issues. Or, they might need financial advice/loans.
Most of these issues require follow-ups from both sides and this is where customers experience broken journeys. It’s because, customers often get in touch with banks from different channels and every time, it’s a different agent who has no context of the customer’s issue.
But this can be overcome when banks start to bring all their customer communication to one place using an omnichannel support platform.
This will enable agents to monitor and respond to customer queries across multiple channels from one inbox with appropriate conversation history.
Eventually, customers will be happy as they don’t have to repeat their issues every time they get in touch with an agent. Also, the resolution time will be cut in half, thanks to the “One Shared Inbox” approach.
On the other hand, agent productivity will also be improved as they don’t have to switch between platforms to resolve customer queries. Better collaboration features and AI-powered ticket categorization will make banking support a walk in the park for agents, paving the way for better banking experiences.
This Omnichannel Customer Experience Guide will help you understand more about delivering an omnichannel experience and its importance.
2. Promote Self-Service With AI Chatbots
Integrating all your communication channels under one roof is just the first step to improving customer experience in banking.
Even though it adds to agent productivity and connected customer journeys, when the ticket flow is high, at a point, agents become exhausted. This is where AI chatbots come in.
Statistics say that by 2027, chatbots will be the primary customer channel for a quarter of all companies.
Here are some ways how AI chatbots in banking can help.
- Help customers get instant resolutions without waiting times.
- Automate day-to-day processes like opening bank accounts, blocking cards, or applying for a loan without agent intervention.
- Cut down ticket volume for agents and enable them to focus on more complex issues.
- Reduce customer support costs.
Above mentioned are some of the use cases of how chatbots can help a bank. Here are more ways how chatbots can help with business growth.
By deploying chatbots across channels like WhatsApp, Web, App, and more, you can easily resolve customer queries while improving the banking experience. In fact, 69% of customers were satisfied with the last interaction they had with a chatbot.
3. Have Agents on Standby With Live Chat
Now, there’ll be a question. What if the chatbot cannot give a solution to the customer? There’s going to be a poor banking experience.
To tackle this, you need to have agents on standby – basically, live chat.
Modern chatbot solutions of today, have intelligent ticket-routing capabilities based on the nature of the issue, sentiment analysis, keywords, and on request. This approach makes sure that customers get the support they deserve and improves the overall banking experience.
4. Leverage Live Video Chat for Superior CX
Live chat is just an anonymous agent talking to an anonymous user. But, the next level of support is live video chat.
Live video chat can be used to provide premium support to customers. And it’s just not that! It can also be used for live video KYC verification and avoid false verifications with ease.
An angry customer who gets premium, empathetic support will convert to a loyal brand advocate in no time, thanks to improved customer experience in banking.
5. Don’t Forget the Online Reviews
Let’s cut to the chase.
There are going to be three kinds of online reviews.
- Reviews of customers who have had a great experience with your bank.
- Mediocre reviews left by customers who have had okayish experiences.
- Poor reviews by customers who have had very bad customer experiences.
You agree, right?
Poor reviews are left by customers who have not received a proper resolution for their issues. And public platforms are a space for them to vent their frustrations.
Though the damage is already done, you can still reduce the impact by responding to the review and taking the conversation from there. You can use popular review management platforms to monitor and respond to reviews across channels.
This can be treated as a last chance to win the customer back while holding up your bank’s reputation. Plus, there’ll be some sort of relief for the customer too.
6. Tap Into Social Conversations and Unlock Groundbreaking Insights
Sometimes, customers don’t vent out or share their feedback in the form of reviews. It can be conversations on social media platforms. If left unchecked, you never know when things might take a turn and sabotage your bank’s reputation.
By leveraging social listening tools, you can track conversations on social media about your brand using keywords, hashtags, and many more. This can help you understand what customers feel about your brand, the overall sentiment of your brand, and more.
You can also track your competitors and figure out what you’re missing out on to be at the top.
Addressing customer issues on social media channels will improve the reputation of your bank and contribute to the overall banking experience.
7. Constantly Collect & Address Customer Feedback
Here’s the last and most important thing to improve banking experiences.
If you’re looking to improve customer experience in banking, keeping the customers in the loop is mandatory. Because, even though you do a lot of things to improve the banking experience, hearing it from customers gives you an edge.
Addressing issues customers are facing is the key to improving customer satisfaction. Get feedback from customers after every ticket resolution. Making customers feel heard and listened to is important these days.
This makes them feel included, and listened to and builds the bank-client relationship.
So, those are the seven ways to improve customer experience in banking. While these are great ways to improve customer experience in banking, it’s not always enough!
You need to constantly stay with the trend, understand what your customers are looking for, and keep leveling up your support game. Only then, you’ll be able to constantly improve customer experience in banking.
That said, let’s head to the conclusion part!
Conclusion
According to Forbes, three-quarters of financial organizations had digital banking transformation as their top priority in 2021. It’s been some time now and most of them would have switched or at least would be in the process of switching to CX solutions that enable them to deliver great banking experiences.
We’ve listed out seven ways for you to improve your customer experience in banking and some of them include investing in CX solutions. Instead of investing in different solutions and adding to your software bloat, go for an all-in-one CX solution platform like Simplify360.
Simplify360 is an omnichannel CX & solutions platform that allows you to bring all your communication under one roof, automate support, manage online reviews, and listen to social conversations.
Simply put, that’s everything you need to improve customer experience in banking! And if you’ve made it to the end of this article, it shows how much you’re invested in improving your banking operations and customer service. That’s a good start!
Now, what’s left is to set goals, figure out the problems, and start resolving them one by one! Or, if you want to get in touch with one of our CX superheroes, feel free to drop an email!
Cheers to great CX!✨