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How great customer experience can enable financial services providers to earn customer trust

iStock 1400365080 - Global Banking | Finance

259 - Global Banking | FinanceBy Chris Sparling, CX Strategy Director, Reputation 

Ipsos recently released its 2022 ranking of the best and worst retail banks for customer service. The results highlight the ongoing competitive nature of the financial services industry, as fintech start-ups attract traditional banks’ customer share across all areas of service. Thus far in 2022, there were over 850,000 bank account switches across the UK – thanks in part to challenger banks like Starling and Monzo offering more targeted solutions to customers than traditional banks have done previously.

With incumbents having had little competition until now, although improving customer service was important, advancements in this area have been slower as a result of being built upon an approach developed in a pre-digital age. In contrast, providing the high level of customer service consumers have come to expect was built into challengers’ digital-first infrastructures from conception.

Due to their investment in customer service and the resulting customer experience provided, challenger banks have higher rates of recommendation, greater wallet share, and are in a better position to try to up-sell or cross-sell products and services to their customers. Albeit their rate of success with the latter remains limited – as traditional banks have the advantage of hundreds of years of experience providing mortgages, wealth management and other services, giving their customers peace of mind their challenger counterparts cannot match. At least for now.

Outhustle the competition

In the last few years, statistics have repeatedly branded the financial services industry as the least trusted industry in the UK. Data breaches and shifting customer needs mean that loyalty remains low. Rather than remaining with their financial services providers through choice, customers have been staying put due to the inconvenience of shifting mortgages and other such services. By delivering best-in-class customer service, banks and other financial services providers can go a long way toward improving customer loyalty.

While consumer perception is vital for success, shifts in the way people interact with banks and the financial services industry, and the technology available to do so, have changed the landscape, with the rise of online reviews giving customers the evidence and encouragement needed to shift providers.

Banks and financial services are also using artificial intelligence (AI) to automate responses for commonly asked queries while relying on human customer service agents to handle more complex questions. And even here, today’s AI capabilities can assist call operators by providing scripts and call prompts to help interpret the emotional state of a caller and give an appropriate response to the situation.

Visibility and learning from reviews and customer surveys

Reputation management in finance increasingly relies on customer reviews rather than just word of mouth. But it’s also important for banks, particularly traditional ones, not to neglect their presence on Google My Business listings – the single most important factor in driving visibility.

Despite the increase in traditional banks closing their brick-and-mortar locations, instances remain where in-person interactions are necessary. The first step to improving your local ranking is to ensure your information is up to date, which makes it easier for customers to find you. Business listings populated with a high volume of timely reviews – especially if those reviews are positive – receive more visibility on Google. By showing you value customer feedback, the likelihood of others using your service increases.

Facebook, with its monthly active users climbing to 2.8 billion, is emerging as a powerhouse on this front and has gradually created more tools to help businesses increase their visibility and ability to respond to reviews.

We often hear about banks getting in trouble because they’ve failed to react quickly to issues that are brewing. So to keep abreast with current and upcoming trends, social media monitoring should be a crucial practice for any bank’s strategy.

All businesses, including those operating outside the financial services industry, would benefit from a broad listening strategy when it comes to collecting feedback. Leveraging social media listening tools to monitor and identify trends, track customer sentiment, and mitigate potential crises ultimately improves customer service and inspires confidence. Here, having an effectively managed online review programme ultimately leads to increased customer confidence and trust.

As part of this, encouraging customers to review your branches and respond to surveys is critical, since great customer experiences start with listening to feedback. In turn, responding to that feedback also shows you care about what your customers have to say, making your brand more human.

Most recently, the proposed expansion of UK banking hubs highlights an example of the type of action that taking onboard customer feedback can result in. Many of the big banks have been cutting their branch networks due to customers spurning traditional counter services in favour of online and mobile banking. As the impact of the cost-of-living crisis becomes more apparent, hubs are being set up to ensure the right services are provided in the right places, particularly in communities with limited cash access and banking facilities. At these hubs, customers of any bank with physical branches can access their accounts, deposit cash and cheques, and withdraw money at any time – with representatives from the major banks being on-site once a week to deal with trickier enquiries.

With most people relying on the internet for information about where to save and invest their capital – monitoring reviews, collecting feedback, and analysing data to understand customer experience and uncover patterns matters more than ever. Here, banks must take on board a healthy mix of responses across different locations and departments. This information is key to gaining insight that allows different branches and teams to learn from one another and make improvements.

Extending CX across the digital world

Digital transformation, accelerated by the pandemic, has made the adoption of digital channels and touchpoints even more imperative. Now, providing a digital-first experience is an expectation for all users, regardless of generation, and banks – particularly traditional ones – are focussing on being more responsive online. The more customer feedback data you collect, the more you can boost your review volume to help improve your ratings.

By using available tools to bring public and private feedback together in one place, it is easier to gain actionable insight into the complete view of your customer experience, showing where there is room for improvement. Remaining flexible and constantly looking for ways to enhance current and new technologies is a core component of giving the customer what they need and staying competitive.

With new trends and regulatory measures continually emerging within the financial services industry, it is important to ensure the delivery of the best customer experience possible to maintain customer loyalty. By listening to customers, being responsive, and making smart investments in technology, banks can guarantee exceptional customer service, which helps retain and attract customers.

Reputation management is not an area where banks and financial services companies can afford to be complacent. And it will be the ones that adopt the tools and use the insights available that will separate the leaders from the laggards.

Global Banking & Finance Review

 

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