Many businesses rely on their banks for essential financial services, so it’s important that banks provide high-quality customer service. Here are 10 ways to improve business banking customer service and keep your customers happy.

1. Get to know your customers by name and take an interest in their business

A simple way to improve customer service in small business banking is to get to know each customer by name. Taking an interest in their business is also beneficial here; the customer is more likely to feel valued and understood when they notice you are taking a genuine interest in their venture. Showing that level of care and effort can also help strengthen relationships, making customers stay loyal to your bank for years on end. Furthermore, providing excellent customer service and getting a customer’s name right each time they enter the bank will give them a sense of security, since they know they are dealing with an institution that works hard to recognize them and make them feel like a priority.

2. Make it easy for customers to reach you when they need assistance

As business banking becomes an increasingly digital experience, providing customers with meaningful online support must be a top priority for banks. The key to success is an omnichannel customer service approach that makes it easy for business owners and their teams to get assistance when they need it. Whether that’s speaking with a representative on the phone, sending an email, or finding the answer to a quick question on the FAQ page – making sure business customers are always supported in their journey is critical. By investing in robust customer support solutions, business banks can ensure their customers have every opportunity to succeed.

3. Be available during extended hours, including evenings and weekends

By operating for extended hours, including evenings and weekends, businesses can reap a great reward of offering customers better access to their services. 24 hour service can give customers the flexibility to connect with a business when it is convenient for them – meaning improved customer satisfaction and loyalty. Offering these operating hours can be beneficial not only to customers but also the business itself with increased revenue through the ability to reach more customers.

4. Hire skilled and knowledgeable customer service professionals

Business banking encompasses many services, including business loans, lines of credit, processing payments, foreign business exchange and making investments to help business owners manage their finances. As business banking can be complex, it is critical that banks hire professional customer service representatives who have the necessary skills and product knowledge to be able to handle all kinds of customer requests and are up to date with the bank’s policies and procedures.

5. Offer online banking options for those who prefer to do their banking electronically

Businesses that offer online banking options for those who prefer to do their banking electronically have a competitive advantage. With more and more people conducting various transactions remotely, an online business banking solution can make it easier than ever to pay bills, transfer funds, and view up-to-date accounts online. And looking to the future, online banking is the first choice for Gen Z customers. Having online options also helps eliminate the need for customers to wait in long lines at a local bank branch. Additionally, online services often allow businesses to access premium customer service support as well as sophisticated online security protocols that help keep funds and personal information safe. By offering online business banking solutions, firms will be able to improve their customer experience, stay competitive in the market, and best of all – save time.

6. Keep your promises – if you say you’ll call a customer back, make sure you do so in a timely manner

Keeping your promises is more important than you may realize. Showing someone that they can trust in your word means establishing trust and connection between you and the customer. It also encourages them to not only feel heard but also respected, creating a healthy business relationship. A timely response shows how much you value and appreciate their interests, needs, and opinions. Consequently, customers who know they can rely on you will be more likely to support your business in the future. Taking a few extra minutes out of your day to honor promises will be sure to pay off in the end result with satisfied customers.

7. Train your employees well so that they can provide excellent customer service

Train your employees well and customer service training should be an integral part of their professional development. Customers respond positively to businesses with helpful employees that they can trust, so customer service training helps to create loyal customers who will return time and time again. Making customer service training a priority sets the foundation for success in customer satisfaction and will eventually benefit your bottom line.

8. Use the latest technology to enhance customer service

Technology plays an increasingly important role in ensuring business customers are provided with the highest quality service. Through automated processes such as conversational banking, banks can efficiently respond to customer enquiries and keep track of customer account information. Chatbots, artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies also allow banks to deflect simple customer queries away from costly call centre investments, enabling customers to get their queries resolved quicker and more conveniently. These advancements in banking customer service technology are making business banking more efficient than ever before.

9. Provide mobile business banking for customers on the go

Utilizing mobile banking through an app gives users a wide array of customer service options. The banking app can be accessed wherever and whenever, allowing customers to manage their accounts quickly and conveniently. From updating personal information, resolving banking errors, or even making deposits via mobile check deposit, mobile banking apps provide support leading to a better banking experience. Customers can also reach out directly to customer service representatives in the app if they have any questions or concerns they need immediate assistance with. With mobile banking, customers have the freedom and ability to take control of their financial goals quickly and easily.

10. Gather feedback to understand customers’ needs and exceed expectations

Gathering customer feedback is an essential tool for banks to identify customer needs and meet customer expectations. Gathering customer feedback through customer service processes, surveys, and interviews can help companies determine voice of the customer (VoC), customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction levels, potential improvements, and customer preferences. Business banking customers’ feedback can be used to assess the quality of customer services offered and help define policies that account for customer issues to deliver a superior customer experience. Banks should provide multiple channels for gathering customer feedback such as online portals, direct mailers with surveys, social media pages for comments, etc. It is essential to listen intently to business banking customers when capturing their feedback as it will help build trust with them and ultimately lead to better customer retention and satisfaction.

