In the face of digital disruption trends, how can banks to have an effective strategy to understand feedback and improve customers’ experience?
Australian banks need to embrace the digital revolution to ensure they stay relevant for millennials. If not, they face the possibility of losing these customers as digital disruption shakes up the banking industry.
To remain relevant, the A/NZ banking industry must interact with customers in new ways. This starts with understanding them more clearly.
Banks must continue to innovate to succeed on the digital frontier. They need to find ways to connect and engage with consumers. A good way to achieve this is through customer feedback.
A recent study revealed that 70% of millennials in the United States expect payment methods would be totally different in five years. A third said they didn’t think there would be banks at all. Nearly half are counting on tech start-ups to overhaul the system.
Key findings include from the study include:
- Locally, research shows that Australia’s ATM fleet has now declined for two quarters in a row and the number of withdrawals per year is now running at its lowest level in more than five years. 2. Smartphones will dominate banking technology. Less than 40% of consumers aren’t visiting physical bank branches anymore.
- Australian businesses lose $8 billion a year in revenue due to poor customer experience.
- So it’s essential for banks to have an effective voice of customer (VoC) strategy in place. Asking for feedback helps you improve customers’ experience and develop new services to keep them and ultimately, grow revenue.
There are three key guidelines for financial institutions to gain feedback across digital customer touch points:
Tap the mobile experience
Institutions should use a targeted post-experience survey that asks the user to indicate their level of satisfaction. Simple page-level feedback questions or static feedback links let visitors give feedback when and if relevant, without disrupting overall user experience.
Engage directly with customers at the right time
It’s important to understand how customers are using the website. Use that information to create to a more personalised experience. Timing is key: if you can intercept a visitor who has been idle on a page for 30 seconds and ask them if they need help, you could capture insights on how your website works for different people, as well as helping an individual customer.
Focus on changing behaviour and improving digital experience
Companies that use digital feedback to improve visitors’ experience are more likely to have more highly engaged customers, which manifests as improved business metrics. It’s not enough to simply collect data and feedback. You need to analyse it and use the insights to adjust your customers experience and most importantly, act on negative customer feedback.
To compete with disruptors, financial institutions need to do a little disrupting of their own. The only way to do this is to find out exactly what customers want, deliver that, and more, in an appropriate timeframe. Companies should be able to see customer feedback in real-time, and through role-based dashboards so managers have the right customer information to make an impactful change. Hearing and acting on VoC insights is the starting place and it’s essential to get that process right to build a strong foundation for future success.
Bill McMurray, APAC Managing Director, Qualtrics
