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Bain & Company, Inc.’s “Customer Loyalty in Retail Banking: Global Edition 2014” survey investigated how people bank and how banks are responding to meet customer needs through improved distribution and service channels. Highlights of their findings include:
- Banking customers now handle more of their banking interactions via smartphones and tablets than through any other channel.
- Bank’s mobile app use increased 19 percentage points during 2014, with strong increases across all age groups in most markets.
- The mobile channel has become a key contributor to grow customer loyalty that translates to customers buying more products and making more referrals.
- While mobile continues to grow, about 60% of customers surveyed were omnichannel using a combination of digital and physical channels.
- NPS (net promoter score) was higher for omnichannel customers: “16 percentage points higher than the NPS of customers using only digital channels and 22 points higher than the NPS of those using only physical channels.
What are implications for your bank? Aramini Management recommends the following critical business practices:
- Ensure customers experience informative interactions reflecting bank services and products across channels.
- Customers are still visiting branches and contacting call centers: when developing digital channels, don’t overlook the continued importance of staff social and sales skills.
- Bank employees must exhibit strong cross-selling and customer-centric interpersonal skills along with a depth of product knowledge.
- Employees, are neither territorial nor work in a silo, but understand the bank’s organizational structure, total picture and product processes to ensure knowledgeable referrals and to expedite problem resolution.
- Bank employees work as a cohesive team demonstrating positive and productive working relationship with each other.
- Know your brand and ensure its message is represented and communicated accurately and consistently among employees and across all market contact points.