In order to improve business banking customer service, banks should keep the above points in mind. By taking an interest in their customers, being available when they need assistance, and providing excellent customer service, bankers can build trust and rapport with their clients. This will result in repeat business and referrals – two of the most important things for any business.

Across the globe, banks continue to face new challenges. The need to keep customers feeling supported and happy while ensuring they remain loyal remains a constant and critical goal for the banking sector.

Verint’s recent survey of more than 5,000 consumers across Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomer demographics shows that customer satisfaction scores have fallen for the majority of the 20 banks in our benchmark. Average NPS ratings are also lower than pre-pandemic levels with the goodwill afforded to banks during this time ending. However, our research shows that by focusing on three key areas, banks can improve customer experience and satisfaction.

Security and Fraud Protection Top of Mind

Banking customers are not only concerned about the security of their money, but also about protecting themselves against identity fraud. This is not surprising as fraud has risen precipitously over the past few years as more transactions are digital by default.

In 2021, the number of global cyberattacks per company grew by 31%, with Accenture noting “…the vulnerability and uncertainty (of the pandemic) was a breeding ground for new attacks.” With the rise of digital-first engagement, customers are more aware of the vulnerability of their personal information, so having confidence in their financial institutions’ security measures is growing in importance.

When choosing a new bank, customers say “security of personal information,” is the most important factor and “fraud protection” and “fraud alerts” closely follow as top factors they consider when choosing a bank. These security concerns highlight the increased digitalization of banking, which is also supported by the year-over-year decline in the importance of convenient branch locations cited by respondents and a significant increase in the relative importance of an easy-to-use mobile app.

While consumers clearly embrace the convenience of apps and websites, they recognize it puts their money and data at more risk, meaning security and fraud factors feature higher in their reasons for choosing a new financial institution.

Despite fraud and security being high on the agenda for U.S. banking customers, more than one-quarter of Baby Boomers don’t know if they receive them—despite “security of my personal info” and “fraud protection” being the two most important factors for 58-to-76-year-olds when choosing a financial institution. And nearly half of consumers over age 41 don’t receive fraud alerts because they don’t know they are available.

Enriching the In-Branch Experience 

Over the past few years, banks have rationalized their brick-and-mortar operations amidst shutdowns and as digital banking has grown during the pandemic. Despite a shift towards automation and a more digital-first world, many banking consumers still value human interactions, particularly for more complex banking tasks.

The research shows that digital channels are popular for straightforward tasks. To research a product or service (57%), conduct a transaction (53%) or apply for a product or service (49%), a large portion of consumers first interacted with the bank on its website or mobile app or via chat/email to complete those tasks.

When a task is more complex, customers prefer a human interaction. When asked about the last time they needed to resolve an issue with their accounts, 54 percent of consumers first called the bank or visited a branch or drive-through. Baby Boomers were more likely than younger consumers to go inside the bank (27%) – at least 10 percentage points higher than younger consumers.

Nearly 40 percent of consumers who visited branches reported they were left waiting longer than expected. With the rise of fully digital fintech and challenger banks, ensuring the in-person experience is as straightforward and efficient as possible is vital to retaining customers. The banking industry is challenged with a scenario where the Great Resignation is meeting the ‘Great Recalibration.’ Banks are calling back furloughed staff, reallocating team members who were solely dedicated to digital channels and rethinking how to adequately staff bank branches to meet fluctuating needs for in-person service.

Given this new challenge, bank operations should consider the addition of digital technology to improve the in-branch experience. Digital channels can be used by customers to make appointments through online forms or automated messaging flows. Customers can receive reminder alerts and information concerning the appointment, while branches can prepare for the volume and timing of appointments and allocate resources accordingly.

Zeroing in on the Needs of Gen Z and Millennials

It’s important that banks recognize modern consumer needs and expectations, especially as they court younger generations. This is crucial as the most significant transfer of wealth in U.S. history is well underway as Baby Boomers begin transitioning assets to younger generations.

Over $70 trillion is in motion, underscoring the need for financial institutions to focus on understanding the needs and preferences of younger consumers.

In the Verint Experience Index: Banking Report 2021, Gen Z consumers were pleased with new additive fintech banking services including the incorporation of micropayment apps such as Venmo and Zelle. This year’s research shows a continuation of the need to incorporate ancillary financial tools and technologies to empower Gen Z consumers with financial literacy and the means to better manage their finances; Gen Z and Millennials specifically voiced a need for help cutting costs, tracking subscriptions, creating budgets, and managing expenses.

