Industry Insights: All Channels Matter, But It’s About the Experience
Engaging Consumers with True Omni-Channel Banking
Transactions continue to migrate from branches to digital channels. Gartner predicts that customers will manage as much as 85% of their banking without human interaction by 2020. But branches are still vital. Financial Brand says that 60% of traditional banking products are sold there.
Reaching consumers means developing a strong omni-channel strategy, encompassing digital, physical and innovative hybrid methods. Giving consumers as many options to do business with your institution as possible makes good sense. And your planning and strategy is needed now, regardless of where you are in your current evolution.
The key is creating a user experience that is consistent and seamless across all channels. Financial Brand predicts this consistency will soon outpace price or product as a competitive differentiator. A significant corollary identified by Alogent and others is that giving priority to the consumer experience can suffer when decisions are made by institutions from within channel-based management silos.
Where do you stand? We’ve harvested half a dozen articles showing different aspects of why you need omni-channel strategy:
- Right-Channeling: The Real Reason to Do Customer Journey Mapping, Financial Brand. Channels matter, but the customer journey should revolve around convenience and time efficiency for both the customer and the financial institution, not just around traditional measures of cost effectiveness.
- Retail Banking 2020: Emerging Trends and Imperatives, PWC. As branches decline in number, institutions are challenged not just to implement digital strategies, but to create new ways to provide personalized consumer experiences across all touchpoints.
- The Branch of the Future: What Does It Look Like? Financial Brand. Seven experts on branch design and retail banking discuss the changing role of brick and mortar, now and for the future, as engagement through other channels continues to expand.
- Facility Solutions: Smartphones Support Branch Performance, CUES. Practical ways to use technology in branches abound, including new efficiencies in staffing, member service levels, and the ability to speed up transaction time through digital enhancement.
- Closing the Digital Divide Between Banks and Customers, Financial Brand. Breaks down the concept of the customer experience as it applies to each channel and every interaction, and discusses its importance in keeping current customers satisfied and loyal.
- Video Tellers & Mobile Take Self-Service to the Next Level, Credit Union Times. Supports the claim that self-service, including video and mobile technologies, positively enhance member service, as well as increasing efficiency and cutting costs.
About the Industry Insights Series
Alogent’s Industry Insights—this blog and the companion newsletter series—track insights into transformative financial technologies as they happen. Our diverse team of experts pulls the threads together and weave in thoughtful—often actionable—analysis to help banks and credit unions keep their competitive edge and meet new generations of consumers where they’re going next.