Index
The Shift in Customer Experience (CX)
Banks have traditionally focused their customer experience efforts on digital platforms, but recent trends highlight a critical gap: customers spend only a few minutes each day on these platforms. The vast majority of a customer’s financial life occurs outside these digital spaces, and banks are missing opportunities to connect during those off-platform moments.
The real challenge for banks today is not just enhancing the on-platform experience, but finding ways to create meaningful interactions when customers aren’t logged into their digital platforms. Understanding this shift is essential for banks looking to redefine their customer experience strategies. This demands a deeper focus on off-platform engagement, ensuring that customers feel supported and connected regardless of where they are in their financial journey.
Limitations of On-Platform CX
While banks have optimized their digital platforms, the time customers actually spend using these apps or websites is minimal—ranging from just a few minutes each day. This limited window of interaction poses significant challenges for banks that rely heavily on on-platform experiences to drive engagement.
Why On-Platform Alone Isn’t Enough
Most financial decisions and needs happen away from bank apps. Optimizing the in-app experience is important, but focusing solely on digital platforms ignores the bigger picture of customer behavior:
- Short Interaction Time: Customers use banking apps for routine tasks, not in-depth decision-making.
- Missed Opportunities: Important moments—like receiving a salary or deciding on a loan—often occur off-platform, where banks have little influence.
Real-World Customer Behavior
A study by Deloitte highlights that while 73% of global consumers use online banking at least once a month, these interactions are often limited to quick, routine tasks like checking balances or making transfers. More complex or personalized banking needs typically happen off-platform.
This reliance on digital platforms for basic tasks, while important, underscores the missed opportunities for deeper engagement outside of the banking app.
This data points to the importance of focusing on off-platform interactions. To provide a holistic customer experience, banks need to engage customers beyond simple digital interactions, offering more value during key moments in their financial journey, even when they are not on the bank’s app or website.
Expanding the Focus to Off-Platform Engagement
Banks must rethink customer engagement strategies to remain relevant outside of their own digital ecosystems. This could mean leveraging real-time notifications, offering personalized services at critical moments in customers’ lives, and focusing on off-platform interactions that create value in real-world scenarios.
This shift is crucial for creating an integrated, customer-first approach to banking CX.
Shortcomings of Marketing Automation in CX
Marketing automation has become a standard tool for banks to manage customer interactions, but it comes with significant limitations, especially when addressing off-platform engagement. While automation is effective in sending pre-scheduled campaigns and managing customer journeys, it lacks the responsiveness and personalization that modern customers expect.
Where Marketing Automation Falls Short
- Lack of Real-Time Relevance: Marketing automation tools rely on pre-set rules and schedules, meaning they often send out communications that may not be timely or relevant. For example, a customer might receive a campaign for a loan they no longer need or for services that don’t apply to their current situation.
- Campaign Overload: Many marketing automation strategies focus on sending a high volume of emails or notifications, leading to customer fatigue. According to a survey by HubSpot, 34% of people report that they unsubscribe from email lists because they receive too many emails, and 24% do so because the content is irrelevant.
- One-Size-Fits-All Approach: Automated campaigns tend to generalize, treating all customers similarly, which can alienate customers who are looking for more personalized and tailored financial advice. This lack of nuance can lead to a disconnect between the bank and the customer’s actual needs.
Impact on Customer Relationships
- Spam-like Experiences: Customers often view repetitive marketing emails or messages as spam, leading to negative associations with the bank’s brand. The overuse of automation can erode trust and reduce engagement over time.
- Missed Engagement Opportunities: Banks that rely heavily on automated campaigns miss out on real-time, in-the-moment opportunities to engage customers when they truly need support or financial advice.
As customer expectations evolve, banks must look beyond marketing automation to deliver meaningful, real-time interactions. Instead of pre-scheduled campaigns, real-time data allows banks to respond to customer needs dynamically, offering solutions and services when they are most relevant.