Banks must provide more services to support the financial wellbeing of their younger consumers or risk losing them to rivals. With the pressures of global inflation rising, a lack of assistance with financial management is likely to have a bigger impact on younger generations than it might have six or twelve months ago. With many younger consumers willing to switch banking providers, banks must offer products and services to help address the gap in Gen Zs’ and Millennials’ financial knowledge to build a loyal customer base for the long-term.

Get Your Free Copy of the Verint Experience Index: Banking Report 2022

Click the link for more information and to download a copy of the Verint Experience Index: Banking Report 2022. The Verint Experience Index (VXI): Banking Report is a benchmark survey of consumer satisfaction with 20 leading banks and includes Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Net Promoter Score (NPS) rankings and insights from a survey of more than 5,000 consumers across Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomer demographics.

The VXI looks at banking proficiency across five key drivers that impact customer satisfaction: branches (convenience, location variety, service level); confidence (transaction accuracy, security, protecting PII); products (meet financial requirements, flexibility, clarity of terms); representatives (understanding, responsiveness, resolution); and services (account management, access, simplicity).

Verint’s methodology measures several key drivers of customer satisfaction to calculate how they impact CSAT, to direct banks to succeed in an era where customer journeys are more complex, and expectations are higher than ever.

About the Author

Jenni Palocsik is vice president, marketing insights, experience and enablement at Verint.

When it comes to money, it’s responsible to make informed choices regarding who you do business with, especially in banking.

Entrusting your hard-earned income to an establishment isn’t something that you should do haphazardly. Consumers deserve a bank that offers competitive rates, innovative financial products, and quality services.

Unfortunately, the relationship between banks and consumers varies. As fees increase, interest rates decrease, and customer experiences decline, consumers become hesitant to trust the banks they have come to rely on. That’s why ONE has stepped on the scene and started to change the game when it comes to banking.

Introducing ONE

In 2019 in Sacramento, CA, ONE was established with a primary objective to simplify the lives and finances of everyday consumers. As more than just a place to store your paychecks and savings, ONE has gone above and beyond to exceed customer expectations and strengthen banking relationships.

Fee-Free Banking

Consumers love saving money wherever they can, and ONE makes that possible with its fee-free banking solutions. Account holders never have to worry about being charged for minimum balances, monthly maintenance, foreign transactions, wire transfers, overdrafts, insufficient funds, or ATM transactions.

3-Step Signup

Getting started with ONE is as easy as 1-2-3. Simply visit their site, click the “Join ONE” button, create your customer profile, verify your identity, and wait for your ONE card to arrive.

Add Funds With Ease

ONE provides its customers with multiple methods to add funds to their accounts. You can transfer funds from an external account, send a wire transfer, set up direct deposit, mobile check deposits, or through other peer-to-peer services like CashApp, PayPal, and Venmo.

Mobile Banking

Adding more banking convenience, ONE has an easy-to-use mobile app that provides 24/7 access and real-time alerts. Customers can view account balances, transfer funds, make payments, deposit checks, share account data (with authorized users), and more from their computer, laptop, smartphone, or tablet.

Pockets (Efficient Budgeting Tools)

Budgets are hard to stick to. While many apps already exist to make budgeting more manageable, not everyone wants to deal with multiple financial apps to stay on target. ONE has found an effective way to make budgeting easy, convenient, and safe for its customers.

Pockets are sub-accounts connected to a ONE debit card. There are three primary Pockets called Save, Auto-Save, and Spend. The Spend Pocket is where funds are received from various payment sources. The Save Pocket is an interest-bearing sub-account where customers benefit from an interest rate of 1.00% APY. Lastly, the Auto-Save Pocket is where ONE rounds up transaction amounts to the nearest dollar and transfers the change to accrue 3.00% APY.

ONE customers can also customize up to 99 Pockets to correlate with their monthly budget and expenses. They can create Pockets for everything from mortgage and utilities to groceries and pet care. When funds are deposited into the Spend Pocket, customers can easily divide the money into the necessary categories to ensure timely payments. Pockets help track spending, eliminate waste, and save money.

Customer Service At Its Best

That’s just the tip of the iceberg regarding. ONE also encourages its customers to reach out for white glove service, whenever needed.

They are available by phone or chat M-F between 8 am and 5 pm PST. Emails are also welcomed 24/7. They host a Knowledge Center where customers can self educate about ONE’s products and get their questions answered.

Finally, ONE has a strong internet presence on popular social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn, where consumers can get tips, financial advice, promotional offers, and interact with their bank more personally.

When it comes to banking, ONE is making a difference. With high-interest rates, zero fees, easy account access, budgeting tools, and multiple communication channels, customers can finally let their guard down and get more from banking.

The past 18 months have illustrated consumers’ urgent need for financial flexibility and when they’re the ones dictating terms, you listen. Choosing not to could spell extinction for banks. Mambu’s Eelco-Jan Boonstra, explains.

