How to Transform Your Banking Customer Journey

You must understand what your customers need and what pain points they're experiencing to improve customer experience. Keep your customers front and center when developing your digital or CX transformation strategy and new processes. If you make assumptions about what needs fixing, you may waste a lot of time and money on a solution that doesn't solve the real problem.

Some CX leaders don't pay attention to the customer voice when they're planning a CX transformation. For example, one payments provider was considering completely modifying its technology to reduce the processing time for resolving customer disputes. After collecting customer feedback, the company discovered that the major pain point was the lack of status updates-not processing time. By understanding what bothered customers, the company solved the problem more easily and effectively, with a higher likelihood of improving CX. Sending regular status updates by email or text is simpler and less expensive than overhauling technology.

Here are seven strategies to enhance CX:

1. Improve the digital experience.

Customers depend on your bank to deliver the information and communications they need, when they need them, wherever they are. To do that, you need efficient digital solutions such as:

• User-friendly website with self-service capabilities
• Mobile app
• Interactive teller machines that offer expanded services such as real-time video conferencing and chat support
• Interactive voice response (IVR) system that helps customers resolve their issues without speaking with an agent

2. Help customers migrate to digital channels.

According to McKinsey research, customers who regularly use a bank's mobile app or website (or both) have the highest average satisfaction compared to customers who use other interaction channels or infrequently use the digital channels. But offering fabulous digital tools doesn't mean that customers will automatically use them. To encourage digital adoption:

• Streamline enrollment. Make it simple to set up an online account and mobile app.
• Educate customers about new digital offerings. "How-to" videos on the website-and printed instructions in paper statements-increase awareness and provide support for customers who are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with mobile apps and remote services.
• Redirect customers to digital channels. Use in-branch and call center or IVR intercepts to direct customers to digital solutions (e.g., ITM or website). Encourage customers to go digital through messages/reminders in statements and emails.
• Motivate customers and employees. Consider charging a fee for using non-digital channels or offering a discount for going paperless. Reward employees who redirect customers to digital channels.

3. Adopt an omnichannel approach.

Customers want to be able to get information and connect with your bank through their preferred channels, such as web, email, voice, live chat, SMS and/or mobile app. They may gather information about loan products and rates via your website, discuss their options with a banker via phone and then complete the transaction by phone, email or in-person. Then they may use a mobile app to check their loan application status or account balance and chat with support agents, if necessary. Bank customers expect consistent, secure experiences when accessing their financial information and seeking support, whatever channel they're using-even if they are using more than one channel at a time. To provide this seamless omnichannel banking experience in your retail banking strategy, communication channels must work together. Maintaining the context of all customer interactions requires having real-time omnichannel customer data that is ingested across disparate systems and departments (e.g., billing, marketing, contact center).

4. Glean insights into your customers at the individual level.

Customers expect their banks to understand their specific needs and preferences and offer tailored products and services to meet those needs. According to Forrester's 2022 U.S. Banking Customer Experience Index, the second-most important CX factor is "Offers the banking products/services that I need." The number one CX factor is "Resolves problems/issues quickly." According to a Bain & Company report, there's a 123-point difference in Net Promoter Score between respondents who strongly agree that their bank interacts with them based on knowing who they are and those who strongly disagree. According to Deloitte, "customers want interactions with their bank to be as sophisticated, immediate, and personalized as their experiences with other industries. As a result, financial services customers are willing to share data as long as they receive offerings tailored to their needs. Yet, 94% of banks cannot deliver on this hyper-personalization potential." You can hyper-personalize customer experiences by analyzing real-time customer data, allowing you to deliver tailored messages about products, services and prices that are context-specific, timely and relevant to customers' individual needs. For example, you could identify recent high school graduates and offer them checking accounts or credit cards geared toward college students.

5. Provide human touch as well as digital interactions.

While most bank customers use digital channels to do at least some of their banking, consumers expect assistance from a live representative-especially when they're dealing with complicated issues. According to Citizens' Banking Experience Survey, human interaction, delivered in person or virtually, is the preferred way to get financial advice and execute more complex transactions. Accenture's Financial Services Global Consumer Study found that most consumers only use their bank's digital channels for quick functional tasks. Nearly 63% of survey respondents said most of their mobile banking logins are simply to check their account balance. Almost half (44%) of consumers aged 18-44 had trouble getting human support when they needed it.According to Forrester's UK Banking CX Index Rankings 2023, digital-only experiences are ranked highest for ease and experience, while hybrid experiences (digital plus human interaction) win on emotion. Emotion strongly impacts customer loyalty, so it's important to consider how to include hybrid experiences in customer journeys.

Use technology to enhance human interactions:

• Provide automated self-service. Self-service solutions should quickly solve basic customer problems, reducing call volume and freeing up live agents to assist customers with more complicated issues. Natural language processing analyzes customer responses to interactive voice response (IVR) prompts, identifying intent and needs. The decisioning system determines the most appropriate response or action based on customer information (intent, account information and behavioral patterns) and business rules or logic.
• Use technology to assist call center agents, not replace them. Intent-based call routing directs callers to the correct agent, reducing call transfers and customer frustration. Proactive agent guidance (e.g., real-time call transcripts, additional customer information) helps agents quickly assist customers.

6. Use customer journey analytics to understand each customer's journey.

Customer journey analytics tracks and measures every interaction with your brand, across every channel and device the customer uses. Journey analytics helps you understand customer needs, desires and expectations, allowing you to deliver personalized experiences that meet those needs. Journey analytics combines individual channel analytics (e.g., website, email, call center) with customer intent indicators (e.g., intent to purchase or cancel, observed product preferences, switched channels) to provide insight into why customers are doing what they're doing. Customer journey orchestration platforms then use this information to send the right messages at the right time to guide customers toward the next best action.

7. Use customer journey management (CJM) to deliver right-time and real-time journeys at the individual level.

CJM detects real-time signals (based on customer behavior) and determines the best next action to take-and when to take it. Journey orchestration analyzes interactions and customer behaviors from other technologies (e.g., customer relationship management, billing) to determine the next best action in the contact center. For example, when a customer calls to report fraudulent credit card charges, the system uses intent-based call routing to direct the customer to the fraud department and provides relevant information (e.g., the transcript from a chatbot session or previous calls) to the agent. The agent has access to the unified customer profile, enabling faster problem resolution.

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