How Customized Experiences Can Transform Complex Financial Services

How Customized Experiences Can Transform Complex Financial Services

Delivering customer service excellence has arguably never been more important for financial institutions, especially when it comes to delivering more complex products and services.

When customers are taking out mortgages and loans, or seeking investment and wealth management advice, they’re making some of the biggest financial commitments of their lives. For that reason, customers want personalized guidance, alongside transparency and trust, so that they feel they’re making the most informed decisions possible, assessing all the potential options, processes and risks along the way.

Given that loans accounted for over 44% of the total assets of commercial banks in the United States (as of the last quarter of 2023), this type of complex business is a major part of finance firms’ success. And it’s clear that customer experience (CX) has a big part to play in driving that success.

Transforming Critical Customer Journeys in Banking

When customer experiences in complex financial products are poor, customer loyalty and brand reputation can deteriorate with alarming speed. 

Finextra has found that bad CX is costing financial institutions worldwide as much as $10 billion in revenue a year. This is at least partly because of the high-stakes involved with these complex products, which therefore have greater levels of impact on reputation and loyalty. 

Getting these right can make or break long-term customer relationships, so it’s crucial that financial institutions must pinpoint their most impactful customer touchpoints and strategically invest in transforming those experiences.

Customers will want these processes to be as stress-free and digestible as they possibly can be, and this means messaging that is clear, simple and engaging, delivered through seamless and integrated digital channels. This should be accompanied by the human touch: even having a representative available for a video call when a customer needs advice can make a real difference to their confidence - and by extension, the perception of the brand.

Leveraging AI for Personalized Guidance 

AI-powered assistance in banking is becoming a fundamental part of delivering on customer expectations for personalized experience and service. For example, AI-powered virtual assistants can provide real-time, contextual support to guide customers through complex financial decisions.

Conversational AI in financial services can drive chatbots that engage customers in natural, free-flowing discussions, so that customers can quickly get the answers they want to their queries, or receive messages around bill payments, account updates and personalized offers. Delivering seamless omnichannel experiences in banking and the ability to integrate this technology into a range of channels - messaging platforms, mobile apps and websites - means customers can get tailored support and experiences 24/7, improving their satisfaction and therefore sales and revenue.

This is just one example of AI-powered assistance in banking driving personalized customer experience. Others include:

Delivering Seamless Omnichannel Banking Experiences

We’ve already mentioned the need for seamless customer experiences across multiple channels, and that is a core part of driving flexibility and convenience that are so critical to customer satisfaction. This needs to span mobile apps, websites, phone and social media interactions, and even the physical experience in the branch.

One factor that often holds this level of integration back is outdated legacy systems and siloed data. The key to overcoming this challenge lies in modernizing IT infrastructure through strategic technological transformation. By leveraging cutting-edge technologies and a carefully crafted architectural approach, banks can streamline migration, implementation, and optimization of their digital platforms. This process empowers internal processes and creates more adaptable, innovative service delivery.

Real-world examples, like our work with Santander Portugal, illustrate the power of platform modernization. By automating complex processes that were previously manual and error-prone, we helped them transform their mortgage transfer system, reducing manual overhead and enabling a consistent banking experience for their customers. 

Connected to this, modernizing core infrastructure and embracing API-driven architectures can enable banks to deliver experiences that are adaptable to customer preferences. This means that many different services and functions - including those provided by a third party - can be integrated into the same platforms and use the same single source of truth for data. Again, an incremental approach is recommended here, so that a clear strategy is defined and implemented, and the maximum benefits of APIs can be realized.

Embedding Customer Experience at Every Stage

For finance firms to deliver on customer experience expectations, their services and technology-enabled banking must be designed with the customer in mind. Redefining the most important customer interactions in financial services, banks can adopt a customer-centric mindset and embed exceptional customer experience at every touchpoint.

From our experience in leveraging Experience Engineering methodologies, banks can deeply understand pain points, unmet needs and opportunities to deliver superior service. This prioritization of customer experience ultimately means that banks can build trust, increase loyalty, and establish a sustainable advantage for the long term, in a competitive and fast-changing marketplace.