In an era where customers' expectations are quickly rising, it's more important than ever for financial enterprises to offer great experiences. Other industries, such as travel and e-commerce are blazing the trail in delivering fast results, and it's crucial that financial enterprises aren't left behind.

Offering smart, data-driven digital experiences will build strong customer relationships. This not only speeds up time-to-value and time-to-market but also helps financial enterprises stay as their customers' main financial providers. 

Moreover, fully engaged customers bring significant benefits. According to Gallup, retail banking customers who are fully engaged contribute 37% more annual revenue to their primary bank than customers who are actively disengaged. These highly engaged customers also tend to have more products with their bank and maintain higher deposit balances in their accounts.

Digital Banking Report’s Retail Banking Trends and Priorities 2023 revealed that collaborations with fintech companies and third-party solution providers have enabled 60% of financial enterprises to successfully address the digital banking requirements of their customers. 

Unfortunately, many financial enterprises struggle to keep up with changing expectations.They often lack a deep understanding of their customer's needs and don't have the necessary digital expertise to capitalise on them. Part of the reason they’re unable to provide effective personalisation is that they don’t capture or analyse relevant data. Without it, marketing and customer success teams are unable to identify usage trends and customer insights that they could build on to deliver better customer experiences.

To address this issue, some financial enterprises are partnering with technology companies that focus on digital technologies and customer engagement. These partnerships are helping them combine their industry know-how with digital expertise to create AI-based customer-focused platforms that deliver rich, personalised experiences.

Improving customer engagement is another big challenge for many financial enterprises. But this creates a challenge of its own: delivering highly personalised experiences while delivering a consistent brand experience, at scale. This is near impossible without the necessary technology and systems.

Improving customer engagement also requires a shift in thinking, from the traditional product-focused approach to a customer-focused one. When done right, this change of focus allows financial institutions to find new growth opportunities by offering more immediate and future value to customers.

The most successful partnerships will be those that focus on design-led platforms, have proven track records, demonstrate a bias towards execution and offer short-term, fixed-price innovation contracts. By working together in this way, financial enterprises can enrich their customer experiences with valuable data and experiences, and accelerate the time-to-market for their innovative services.

Forging partnerships on a global scale isn't without its challenges. Steep valuation corrections, increased commercial scrutiny and changing investment timelines are just a few. But leaders in financial data and analytics must continue to stress the importance of data and intelligence in customer experiences. Cutting-edge digital development platforms empower financial enterprises to deliver trusted, personalised information about customers' financial futures.

Financial enterprises that strategically partner with digital technology and customer engagement specialists will be better equipped to meet their customers' ever-growing expectations.