One-fifth of customers feel ignored or abandoned by their banks. This is one of the big warning signs for banks in the latest survey of 5,000 banking customers from across the U.S., United Kingdom, and Canada conducted by Personetics, a company specialising in the development of data-driven personalised customer engagement platforms for financial services.
This sense of disconnection between financial institutions and their customers, as noted by Personetics as well as other organisations such as the Capgemini Research Institute, is becoming more pronounced in the current global climate of crisis. High inflation and high pressure on household budgets are worrying customers, and banks are not reacting in the way clients had hoped. “Nearly two-thirds of customers are not receiving any personalised communication or advice from their banks about the cost-of-living crisis. Among the minority of banking customers who had heard from their bank about the cost-of-living crisis, 40% said they were unhappy about the generic advice they’ve received – such as general economic news and information about inflation”, the survey points out.
New opportunities for banks, according to Personetics
This moment of economic vulnerability is fueling new customer demands based on the need to spend smarter, save and manage money. As the Personetics survey shows, “42% of banking customers demand personalised advice and money-management support within their mobile banking app, 26% want proactive suggestions of ways to manage their finances, and 25% want alerts for subscriptions they forgot to cancel”.
These results unveil new opportunities for banks to improve their levels of proactivity by offering hyper-personalised financial services, and more useful and consistent advice offering real-time solutions, just like those provided by Latinia’s products. “Banks have the opportunity to be part of their customers’ lives, and help them cope with complex economic situations such as the one we’re currently living in, by providing personalised advice, and useful recommendations to help people become more financially resilient,” explains Juliana Ortiz, Latinia’s Customer Success Manager. “Our products are designed to enhance banks’ proactivity, and deliver a higher level of engagement and financial wellness for customers”.
A new model of banking
The survey carried out by Personetics also asked what kind of personalised insights and advice customers want: “61% of banking customers want their banks to automate their financial decisions and money management, 66% want their banks to identify advance warnings of financial stress and offer solutions and advice, and 58% would consider switching to a competitor bank that offers better money management features.”
These figures highlight the need for the implementation of a new banking model, in which “banks will serve as trusted advisors that deliver personalised advice at scale by using customer financial transaction data”, notes the Personetics report.
“The filtering and analysis of transactional events and customer intelligence data, which are functions of our products, makes it possible to alert customers of financial problems before they arise, and guide people to a higher level of financial wellness at every stage of life,” explains Juliana Ortiz. “In short, it makes it possible to establish a banking system based on the customer, on their well-being, and one that looks towards the future,” she concludes.
Categories: Customer Insights