How to deliver the seamless experience your bank account holders expect

A recently released U.S. consumer survey from Computer Services Inc., a financial technology solutions and regulatory compliance company, reported that 86% of bank account holders expect a seamless experience across channels and devices when conducting banking activities.

We're all ready to roll our eyes at that extremely overused word "omnichannel," but it's true: The cross-channel experience is precisely what financial services consumers demand.

The report, 2019 Retail Banking Trends, by the Financial Brand observed that the top focus of most industry respondents is the use of big data, AI, advanced analytics, and cognitive computing. These were closely followed by removing friction from the customer journey, use of APIs and open banking, and improvements in integrated multichannel delivery.

So …Omnichannel Banking.

It's neither a news flash nor a flash-in-the-pan strategy. A quick search will show you hundreds of titles like this article, "2017 – The Year of the Seamless Integrated Banking Experience." Or there's this 2016 article from NCR Corp. focused on omnichannel banking and how it can be delivered.

The big difference in 2019 is that most banks and credit unions have set the groundwork already for making the cross-channel experience a reality. The CSI consumer survey reported that 86% of respondents are happy with their financial institution's digital offerings.

Now the intent is to bring all of those digital channels together, and then mesh those channels with physical interactions — such as those carried out at a branch or ATM — to generate a truly integrated, personalized account holder experience.

Where to begin

Here are a few points to help your bank or credit union starting determining how to move forward:

• Poll your account holders — What do they like? What improvements would they prefer? How do they view the branch? The ATM? Be prepared to receive some junk responses and some very valid suggestions. On balance, a poll should provide some insight into the thought processes of your audience.
• Analyze the data — How are your physical and digital offerings being used? Are certain issues consistently generating service tickets? Where are account holders getting frustrated? What are your most popular branches, ATM locations, applications, submissions, and/or web pages? This information will give you a better idea of what needs improvement as well as any actions or processes that might be shared with other channels.
• Start with the back end—One of the first ways to capitalize on account holder data is to streamline access internally. Shared information empowers staff to provide more personalized and timely service to account holders. Not to mention allowing for more targeted marketing and sales messages.

These three steps are only the beginning of the journey to a true omnichannel experience. Expanding and improving requires a commitment to experimentation. 

But for a financial institution committed to reducing friction and using big data, the results will be highly rewarding for both the institution and its account holders.