We use cookies to make sure you get the best experience.

How to Achieve Top Customer Experience in Financial Services: №1
Industry-Specific Support

How to Achieve Top Customer Experience in Financial Services

All articles
Have questions?

Drop us a line to get expert consultation.

Contact us

According to statistics, companies focused on customer experience are 80% more profitable. No wonder financial service providers make CX their new target and the core of their development strategies. It means balancing operational efficiency and meeting the constantly evolving demands and expectations. So, let's see what companies can do to improve customer experience in finance.

At Simply Contact, we have been leveraging the most efficient practices for enhancing CX in fintech customer service support, and today, we want to share our insights with you. Here, you will find key trends, approaches to CX improvement, and technology recommendations. Discover the most effective ways to measure and optimize CX in the financial sector.

What is customer experience in financial services?

Here, customer experience means the impact of interactions between a customer and a financial service provider. CX is formed from the combined impression gained at all steps taken during the entire customer journey. It includes initial account opening, various transactions, and active assistance with issues and problem-solving.

Satisfied and happy customers are more likely to share their impressions with others and bring new people to your brand. The same goes for frustrated ones, who will detract potential customers if their experience is negative. Our experts see positive CX as an approach to more productive loyalty building and active enhancement of customer retention.

In the modern financial landscape, CX is expected to include access to simple and intuitive digital interfaces with reliable security measures. Financial services have long gone from a traditional, fragmented experience with limited access to communication channels. Now, speed and convenience are the focus.

Why does financial services experience matter?

Boosts customer retention

Customers who experience positive interactions with your financial institution will be more loyal and willing to stay longer, supporting your brand.

Strengthens brand reputation

Loyal customers will spread the good word, strengthen brand reputation, and demonstrate your company as a reliable and trustworthy one.

Increases customer lifetime value

There are greater chances that happy customers will want to repeat business with a company that meets their expectations.

Drives revenue growth

Positive CX boosts customer retention and active product adoption, leading to significant revenue growth. 

Customer experience trends in finance

How to Achieve Top Customer Experience in Financial Services: №1

The financial industry constantly changes to meet evolving customer expectations and improve customer experience. We have already studied banking CX trends closely, but now, let's see how modern customer experience trends are shaping the finance segment beyond the banking area.

Shift from multi-channel to omnichannel experiences

Customers used to interact with financial services via various communication channels like mobile phones, emails, websites, or in person. The multi-channel approach has been popular for many years, but the need to repeat the information during request transfers makes it less efficient.

Consumers want to be able to use promo codes from social media on the official website, too, or start a loan application on the phone and finish it on a laptop if they need to.  However, according to CX Network's research into the Global State of CX, only 16% of CX practitioners have a fully implemented omnichannel model and strategy. In comparison, the majority (35%) have a multi-channel model, but communications across channels are always fragmented.

AI enhances efficiency, but human support remains essential

Artificial intelligence always comes to mind when we discuss elevating the fintech customer experience due to its ability to enhance workflows and speed up customer interactions. 97% of leading companies plan to invest in artificial intelligence to improve CX. No wonder AI can provide round-the-clock assistance, help with basic troubleshooting, and tailor personalization to an entirely new level. 

Sometimes, the concern that AI will replace human agents arises, but at Simply Contact, we believe that artificial intelligence is a tool for augmentation, not replacement. Consumers still want a human involved and prefer to deal with a human rather than a chatbot.

Personalized services drive retention and loyalty

Zendesk CX Trends Report states that 59% of consumers believe businesses should use the data they collect to personalize their experiences. Personalized interactions with a brand make customers feel more valued than any discounts or loyalty perks could do. Tailored recommendations, alerts, and offers based on user behavior, spending, and financial habits give the impression that the company really knows them and they matter. 

Digital self-service options are a must-have

People want to handle their finances anywhere and whenever they need it. Nobody wants to call or make a personal visit to transfer money, manage investments, or apply for a loan. Applications are no longer a luxury option; they are a must-have that creates a convenient and accessible environment for users. Apps enhanced with virtual assistants help customers to operate their balance on the most comfortable terms, reducing time and effort. 

Transparency, trust, and security are top customer concerns

Security always matters, especially when it comes to the industry that deals with sensitive information. Customers want to ensure the company applies all necessary security measures and complies with regional and industry regulations to keep their personal information and financial resources safe. They expect clear terms without hidden fees, easy-to-understand privacy policies, and strong security measures. 

How to improve financial service customer experience

How to Achieve Top Customer Experience in Financial Services: №2

Let's dive into improving customer experience and staying ahead of the competition. Here are five steps that our experts consider the most efficient and valuable for tailoring high-quality customer service. 

Step 1. Invest in seamless UX/UI across all digital platforms

A smooth user experience (UX) and a friendly user interface (UI) can help to create the right first impression. Simplicity and easy navigation are vital for financial digital platforms. In the era of constant rush, users rarely have time to learn how to operate complex applications and websites. A simple and consistent design will attract more users with its convenience, and omnichannel support via all digital platforms will ensure a high-quality, seamless experience.

Step 2. Modernize the contact center for better customer interactions

Traditional multiple systems are not efficient anymore, as they cause a lack of information across different channels. For example, when the call line is not connected to the database, agents have no instant information about calling customers, and it is hard to provide a decent level of personalization and fast help. Investments in agile support and CRM solutions will help to ensure better information visibility.

