Everyone would like to have an enjoyable customer experience every time they interact with their banks. But what is the secret to an enjoyable banking customer experience?
In its just released study, “A Shifting Landscape: Customer Experience Trends and Practices in Retail Banking,” PeopleMetrics attempted to answer that question.
“One of our objectives was to identify the most common emotional tags that customers associate with an enjoyable banking experience,” according to the study report. “We asked about a number of emotions – happy, energized, pleased, trusting, as well as secure, confident, valued, cared for and appreciated.”
As a result, according to the report the emotions that are most impactful in the banking relationship are:
• Secure
• Confident
• Cared For
• Appreciated
• Valued
“All banks in our study do a fairly similar job at delivering confidence and security – a nominal one- and three-point gap between national and community institutions,” the report reads. “The real difference is noted when we look at higher order emotions. Community institutions are making their customers feel cared for, appreciated, and valued significantly more powerfully than national institutions – and this is the heart of the difference in NPS (Net Promoter Score) ratings.”
Enjoyable experiences make the customer feel cared for and appreciated, and that is the core of the community bank advantage, according to the report.
The challenge, though, is how to build digital technology in a way that makes customers feel like they are number one, the report notes.
“Banks need to build out technology,” the report reads. “The cost of branch and call center interactions is considerably higher than self-service channels supported by mobile and digital technology. The challenge is how to build digital technology in a way that demonstrates to customers that they are still number one. How can banks merge online and offline channels in a way that is enjoyable, easy meets needs and also leaves customers feeling valued, cared for, and appreciated?”
Despite an increased focus on customer experience initiatives by banks of all sizes, the report revealed that not all of these efforts may be resulting in revenue growth. In fact, while some banks and credit unions are significantly outperforming peers, others aren’t focusing on efforts that customers care about most.
According to the report, banks are engaged in a surprisingly large number of customer experience initiatives. In fact, seven out of 10 executives were working on customer-centric practices. But the research found that most banks have shied away from activities that require investment of human or financial resources.
“Part of the problem is a lack of association by banks between customer experience initiatives and a tangible ROI,” the report says.