According to a joint research “Evolve or be extinct” from Mambu and the Financial Times, 58 % of senior bank executives believe their bank’s operations will cease if they don’t revamp to a consumer-obsessed business model. As an industry that continues to lag behind others, monolithic banks are in dire need of renovation.

There are, however, a few contenders who understand the necessity of digitisation and are putting consumers at the forefront of their approach. These financial ‘Evolvers’ include fintechs, challenger banks and forward-thinking traditional players that are laying the foundations for modern-day banking. Through a laser-like focus on customer centricity, they layer their business models with agile offerings and a progressive social purpose.

What really separates the Evolvers from the Legacies?

Legacy banks can’t keep up because they don’t have the capabilities to do it all themselves. A third of banks are unable to deploy updated or new products at speed and lack qualified employees, with the skill sets needed to operate new technology. Well over a third also don’t have the appropriate systems to support new workforce models. This explains why two fifths of senior executives intend to modernise their platform, but plan on doing so through third-party providers.

This is where the Evolvers race ahead. For example, by working with fintech partners to help them quickly respond to consumer demand, Evolvers are able to harness cloud-based platforms to deploy flexible financial products and achieve a seamless transition to digital.

Evolution starts and ends with a consumer mindset

After a turbulent 18 months for the global economy, consumers are increasingly seeking more control over their finances, and want banks to support them with the tools and services that can help during challenging times.

Evolving banks are doing exactly that, positioning themselves as “lifestyle partners” able t0 provide accessible financial products that are customer-centric and offer users a 360-degree view of their financial lives. This is crucial in a post-pandemic world and illustrates why nearly half of Evolvers rank the customer experience as their top digitisation priority.

As a result, banks identify new customer opportunities and deliver highly relevant offers at the right moments. Consumers enjoy these sorts of financial offerings too, as the report indicates that Evolvers see 24% stronger engagement levels compared to traditional banks.

But consumer engagement like this doesn’t just come from sought after products, it’s deeper than that.

It’s time for banks to show they care

 Consumers increasingly desire to feel valued and want to see financial players act on these needs. Evolvers do this by making emotional intelligence a key part of their business model. By being transparent with their customers and committing to a clear social purpose, their progressive thinking stands out in an industry slow to change – enabling a competitive advantage in a saturated arena.

 The biggest social cause Evolvers emphasise is the ideology of people over profits. They focus on meeting consumer demand in a way that’s both sustainable and delivers a best-in-class customer experience. This hasn’t gone unnoticed by the wider industry. In fact, 81% of retail banking leaders strongly agree that replacing outdated mindsets with a progressive social purpose is vital to growth strategy.

 The best part of this ideology? It’s not just words. Mambu’s report shows that profits have actually slipped down the priority list for banks as ‘increasing earnings’ was identified as only the fifth most important factor when adopting a consumer-oriented model. It is this train of thought that will move the industry forward, while those who hold onto their legacies get left behind.

Moving forward

As most industries become consumer obsessed it’s important that banks emulate this approach to remain competitive. The key to this will be the ability to offer intertwined services that are seamlessly integrated under one roof.

It is this interoperability that banks must adopt to fend off growing competition from technology giants, such as Google and Amazon, as well as stay one step ahead of new market entrants. Failing to do so will leave traditional banks on the sidelines, as forward-thinking players surge ahead in the battle for the customer.

When facing doubts about the future, banks should look to financial Evolvers for guidance. By placing the customer experience and progressive mindsets at the core of their business, they have proven that banks can continue to play an important role in modern society.

About the Author

Eelco-Jan Boonstra is Managing Director EMEA at Mambu.

It’s no secret that the global pandemic accelerated digital transformation in almost every industry—and banking was no exception. Eric Head, VP of Experience Leadership at Verint explores new opportunities to provide excellent customer service.

As branches shut down due to COVID-19 regulations, customers turned to digital channels to conduct their business. Changing behaviors meant banks had to adapt quickly to meet new customer service needs.

Now, as we head into this next stage with an eye toward recovery, it’s clear that the patterns customers adopted during the height of the crisis won’t go away anytime soon. McKinsey reports that 75% of people who used digital channels for the first time during the pandemic indicated they will continue to use them when things return to “normal.”

Even before this past year, customers were increasingly choosing digital channels to start their customer journey. This trend is good news for banks. Digital channels offer improved convenience and security for consumers while cutting costs and boosting efficiency for banks. Many banks have been encouraging customers to go online for more than a decade.

There’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to take advantage of increased digital traffic, provide excellent customer service in other channels, and unify omnichannel insights to improve bottom-line business results.

Digital First, But Omnichannel Still Rules

Due in large part to the pandemic, closed branches, and social distancing guidelines, our research shows customers tried digital before turning to agent-led support channels in 2021. These shifts in behavior represent huge potential savings when self-service works effectively.

