Agility. Speed. Convenience. Keeping Pace with Innovation in Banking
Keeping customers and members engaged with your institution requires more than just a flashy marketing campaign. Today’s banking landscape is saturated with product and service offerings from institutions of all kind - traditional banks and credit unions, digital-only challengers, fintech players, and more. As trends and account-holder preferences continuously change, sustainable success is strongly linked to your responsiveness and ability to leverage innovative technology both internally and with account holder-facing solutions. To remain competitive today, and be remembered tomorrow, it’s critical to continuously review, and potentially redefine, your institutional goals and product roadmaps with these three principles in mind: agility and flexibility, speed to market, and convenience.
Meeting changing expectations and market demands requires flexibility and adaptability – both internally for more streamlined operations, and with user-facing solutions in-branch and across digital channels. If your infrastructure doesn’t scale easily to accommodate added users or volumes, your customers and members will feel the effects.
The same can be said for integration potential – it’s impossible to offer a one-size-fits-all product, making it important for banks and credit unions to lean on modern tech stacks that easily allow for add-on capabilities as needs change. Open platforms that extend your reach through APIs help keep solutions agile by seamlessly delivering account holders access to complementary products and services, yet still in-solution and within your payments network. At the same time, your institution benefits from added user behavior and transactional data to leverage in other instances – like for hyper-personalized experiences or better segmentation that deepens engagements and strengthens institutional loyalty.
With faster innovation cycles, speed-to-market for new products or features is critical to delivering exceptional user experiences and maintaining account holder satisfaction. Tightly-linked to the benefits of an open and API-based banking platform noted above, and paired with the flexible infrastructure these solutions offer, banks and credit unions maximize their operational efficiencies and roll-out new capabilities faster. These new products, services, and features can increase market share and position your institution with a competitive advantage that reduces attrition and boosts account holder satisfaction.
It’s important, though, to consider an enterprise solution for maximum benefit. With a single platform and common code-base leveraged across various lines of business, siloes are eliminated and new products deploy quicker, requiring less attention from specialized, costly teams. At the same time, interoperability is enhanced since data flows more freely cross-channel, benefiting internal operations and streamlining the UX for faster transactions and customer-service responses both in the branch and through digital channels.
The pandemic changed consumer behavior, putting an even larger spotlight on simplicity and accessibility. Don’t be fooled though – the calls for on-demand convenience aren’t limited to digital channels. The catch? Competitors are everywhere and new options can be found easily with a few swipes or clicks. And, apart from financial advice or complex transactions where face-to-face discussions are still preferred, customers and members are turning to their online and mobile devices at all times of the day or night. If a product or service presents a bottleneck, users quickly search for an alternative. The same can be said for customer and member service – making chatbots, virtual tellers, and other AI-based tools increasingly important to keep users engaged with personalized assistance.
Despite the significance of digital banking channels, it’s essential not to forget the value of the branch where simplicity and accessibility are also important. Branch transformation efforts linked to the physical branch layout, paired with easy-to-use self-service devices, are required to keep up with today’s demands for convenience. Ensuring a simple and effortless banking experience across all points of engagement – including those started on a mobile device but completed in-branch, are needed to sustain account holder satisfaction.
It’s no secret that banks and credit unions must find new ways to acquire and retain their customers and members in today’s competitive environment. Modern, innovative technology platforms are a core piece of the puzzle, ensuring institutions don’t miss out on opportunities to up-sell, cross-sell, and attract new customers or members. Don’t let your aging technology stack hold you back from being agile, fast-to-market, and offering convenient solutions across all channels.
See the innovation and cost-effective benefits newer enterprise banking platforms can deliver to your institution today.
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