Banking Avengers - have you met them?

At a family gathering, I asked my 14-year-old niece, who her favorite Avenger was? She paused, and replied, “I like Shuri for the smarts and Natasha for the fighting skills”.

I smiled, and told myself, “kids these days, can’t relate to, or remain loyal to a single character for long. Even when presented with so many good-choices, they are still want to handpick traits across several characters”. I moved on from that conversation.

Or, so I thought; until it hit me a little later. The Banking Ecosystem isn’t very different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). 

Seriously, think of it. Both of them have several good protagonists to root for. In both cases, fans/customers are spoilt for good-choices. And yet, customer’s loyalty keeps shifting from one bank/protagonist to another.

Customers today have different Go-To banks for specific use-cases. I wondered if the plethora of choices in the market has made the customer feel enabled, or lost?

My interest in all this is to find out the discernable traits that are consistently co-related with customer loyalty. And then, leverage this insight to influence outcomes.

In other words, what does it take our Banking Avengers to win customer-loyalty and sustain it? I think, it takes a super power, a special weapon and some smart-moves!

Superpower – Customer Experience/Engagement (CX/CE)

I believe, the secret superpower needed by a bank to transform its customers into evangelists is CX/CE. An engaged customer is likely to buy often, remain loyal and recommend your solution among his peers.

Statistics are in agreement too.   

• 89% of consumers are more likely to do business with a financial institution that offers personalized experiences.
• 73% of consumers already expect specialized treatment for being a good customer.
• 80% feel that predicting their next likely product is very important (source).

A study by Kantar showed that U.S. retail banks can potentially grow their share of deposits by about 16.5% through improvements in their customer experience.

Special Weapon – A Digital Engagement platform 

A sound strategy and noble intentions are important; but they do not complete a superhero. Even the mighty Thor and Iron-Man needed a hammer and the suit respectively. Sometimes, how well your plans get executed depends on the weapon you wield.

In banking parlance, a deeper/personalized customer engagement means having an IT system built on a scalable architecture with a capability to facilitate channel administrations, and manage content/campaign management. The engagement hub must seamlessly integrate with both the business-applications such as core banking, trade finance, and payments – as well as channel-applications such as mobile banking, branch solutions, and chat bots to provide a seamless experience to the end-users.

Smart Moves – Contextual Campaigns 

 Let’s not forget that over 60% of the population in 2019 comprises of Gen-Z and Millennials. Much of the banked-population will involve this demographic. Needless to say, mobile-first campaigns are no longer just an option, but the new-normal. 

Statistically, 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands who recognize, remember, and provide relevant offers and recommendations (source). The ideal customer-engagement campaign must be personalized for everyone, and NOT offend anyone. A good way to improve customer loyalty and engagement is to shortlist your top 3 features for each target-group (TG) and make it truly relatable to every individual. 

A good campaign must balance these three objectives,

• Be relatable at a personal level
• Respect the privacy
• Timing your communication campaigns  

While these ideas/principles are universal, they may be slightly more relevant to the Retail Banking sector. Also, this cannot be a one-time exercise. Winning the customer loyalty and sustaining the trust, both take equal efforts.

The superpower of ‘customer engagement’ must be put to work every day.

Finally, remind yourself, as Captain America does, ‘’I can do it all day long".