Consider this: of people who reached out to a contact center, 73% had tried a digital channel first, according to the Verint Experience Index (VXI): Banking report published earlier this year. That translates into $1.6 million in potential savings for organizations when customers can self-service on digital channels instead of turning to the high-cost contact center.

However, not all customers will opt for digital first, so it’s important to meet them where they want to interact with you. The contact center still plays a crucial role in the customer experience strategy, but there’s an opportunity to break down silos across the contact center and digital teams.

Customer journeys are increasingly complex. According to the Verint report, bank customers use an average of 4.1 different channels in a single month. The picture becomes even more complex when drilling down into generational cohorts. Baby Boomers are consistent and comfortable with the desktop website, according to the report. However, Generation X and Millennials move effortlessly across all channels, from website, mobile app, branch, ATM, drive-thru, and everything in between. While Baby Boomers use an average of 2.3 channels per month, Generation X and Millennials use 5.3 and 5.1 channels, respectively.

Banks need to optimize the customer experience across the full journey because customers will use multiple touchpoints according to task, generation, and preference. Although customers are choosing digital first at an accelerated rate and prefer self-service and social channels, they still expect informed, relevant, and authentic interactions—including human interaction—when they want it.

That means banks can’t think “digital only.” Companies need to provide a consistent experience anywhere customers engage.

Unify Omnichannel Insights for Better Results

Most banks know by now that providing an excellent customer experience is a business imperative. Extensive research shows that highly satisfied customers are more likely to use digital channels, recommend the company, remain loyal, and buy additional products and services. When compared with less satisfied customers, highly satisfied customers are 121% more likely to sign up for additional services and 107% more likely to recommend the company, according to the Verint research.

Most banks, therefore, have some way to assess the customer experience in each channel. But banks often remain siloed, with separate and distinct business units that don’t know what the other is doing.

Consider the following scenarios:

• Customers start pre-approvals for loan applications online and are directed to a local branch to complete the process. Customers use the website to provide feedback on the overall journey, so the digital team knows that loan applicants often end up calling the contact center when the local loan officer isn’t able to help them. What if the digital leader had a quick and easy way to share these insights with her colleagues in branches and the contact center to better empower branch employees, coach agents on this topic, and improve customer experiences?

• Jordan is a contact center agent who scores very well on metrics like average call time and first-call resolution. But how is she making customers feel? Are customers more or less likely to recommend the bank after an interaction with her? Are they more or less likely to open a new account? Traditional contact center metrics don’t provide a holistic view of agent performance that takes the customer into account. In other words, traditional metrics don’t provide a balanced scorecard to evaluate and coach agents.

• The mortgage and checking account teams both have important initiatives underway. They want to get customer feedback to help inform these projects. But customers who have both mortgages and checking accounts get multiple, poorly timed surveys that collide to create a frustrating experience.

• The contact center knows that a huge volume of calls come in because there is a lack of clarity on the “apply for a mortgage page.” The diagnosis and solution for this problem lives in three silos: mortgage, digital, and contact center. Imagine how quickly this could be corrected and how many more customers could self-service if all three were integrated and everyone had access to each other’s data?

The only solution to these common challenges is a holistic approach to customer experience, unified across silos and business units. A wide-angle, macro view is mandatory to see and resolve problem areas. That may sound intimidating, but a unified and business-wide approach to customer experience actually simplifies and amplifies efforts.

 The Future of Banking: Omnichannel and Integrated

How can banks prepare for constantly evolving customer expectations to ensure the customer experience continues to deliver? A unified customer experience management program allows organizations to garner deep insights into the customer experience to determine potential hang-ups in the customer journey.

Banks should prepare for continued high volumes in the contact center channels, and capture and measure insights from customers through interaction experience solutions like post-chat or post-call IVR surveys. Insights here allow you to listen, analyze, then act by capturing customer feedback immediately after an experience, enabling real-time alerting to issues and speeding time to resolution, allowing you to close the loop. It’s also important to move beyond just having survey data in your customer experience program.  Mining unstructured text input from social media channels or call recordings from agent/consumer interactions can also provide a much richer set of data to help diagnose issues that are driving lower KPI scores.  And finally, tools like digital behavior analytics enable organizations at the aggregate level to visualize what customers experience in digital channels to identify issues—and opportunities—and then act quickly.

Simply put, while all customer channels are important to the overall strategy, digital and contact center need to be the two anchor points. With an always-on listening program—and a platform that can synthesize all the disparate customer experience data sources—the contact center and digital teams now have good intel to share with each other. Organizations can tie contact center post-call or chat data and digital experience data together to uncover omnichannel customer experience trends for deeper analysis and action. It’s about getting the right data to the right person at the right time to make better decisions that drive improvements and efficiencies for both the customer and the bank.

