Digital banking has changed many fundamental principles of banking. Banks usually segment customers based on the services they use, their income, and their demographics.

In digital banking, these parameters do not provide a complete picture of the customer’s online behavior. The modern segmentation parameters are as follows –

  • Novice users, or users that are early in the digital banking journey – For such users, a simplified design is provided to reduce ambiguity. It is necessary to not overwhelm them so that they end up abandoning the action. The focus is on informing them about social engineering via subtle prompts.
  • Advanced users, or users comfortable with online transactions – Contextualized information is provided around the fee, benefits, potential security risks, etc. of the product for these users. The focus is on performance and seamless transactions, with regular updates on queries and complaints.
  • Expert users, or users who are early adopters of fintech products – Hyper-personalization is done by collecting data related to customer behavior and banking history. The focus is on responsive customer service and re-routing of calls to human agents.

How to make such a transformation possible? 

Reimagine user journey

When a customer logs in to a banking application, they do so with a goal in mind. They might wish to check their balance, perform a transaction or book a loan. They should be able to complete these actions with the least amount of friction.

If multiple teams are working on the independent roadmap of a single project, their design and navigation techniques will be different and frustrating to the user.

For example, saved cards require horizontal swiping to navigate while an action for loan accounts needs a vertical drill down. This inconsistency can increase the friction required while navigating an app. Reimagining the user journey can ensure consistency in experience and thoughtfulness of presentation within the application.

Remap CX transformation to customer value

When any banking organization embarks on a customer experience transformation journey, the focus is on digital features that meet industry standards. This addresses a variety of needs but it might not ensure customer satisfaction. Features or enhancements must be mapped to customer value, so that impact and feedback can be logged. Embedded finance is a great example of CX remapping.

New developmental behavior like rapid prototyping, cross-discipline collaboration, and leading with customer stories that make a connection with the teams helps them appreciate the human aspect of CX transformation.

Redesign the service

When a customer moves from the bank’s website to its app and then to a branch executive, they might feel like they are speaking to different organizations altogether. This happens because user journeys do not uniformly cover all relevant touchpoints including backstage operations, processes, and staff interactions.

Designing a user experience through multiple touchpoints instead of a singular channel can improve the efficiency of teams in resolving customer queries.

Asking questions like what happens when the customer applies for a card, how they receive it, what issues they face, who will address them, etc. can be helpful while designing the journey.

Reform the product teams

Cross-functional teams are required to operate like product teams instead of feature teams. Creating a dedicated CX team is just the beginning of the process. Teams must be empowered to speak to customers and understand their pain points. Another useful method is to collect publicly available feedback like reviews and complaints to improve the customer experience. There are many plug-ins available that scan customer reviews in public forums and enable concerned teams to receive notifications about them. This feedback can then be integrated into the day-to-day decision-making of the team’s tasks.

Resilience in engineering

Listening to customer feedback is half of the customer experience journey. A bank can get a competitive edge by how quickly the agile teams can respond to that concerned feedback. For instance, if many customers have reported a usability issue, and the team finally releases an update after one whole month, the customer experience will be jeopardized. Engineering readiness is the core of fast response to customer feedback.

The four metrics of technical excellence include mean time to restore, change fail percentage, lead time, and deployment frequency. Combining these metrics with business goals can form a single platform that meets changing customer needs.

Re-platform legacy systems

Banks can pour most of their time and resources into improving the visual elements and design of customer-facing apps or screen-based interactions, but still not deliver optimal customer satisfaction if the backend systems are non-performant. A thoughtfully re-platformed legacy system meets business goals. For example, many banks rush into a cloud-first strategy to save costs. Most such banks need to first bridge the gap between the organization’s business and cloud strategies.

Thus, the goal of a successful digital transformation and improved customer experience is the capitalization of customer insights. There are many budding neo-fintech organizations and pre-existing tech giants that provide great competition to banks. To get an edge over these competitors, banks must harness the emotional needs of the customer through the years of deep relationships they have formed. Mapping this relationship into the digital platform can elevate the bank’s CX transformation efforts. It can also nudge the customer’s digital maturity up a level for a mutually beneficial growth relationship.