Banks need to become a lifestyle brand

Banking on the move and online is widely available, and means it’s no longer a necessity to see a financial provider face to face. While this has brought a wealth of benefits to both the customer and financial providers, time spent with the customer in person has greatly reduced. At Collinson Group we believe that it’s important not to lose this ‘human touch’ that’s so important to build trust with a customer. Technology doesn’t have to hinder this, actually it’s the opposite.

Technology can help banks to best understand their customers and provide highly relevant and personalised services to them and their lives. This will help banks transition to becoming more than just a financial provider and seen as a lifestyle brand.

The customer-centric bank

Collinson Group polled 6,125[1] of the top 10-15 percent of earners globally and found that over half (56 percent) feel more loyal towards brands that know who they are and treat them differently. Furthermore, nearly three in five expect their bank to proactively offer products and services that meet their needs.

Financial organisations are in a good position to use this insight, analysing customer data to build an understanding of their lives, creating a stronger and more emotive relationship with them. For example, they could analyse spending behaviour to identify key moments in a customer’s life such as getting married, starting a family, or booking an extravagant holiday. From this, customers could receive the tailored products and offers that truly reflect what they are doing with their life.

Research also shows that customers would value a one-stop shop for all their financial services products. However, it is often the case that there is nothing incentivising them to purchase everything through one provider. By analysing customer data to capitalise on key life events and providing relevant, tailored offers off the back of this, banks can deliver incentives to encourage multi product purchases. This can mean that banks need to offer products and services that are outside of their core offer.

To maintain a ‘human touch’ in banking, financial services brands should take a collaborative and API approach to data. In doing so, third parties can help banks to see the customer journey in a greater level of detail, allowing banks to deliver seamless customer service.

Clear goals and objectives also need to be set for customer engagement, which put the customer in easy control of the processes, be this in repeat purchasing, buying additional products, or accessing the rewards programme itself. For some companies, this requires an organisational shift in order to better align processes and resources. Although this may be challenging, there is significant pay off for those who get it right.

My takeaway:

There are three actions that need to be implemented in order to achieve a more customer-focussed bank.

1. Personalisation: Over half (56 percent) of the mass affluent feel more loyal towards brands that know who they are and treat them differently, according to Collinson Group research. Therefore, Banks should be using their data more personal relationship with the customer 
2. Not just a bank: Banks will have loyal customers if they have additional services to fulfil the customer’s broader lifestyle needs – such as health and travel insurance or lost cards assistance. Using an API approach to data, banks could pick up more detail on the customer journey, offering them more targeted and preferential offers across digital channels and others, thus bringing back the ‘human’ touch to banks
3. Put the customer in the driving seat: Customers must feel in control of their purchasing habits, and have a relevant choice of reward and redemption packages  

Final thoughts

The rapid increase in demand for digital services provides financial services brands the opportunity to develop deeper meaningful relationships with customers by optimising and integrating data, interactions and offerings. The provision of more self-selected and tailored products and service could herald a new era for the role banks play in the lives of consumers now and in the future.

[1] Australia, Brazil, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the United Arab Emirates