About the Author

Eric Head is VP of Experience Leadership at Verint. With close to 20 years in the customer experience (CX) space, Eric has worked with clients across several industries to establish their measurement programs and improve the experiences they deliver. He has been instrumental in building Verint’s Experience Management program and client base and is a frequent speaker on CX best practices.

John Ing, Principal Operations Lead for CX at ECS shares his CX Predictions for the banking industry in 2020.

1. Voice will become more important, not less

The death of voice as a contact channel for banking customers has been over-hyped. The expectation that customers would switch to mobile apps and online banking instead hasn’t happened. One reason is that we can all talk faster than we can type – and it’s a far more natural way for people to engage for more complicated interactions.

While traditional IVR technologies (press one for sales and two for support) have never been popular, emerging AI/ML-powered voice solutions are far smarter and more intuitive. Even younger customers are embracing voice, thanks to the ubiquity of voice assistants such as Siri and Alexa.

To help boost their NPS and differentiate their services, banks will turbocharge contact centres with smart voice channels that offer a frictionless customer experience. An interaction might start with a basic chatbot, switch to an AI-powered virtual agent that understands context better and finally escalate to a voice call with a contact centre agent.

We will also see virtual voice assistants talking to each other: for example, a customer might use her in-car voice assistant to call her bank; the bank’s virtual assistant will then arrange for an agent to call her at home that evening to discuss her loan.

I believe this will all happen far faster than the industry anticipates.

2. More customer contact channels, not fewer

The perceived wisdom has been that new, cloud-based contact centre technologies would allow banks to reduce their customer channels. In fact, the opposite is happening, driven by customer behaviour.

When you add a new lane to a motorway it quickly fills up with traffic – the same is true for contact centre channels. To boost customer experience, in 2020 we will see banks starting to offer more contact options, not fewer. The trick will be to ensure these are frictionless, with no virtual traffic jams.

3. With AI and ML, a single customer view is finally within reach

A single customer view has been the banking industry’s goal for 30 years. While banks have amassed masses of valuable customer data, most of it is still languishing in data silos.

Cloud-based contact centres augmented with AI and machine learning are ushering in a new era in which a single customer view is finally possible. In 2020 cloud and AI contact centre deployments will accelerate.

Technologies such as Amazon Connect let banks aggregate customer data and mine it in real time to perform intent analysis and derive other actionable insights.

Banks will have a good idea why a customer is contacting them before they answer the call and be in a position to resolve issues faster, and even cross-sell and upsell other services that might appeal.

A recent example is the collapse of Thomas Cook, which generated a huge amount of calls to banks’ contact centres from concerned customers. Banks that have deployed AI in the contact centres are able to respond more rapidly and in a more coordinated way to these spikes. This minimises the number of abandoned calls and ensures that a far higher proportion of customer queries are resolved promptly.

4. Investments in omnichannel CX will take off

Enabled by the cloud, future tech investment will be focused on the full omnichannel customer experience rather than solely on mobile apps. Banks will need to deliver iterative CX improvements that really move the customer service needle to compete better with their fleet-of-foot challengers.

5. Resistance to cultural change and a dearth of cloud skills are a barrier

In 2020, we will see initiatives that encourage in-house IT teams to shift from an infrastructure to a cloud-based mindset, because finding enough people with the right cloud skills is one of the biggest barriers to full-blown contact centre transformation.

The winners will be those banks that can successfully navigate this cultural change and encourage IT teams to learn new approaches and skills that support a more agile and iterative approach to development.

About the Author

John Ing is Principal Operations Lead for CX at IT consultancy and services firm ECS. Before joining ECS this autumn, John spent many years at RBS. John and the CX team at ECS are working with a number of UK retail banks to help them transform their customer experience using the Amazon Connect cloud contact centre solution.

Building stronger customer experiences and unifying their digital and traditional channels will be a top priority for bankers in 2018, according to Computer Services, Inc.’s annual Banking Priorities Executive Report.

Nearly half of the respondents (48 percent) plan to increase spending on customer experience initiatives in 2018, with the same percentage indicating that reaching new customers through omnichannel banking is their greatest opportunity for the year.

CSI, a provider of end-to-end financial technology solutions, surveyed more than 230 bankers nationwide for the annual report, which explores what bank executives perceive to be the issues, technologies and strategies that will most affect the financial industry in the year ahead.

While the regulatory climate and cybersecurity also registered highly as major issues facing bankers, the clear emphasis on customer experience and omnichannel initiatives this year is undeniable.

“Today, the main differentiator between financial institutions is the customer experience,” said Steve Powless, CSI’s chairman and CEO. “Banks must focus their attention not only on gaining new customers, but also on building loyalty among their existing ones. We’re seeing bankers tackle this by focusing on omnichannel strategies that streamline and connect the customer’s bank experience across all channels, from in-person interactions to mobile apps and online. Banks utilizing these strategies will likely see the most growth throughout 2018.”