The Role of Off-Platform Customer Interactions
While most banks focus on digital engagement within their platforms, the reality is that customers live the majority of their financial lives off-platform. Whether they’re making purchases, paying bills, or considering financial decisions, these moments often happen outside of a bank’s app or website.
This presents a significant opportunity for banks to expand their customer engagement beyond digital channels and offer real-time, personalized support during key moments.
Missed Opportunities in Traditional Models
Traditional banking models often miss key opportunities to engage customers when they’re not actively interacting with their digital platforms. The typical banking interaction is limited to checking balances, making simple transactions, or managing accounts online.
But what about when a customer is about to make a large purchase, is considering a loan, or is dealing with a declined transaction? These are moments when banks can provide real value, yet many are not taking advantage of these off-platform touchpoints.
The Impact of Off-Platform Engagement
Engaging customers beyond the digital platform creates significant benefits, including:
- Increased Customer Satisfaction: Offering support and tailored services during critical financial moments, like a large purchase or financial decision, builds trust and loyalty.
- Stronger Customer Relationships: Engaging customers when they need it most, whether through real-time notifications or personalized offers, helps banks stay top-of-mind and strengthens relationships.
- New Revenue Streams: Off-platform interactions provide opportunities to offer relevant financial products or services that customers may not have considered while logged into the banking app.
Banks that successfully integrate off-platform customer engagement into their CX strategy can differentiate themselves by providing seamless, helpful interactions that align with real-world customer needs.
Rethinking CX: Why Real-Time Analysis is Key
To truly transform customer experience, banks need to move beyond traditional marketing automation and embrace real-time analysis. This approach allows for dynamic, personalized engagement that responds to each customer’s unique financial situation, offering far greater flexibility and relevance than static, pre-planned campaigns.
The Benefits of Real-Time Data in CX
- Timely Engagement: Real-time data empowers banks to respond to customer actions as they happen. Whether it’s a large purchase, an ATM withdrawal, or even a potential fraud alert, banks can send immediate, contextually relevant messages to drive better engagement.
- Personalized Solutions: Real-time insights enable banks to tailor solutions based on current behavior rather than outdated data. This ensures that the offers or advice provided are perfectly suited to the customer’s immediate needs.
- Improved Decision-Making: By using real-time data, banks can adapt their engagement strategies in the moment, adjusting to customer behavior on the fly. This leads to more informed decision-making and an overall better customer experience.
Moving Beyond Static Customer Journeys
Traditional marketing strategies often rely on static customer journey maps, assuming that customers move through predictable stages. However, in reality, financial behavior is more fluid. Real-time analysis helps banks move beyond these static models to create dynamic, personalized experiences that adjust based on live customer actions.
For example:
- Trigger-based notifications: When a customer’s balance drops below a pre-set limit, the bank can immediately send an alert with personalized advice, like suggesting overdraft protection or offering alternative financial solutions.
- Fraud detection and alerts: If a customer makes a large or unusual transaction, real-time analysis can detect potential fraud and send an immediate alert. The customer can then confirm the legitimacy of the transaction or report suspicious activity, helping both the bank and the customer stay protected.
- Real-time financial advice: After a significant purchase, banks can offer financial advice or payment options, such as installment plans, directly tied to the customer’s spending patterns and financial goals.
Building Seamless Off-Platform Experiences
As banks look to create meaningful customer interactions, they need to move beyond the boundaries of their own platforms. To provide a seamless, customer-centric experience, it’s essential to integrate off-platform engagement into a bank’s broader CX strategy.
How to Integrate Off-Platform Engagement
To successfully engage customers outside of their digital platforms, banks should focus on the following key strategies:
- Real-Time Notifications: Engage customers at critical moments with timely notifications. This responsiveness ensures that the customer feels valued and in control.
- Cross-Channel Consistency: Ensure the customer experience remains consistent across multiple channels. Whether through SMS, email, push notifications, or phone calls, the level of engagement and support should be the same, regardless of how customers interact with their bank. This builds trust and reduces friction in the customer journey.
