Managing banking transformation in a customer-centric world

Amanda Beesley, MD Financial Services & Insurance Division at Paragon Customer Communications

 

Along with other service sectors including retail and business administration, the UK financial services sector helps to provide 80% of the total UK economic input.

So, it’s unsurprising that in this sector there is a continuous drive towards reducing operational expenditure while maximising value for money.

Financial services organisations are keen to evolve alongside changing customer needs. In March2022, Lloyds announced that it would be closing 60 branches, following similar announcements from HSBC and NatWest Group, which plan to shut 69 and 32 branches respectively this year due to the shift to mobile and online banking. Clearly, businesses are increasingly moving away from traditional services in an effort to make sure they can offer a wider range to their customers.

Customer experience and revenue growth are the main drivers of this shift but ironically transformation initiatives often divert from other areas that enhance the customer experience. This was highlighted by a recent report from Forrester, which discovered that while businesses prioritise  meeting the demands of younger digital natives, they may actually be damaging their wider customer communications processes. Ultimately, the best approach for most customers is likely to be a blend of print and digital. But, how can your organisation find the equilibrium?

 

Omnichannel vs (mainly) digital

Regardless of sector, operational transformation is often most successful when customer communications is thought of with an omnichannel mindset, rather than digital by default.

The push to digital is driven by the ever-increasing number of digital natives – namely, Millennials and Gen Z. These groups have spent nearly their entire lives surrounded by computers, digital devices and the world of social media. This makes a huge difference to how these people engage with financial services in comparison to earlier generations. Millennials and Gen Z expect to be able to access everything they need digitally and are therefore considerably less likely to choose face-to-face services.

Despite this, as of April 2022 there are over two billion people globally who are not part of the digital population. Even as this figure declines there will always be some people who, for reasons such as lack of access, confidence, or social concerns such as job losses caused by digitalisation, will be unable or unwilling to go fully digital. This means it is crucial that organisations put their resources behind both physical and digital communications strategies.

Forrester’s research suggests that while many banks have been pursuing digital transformation efforts for some time, they often start their journey without a coherent strategy. This leads to projects stalling or even failing. Even those that are succeeding with a digital-first approach, such as challenger banks, are sometimes struggling to deliver a seamless experience between channels and consumer contact points. In this crowded sector, consumers can easily move to a competitor if they don’t feel their needs are being met. This means the importance of a top tier communications approach can’t be understated.

Adopting an omnichannel approach means integrating all online and physical touch points. No matter how or when the customer chooses to communicate – via live chat on the website, an app, social media, phone or seeing someone face to face – the experience can be seamless and unified.

 

The importance of choice

Traditionally, the feeling has been that the dominance of digital is inevitable and that print communications will eventually be phased out completely. The figures suggest digital is emerging victorious, with the total number of addressed letters falling from 14.34 billion in 2011-12 to 9.99 billion in 2019-20. Yet, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Recent research shows that we could now be seeing a flattening of both the growth in digital and the fall in print volumes as organisations settle into a blend between the two.

While younger consumers might be more comfortable receiving digital communications, it doesn’t naturally follow that they will want all of their communications to be sent that way. There is clearly no ‘one size fits all’ approach. Customers of all ages will have different comfort levels and preferences when it comes to digital communication, which are likely to evolve over time.

Striking the right balance relies on an in-depth knowledge of how customers engage with their content, but it is also hinged on recognition of the myriad reasons why customers need this balance.

Too often, people who prefer physical communications are tarred with the same brush: they’re seen as lacking tech skills and unwilling to adapt to modern life. To really enhance customer experience, you need to make sure that your business isn’t biased against those who don’t want to go digital. You need to recognise that this can be based on a valid fear that increasing digital processes will decrease social and community integration by removing in-person opportunities.

Discussions of the advantages and disadvantages of digital and physical communications often come down to a debate of old vs new. This is an oversimplification that holds organisations back and damages customer relationships.

Physical communications shouldn’t be brushed off as outdated and therefore unfit for modern needs, nor should customers who prefer this method. While the digital demand is undeniable, it doesn’t follow that physical communications have no place in modern communication strategies. Thinking in this way will prevent you from harnessing the enduring powers of physical methods of communication and, just as importantly, will stop you from providing the service that physical users deserve.

 

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