Banks and credit unions are relying on digital channels more than ever, but from the consumer’s perspective, even the most intuitive innovation comes at a cost. Humanizing the digital consumer experience can offer the best of both worlds: convenience that doesn’t sacrifice relationships.
There’s always a push to digitize, for both automation and ease. The differentiating factor lies in how technology is being used. Do digital tools support empathetic and personalized service? Are digital channels being introduced to enhance—not replace—human connections?
More and more, consumers are finding their relationship with their financial institution to be shallow.*
As expectations evolve, it becomes increasingly important for financial institutions to provide a personalized digital consumer experience. Today’s consumers want seamless, individualized interactions from all service providers, including banks and credit unions. Even younger generations prefer a personal touch.
Take Gen Z, for example. This generation, often perceived as glued to their screens and able to instantly find the answer to any digital puzzle, reveals a surprising preference when it comes to resolving problems. Amazingly, most of Gen Z would rather hop on the phone to solve a service-related issue.
This behavior underscores a deeper desire for connection and personalized problem-solving that digital interfaces can’t always offer. A young college student might not want to chat for an hour to resolve an issue with her bank account. She’d rather save time and receive immediate, empathetic assistance.
What Users Say the Digital Consumer Experience Is Missing
It’s not the functionality. That’s where consumers say digital banking channels perform as expected.* Instead, dissatisfaction seems to lie in the lack of emotion. Roughly 63 percent of consumers use mobile banking just to check a balance. Another 36 percent state that they had a hard time getting support from a real person.
While consumers greatly value the convenience of the digital consumer experience—such as quick transactions, easy access to account information, and efficient service—they also expect these digital interactions not to replace all personal contact.
Banks and credit unions that address these problems might see revenue increase. Improving the digital consumer experience and product offerings could raise revenue by nearly $400 per consumer per year, or 20 percent, depending on market factors.*
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Tracking the digital journey can help identify where humanity is needed. Providing human support on mobile banking apps can make a difference, but most often, consumers are seeking a human touch for higher-stakes transactions requiring financial guidance.
Delivering humanity in a way that resonates may vary by channel. In their recent report, Customer Engagement in Banking: Annual Trends Report, Engageware, an AI-enabled platform for consumer engagement, suggests using an “opti-channel” approach. In addition to an omnichannel strategy, where multiple channels are used to market, an opti-channel model optimizes information within a channel.
Optimizing a consumer’s experience within any given channel gives them the opportunity to self-direct and choose the path that’s right for them, Engageware explains. Providing choice makes interactions more personal. Personal connection is exactly what today’s consumers are missing.*
Along with creating a connection, other benefits of humanizing digital channels include:
- Better support: Personalizing digital channels can ensure more effective support, addressing complex issues early and thoroughly.
- Enhanced trust: Humanizing digital interactions builds trust as consumers see the institution as empathetic and reliable.
- Improved satisfaction: Personalized communication makes consumers feel valued and understood, leading to higher satisfaction levels.
- Increased loyalty: Personal touches foster stronger connections, encouraging greater consumer loyalty and retention.
- Long-term relationships: Humanizing the digital consumer experience supports emotional engagement and may make a consumer more likely to stay with an institution.
- Positive word-of-mouth: Satisfied consumers are prone to sharing their positive experiences with others, attracting new business.
Though it takes time and testing to implement, a humanized digital consumer experience is a win for consumers and institutions. It involves using data to tailor communications and services to consumers’ unique needs, while ensuring that digital interfaces remain user-friendly. It also incorporates responsive support that offers genuine empathy, especially for complex or sensitive issues.
Many times, it presents the opportunity to be creative. Recently, nbkc, a community bank in Kansas City, joined forces with Shop Local KC, a local retailer, to launch a one-of-a-kind space that merged the functionalities of a bank branch with the charm of a retail shop. This innovative space showcased wares created by local artisans, offering a distinctive and community-centered banking experience.
An innovative partnership like this not only supports local artists but also fosters a stronger connection between the bank and the community it serves. Consumers experience the convenience of banking while supporting their local economy. In this way, nbkc redefined the role of a community bank.
Financial institutions may see success by using these tips:
- Create consistency across all digital touchpoints. Ensuring cross-channel consistency looks like providing a uniform digital consumer experience, whether consumers are engaging via an app, website, or social media. Consistency can be created through an omnichannel approach that integrates consumer data and interactions across all digital and physical channels.
- Implement consumer feedback. There’s nothing more frustrating than feeling like complaints go unheard. Gathering consumer feedback from apps and online platforms, using data analytics to review feedback and identify common problems, and informing consumers about changes made based on feedback can all reinforce that their opinions are valued.
- Personalize wherever possible. Both opti- and omnichannel marketing provide prime opportunities to personalize—either by giving consumers options within a set channel or by personalizing on multiple platforms. (To see an example, take a look at the NAFCU Innovation Award we won last year for providing consumers with a personalized real-time URL when marketing insurance products.)
- Practice proactive communication. Anticipating needs can automatically build loyalty. Sending predictive alerts for payments or suspicious activity; celebrating milestones, like birthdays or the anniversary of closing on a home; and offering intuitive insurance products that match life stage and online behaviors are ways to make consumers feel seen as individuals.
- Rethink consumer support. When in doubt, let empathy lead the digital consumer experience. Simple but strategic changes, like offering video calls with service reps on banking apps, developing new support scripts that prioritize understanding, and using data to predict issues and reach out to consumers before a problem occurs, can communicate a message of care.
Humanizing the digital consumer experience can give impersonal channels a heartbeat and bring life to automated services.
At Franklin Madison, Data Makes Marketing Personal
With our data-driven approach, we can help you create highly targeted campaigns that spark authentic connections. Using transaction patterns, website interactions, servicing preferences, and reward spending behaviors to personalize digital messaging are just a few examples. Contact us to learn more about customizing your marketing to your consumer.