- Personalized Services Based on Context: Use real-time data to personalize services based on a customer’s situation. For example, if a customer is traveling internationally and uses their card, offer travel insurance or remind them of ways to avoid international fees. This contextual personalization makes interactions relevant and timely.
Subscription Management According to User Preferences
Banks can further improve engagement by allowing customers to manage their preferences around frequency, type, and channel of communication. This includes:
- Frequency: Customers should be able to choose how often they receive updates (daily, weekly, or only for critical events).
- Channel: Allowing customers to select their preferred communication method (SMS, email, app notifications) ensures that interactions fit seamlessly into their lives without becoming overwhelming.
- Types of Updates: Offering control over what types of messages they receive (e.g., promotional offers vs. critical account updates) enhances the personalization of the experience and ensures that customers receive only the information they find most relevant.
Critical Notifications
Critical events—such as declined payments, potential fraud, or security warnings—require prompt, reliable communication. Banks must ensure that these notifications reach the customer immediately to mitigate risks and offer quick resolution steps. For example, if a suspicious transaction is detected, the customer should receive an alert that allows them to confirm or block the transaction, minimizing potential losses.
To ensure that these critical notifications are received and acted upon, banks can:
- Prioritize critical alerts over less urgent notifications.
- Use multi-channel redundancy (SMS, push, email) to ensure the customer is reached quickly.
- Provide clear, actionable steps in each message, such as offering a quick link to freeze a card or report a fraudulent transaction.
Latinia’s Role in Enhancing Off-Platform CX
Unlike generalist real-time solutions, Latinia is focused exclusively on the banking sector. This specialization makes Latinia more than just a service provider—we are a niche partner dedicated to helping banks succeed in a highly competitive environment.
Every aspect of our platform is designed specifically to meet the complex needs of financial institutions, making us uniquely positioned to deliver solutions that go beyond simple real-time analysis.
Latinia’s Real-Time Decision Technology
Latinia’s real-time decision engine allows banks to analyze customer actions as they happen, enabling immediate responses that are tailored to the customer’s specific situation. Whether it’s a large purchase, a potential fraud alert, or an overdraft warning, Latinia’s technology ensures that customers receive timely, personalized communication when they need it most.
Here are a few ways Latinia helps banks optimize off-platform customer interactions:
- Next Best Action (NBA): Latinia’s NBA engine identifies the most relevant action to take based on a customer’s real-time behavior. For example, after a large purchase, Latinia’s engine could suggest a suitable financial product, such as a personal loan or credit line increase.
- Subscription Engine: This tool allows banks to set dynamic rules for customer engagement, offering personalized notifications and services based on individual preferences.
- Critical Events Gateway: Latinia ensures that crucial messages, such as payment declines or fraud alerts, are delivered instantly to the customer.
Precision and Speed in Customer Communication
Latinia’s real-time decision engine is built to identify the exact moment when a message or alert should be sent, processing customer interactions in less than a second. This speed, combined with precision, allows banks to communicate with customers in a timely and relevant manner, delivering personalized solutions when they are most needed.
What sets Latinia apart is the business layer integrated into the platform. This adds a strategic component to the real-time data processing, enabling banks to align customer communications with their business goals seamlessly.
Latinia’s solution is designed to manage large volumes of data without compromising performance, ensuring that every message—whether a payment notification or a loan offer—reaches the customer at the moment it can make the most impact.
With over 20 years of experience in banking technology, Latinia offers more than just software. Our team of expert consultants works alongside banks to help them build and optimize their customer engagement strategies. We provide tailored support, helping banks achieve measurable results, from boosting customer engagement to driving revenue growth.
Ready to redefine your customer engagement strategy? Contact us today to schedule a demo or consult with our experts on how Latinia can transform your customer interactions.
Categories: Strategy