Key survey highlights related to enhancing the customer experience and omnichannel strategies include:

• When asked to name the areas in which they expect to increase spending in 2018, 48 percent of respondents noted customer experience initiatives, which trailed only cybersecurity risk (59 percent) and information technology (64 percent).
• When asked which omnichannel strategies they consider the most important, 53 percent of respondents ranked implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) solution first.
• 38 percent of bankers will improve the customer experience with digital enhancements, including branch transformation (39 percent), mobile banking adoption (35.3%) and mobile wallet/tokenization (23.9%)

While planning initiatives for the new year, financial institutions should focus on unique strategies for boosting profitability and growing business,” Powless said. “Using CSI’s Banking Priorities Executive Report 2018, banks can learn where their peers will place focus, and build their strategies around standing out from competitors.”

The executive report, containing full survey results and detailed analysis, is available online here.

There was a time when you could walk into a bank and tell the size of its budget based on look and feel alone. Mega-banks would have luxuriously decorated spaces, whereas locally owned branches may not have been as elegantly styled but made up for it with “know your first name” customer service.

Today, this line has completely blurred – every bank, no matter how big or small, knows not only your name but also your personal preferences, thanks to automation.

And while smaller banks still may not have the budget to roll out the latest technology on a large scale, their mobile customer experience often feels similar to something that a larger bank may offer. In fact, most of the top-rated mobile banking apps are from credit unions. Eastman Credit Union, a regional enterprise in Tennessee, claimed the top spot on last year’s MagnifyMoney “best banking apps” list. It even has an Apple Watch offering.

So, have apps leveled the customer service playing field in retail finance? Banks continue to report that enhancing customer service is their number one investment priority.

How can app functionality help accomplish this goal?

Make It Personal

Just as knowing a customer’s name in a branch setting can make them feel special, your app needs to do the same. The ability to personalize an app makes users feel more connected to your brand, while also making life easier. For example, Barclays allows customers to assign a different profile photo for each account to help more easily distinguish between them.

Marketing automation provider Marketo recommends that you take advantage of the data already at your fingertips (such as a user’s location, open frequency, time spent in the app, and features used) to provide personalized messaging that links to different places within the app, serving relevant, useful content to your customer, which can result in greater user loyalty and retention.

Focus on Functionality

This may seem like a no-brainer, but have you ever downloaded an app only to question what value it provides? Don’t rush to put out an app just for the sake of saying that you have one. The functionality needs to be robust enough to provide a positive customer experience. Specifically, you should focus on the following:

• Speed matters: While you have no control over users’ network speed, you can manage how quickly they can find the info they need at a glance, without having to swipe or hunt through nested menus. Be sure that your interface is clean and easy to navigate.

• Money transfer capabilities: Being able to move money between accounts or make payments should be a minimum requirement of any app. To make this as easy as possible, some apps have enabled users to send money to contacts using just their phone number.

• Mobile deposit: Check use may be declining in some countries, but it’s still an important payment method for many people. So the ability to deposit a check via mobile is vital. In fact, a reliable and easy to use offering of this functionality helped Eastman Credit Union claim the number one spot.

Peace of Mind Matters

Just as customers who feel safe and looked-after in a branch setting and by financial professionals such as Gordon Simmons continue to do business, they will keep logging into an app that provides the same sense of security. This means that you should be thinking through:

• Alerts and notifications: The ability for an app to send an alert (for example, when the account’s balance drops below a preset amount) can be highly valuable when it comes to helping people manage their finances. But alerts can go both ways. The ability to use the app to notify the bank of a lost or stolen card is another valuable feature that makes customers feel like their bank is looking out for them.

• Simplified security: User authentication is a vital security step for any mobile banking app but it doesn’t have to be a tedious process. With a growing number of phones offering biometric tools, support for solutions like Apple’s Touch ID is now a must.

While many banks have already done a thorough job of thinking through the above, they have made less progress in integrating their app with the rest of their operations.

The Boston Consulting Group states that more banks need to adopt a journey mindset. This means that you should be considering what the customer’s path looks like and providing them with the information they need to take the next step before they even recognize what the next step may be. Keep in mind the following:

• Context matters: Effective mobile banking apps offer customers contextually relevant information. For example, if your customer is at a car dealership, you could provide the latest auto loan rates. You can further take advantage of GPS functionality by using beacons to automatically check the customer in when they arrive at a branch location.

• Moving between channels: Apps can’t work in isolation. Connecting with other channels such as social media or phone banking from within the app also make users’ lives easier. Being able to call a representative from within the app and seeing an estimated wait time, or withdrawing cash from ATMs through an app, helps create a more connected omni-channel banking experience.

No bank’s customer service strategy can afford to omit a mobile app anymore. But developing one requires a strategic mindset and true dedication to enriching the customer experience. This is increasingly important in an era where customers can complete more functions autonomously and have less frequent interactions with customer service reps.

By offering a feature-rich app that provides a seamless experience, banks big and small can continue to deliver excellent customer service, further driving customer satisfaction and loyalty.

About the Author

Dan Weis works at NCR leading the retail banking mobile app team. The mobile apps are used by nearly 5.5 million consumers.

With bank branches closing each week, “Banking is no longer a place you go, it’s simply something you do.”

Retail banking has had to evolve considerably over the last few decades. Banks used to have it relatively easy – customers were loyal, local and trusting and kept the same bank account for their whole life.

Online banking has also replaced the traditional face-to-face banking experience.

Nothing is more evident than the recent news that Barclays has axed 1,700 branch jobs, saying fewer staff are needed because more people are banking online. Banks that want to stay ahead of the curve can use tools like social media to create a virtual ‘place to go’ and create a sense of community to replace the lost communication customers used to get in a bank branch.

Social media offers a way for banks to communicate more directly with their customers, understand them more clearly and keep them happier. Gone are the days when it used to be a social experience to visit your local bank where you were likely to be on first name terms with your bank manager.

Consumer behavior has changed and people just aren’t visiting their bank that often – today, nine out of 10 transactions at the bank are electronic, removing that valuable human contact. Today’s smartphone-equipped, web-savvy consumers are time-poor and expect a quick response, a choice of communications channels and access to relevant and accurate information.

Communicating through bank specific social media as well as the generics including Twitter, and Facebook seem obvious channels for enhancing customer relationships and offering a social element, yet few banks using them to their full potential.

Another reason that banks need to become more social is to listen to customer’s needs to build trust and advocacy, responding in more personalized ways including their communications and their products.

Compared to a few decades ago, retail banks are now faced with customers who are less loyal and more disengaged yet much more demanding. According to Datamonitor, 56 per cent of consumers were less trusting of their banks following the banking crisis, and nearly a third wanted to switch bank accounts but were either put off by the switching process or just thought there was little difference between the banks.

Customer is always right, and not afraid to tell the bank it’s wrong

It is clear that many customers are not happy with their bank. According to Which?, more than a quarter of people have had a problem with their bank account, with a fifth who made a complaint saying it was not resolved satisfactorily. Until recently, few customers are actually leaving their banks – only seven percent had actually switched bank accounts in the last two years – primarily due to the complex process required to do so.

However, this trend is expected to change now that the new bank switching service has come into play which will force banks to speed up the time it takes to shift current accounts between each other. As the battle to offer more incentives for switching heats up banks will need to be more diligent about how they compete in the market to retain and attract new customers.

Social media makes banking social again

Social media platforms enable banks to communicate directly with customers, offer a localised view of the brand and a sense of community to replace the traditional face-to-face experience. To do this effectively, banks must use relevant platforms and ensure they engage with their users daily, giving them a seamless ‘virtual’ banking experience, such as the same branding, language and prior knowledge of the customer.

According to Christophe Langlois, founder of social media resource website Visible Banking: “You must understand the popular social media channels like Twitter or Facebook, design and implement a smart … strategy based on quality content, engagement, response and call to action.”

Most UK high street banks have been relatively cautious in their approach to social media, with many large banks simply issuing pre-approved tweets and other social media content, without necessarily directly engaging the customer in conversation.

Banks need to start small and ensure they create a social media strategy that supports their business objectives while also demonstrating they’re reactive and responding – where necessary – to what people are saying about them or to them. This process, especially when integrated with the bank’s CRM can lead to better communication and more loyalty from customers.

For example, Barclays bank uses its Twitter handle @Barclays for general company news and @BarclaysOnline specifically to interact with customers, staffed by named employees Monday to Friday.

The company also uses a range of social media platforms, including Facebook and Google+, all providing valuable local information, such as communicating bank closures, ATM problems, local offers and competitions and can give personal communication in what can feel like an anonymous environment.

Clearly communications on social media channels need to be properly managed to ensure data privacy is protected and any compliance regulations are adhered to. Banks need to devise social media guidelines so that those interacting with customers provide the same level of customer service that they would in a call centre or bank branch, such as language used and speed of response.

Competition in the retail banking sector will only become more intense as smaller or non-traditional players like Tesco and Post Office come into the market, and people take advantage of quicker and easier switching.

Banks are already aware of the power of social media, but need to deploy the right strategy and ensure their social media voice mirrors the bank’s philosophy and better connects them with their customers. By integrating social media into their CRM systems, banks will eventually be able to get that all powerful single view of each customer..

About the Author

Nic Merriman is CTO of Financial Services at Avanade UK. Nic has 22 years’ experience in the IT industry delivering enterprise solutions for business benefit. He is currently the CTO for the financial services sector at Avanade UK where he is focused on the development and delivery of solutions.