AI-powered chatbots and other self-service solutions combined with optional human assistance can increase the speed of workflows and help to retain a human touch. Clear and prompt communication fosters loyalty and trust and reduces stress and frustration.

Step 3. Use customer data to deliver hyper-personalized experiences

Empowered by a CRM system with all collected customer data, companies can tailor experiences better. The power of information allows financial institutions to get to know their customers and understand their needs and wishes.

Using insights from interaction and transactional histories, spending patterns, and preferences, you can adjust personalized recommendations and offer custom financial products and services. Customer service agents can also refer to previous interactions and purchases to provide more informed assistance with a higher level of situation understanding.  

Step 4. Enable fast, secure, and convenient transactions

Customers want to manage their finances easily and at lightning speed, but no one wants to sacrifice safety. It means that financial companies need to achieve a balance between simplicity, speed, and security. If instant transfers and the availability of mobile applications close the first two concerns, multi-factor and biometric authentication and encryption can increase safety. 

Step 5. Train teams to provide proactive, customer-centric support

Customers like to feel that service providers are one step ahead of them and anticipate expectations beyond merely meeting users’ needs. You can train the support team to use a customer-centric approach, building stronger and more long-lasting relationships with consumers. If support agents see potential issues, they can reach out to the customers before they notice the problem and instantly fix it.

Need a reinforcement in financial customer services? Simply Contact has your back. Let’s arrange a consultation and improve CX together.

Book a consultation
How to Achieve Top Customer Experience in Financial Services: №3

How AI powers the transformation of customer experience for financial services

Artificial intelligence transforms the operation of financial companies with a great variety of functional possibilities, so let's see how AI can improve existing workflows and what kind of advantage it can offer your financial company.

Collection of customer insights

Artificial intelligence helps unify customer data collected from multiple sources into a single, clear view. It enables informed decisions, data-driven strategies, and more efficient goal setting.

Performance evaluation

AI-powered insights ensure real-time tracking of teams' and services' performance. For instance, a role-based dashboard can show a clear picture of contact center operations, identify top performers, and analyze what impacts success.

Smarter coaching

Artificial intelligence can accurately analyze calls and chats and study agents' and users' behavior to detect inefficiencies. Information-driven coaching will help to personalize training and boost certain employee performance.

Quality and compliance assurance

AI-powered automated quality assurance checks all the interactions to ensure high quality and compliance with regulations. It detects issues, helps fix them, avoids fines, and keeps customers' private information safe.

Gamification of agent experience

Gamification is a simple way to keep agents motivated, engaged, and result-driven. Through AI-powered solutions, you can turn traditional KPIs into challenges with rewards. Gaming elements like progress tracking can serve as an additional boost. 

Customer experience management in financial services: Measuring and optimizing CX

How to Achieve Top Customer Experience in Financial Services: №4

If you want to offer a high-quality, wholesome customer experience, you need to be ready to face many challenges and address customers' concerns, expectations, and feedback. Based on our experience, paying attention to the aspects below can boost CX quality.

Collect and analyze customer feedback

Feedback is your guide to happy customers. Collect and analyze it to address their concerns, ideas, inefficiencies in the contact center's work, or product issues.  We recommend establishing mechanisms and tools for feedback collection, including social media, post-interaction, and NPS surveys.

Customers can share their impressions after interactions with chatbots or live chats by simply thumbing up or down or using emoji ratings. AI-powered voice assistants can also initiate a phone call and ask a pair of questions about customer satisfaction. Surveys can take place online, in mobile applications, via email, and in pop-up solutions.

Analyzing feedback reveals hidden bottlenecks, allowing you to turn detected inefficiencies into opportunities to improve service quality. 

Leverage AI and analytics to track financial services experience

Artificial intelligence is a common way to augment your support team, ease agents' work, and streamline processes for users as well. In particular, routine task automation solutions can help provide customers with instant responses to basic questions, allowing agents to save time and energy for complex issues. With AI-powered automation, companies' onboarding processes will take less time, account management will become more productive, and customers will get faster assistance.

Leveraging and analyzing customer interaction data can help you determine users' interests in specific products or services and create personalized offers. 

Educate and train frontline employees

Outstanding service quality and exceptional customer experience depend heavily on frontline teams' capabilities. Ongoing education and professional training will equip employees with relevant knowledge and skills. If you have plans for new tool integration, keep in mind that the support team will also require training to leverage it efficiently and experience the power of innovative tools.

Relevant training can help frontline teams better understand how to achieve customer-centric service excellence and anticipate users' needs and concerns. It will ensure that agents know how to act under the most challenging conditions and smooth out sharp situations before they escalate. 

Continuously refine processes based on real data

KPIs, or key performance indicators, effectively track and measure customer experience with financial services. By tracking progress, you can see how close the company is to setting goals. 

We recommend controlling the following KPIs for a start:

  • CSAT (customer satisfaction score) will show how happy customers are.
  • NPS (net promoter score) shows if customers want to show a brand to others.
  • The first response time demonstrates how fast the issue is solved.
  • CES (customer effort score) indicates how effortless the problem-solving was.
  • CLV (customer lifetime value) measures the revenue generated by a customer throughout the whole period of using the company's services.
  • CAC (customer acquisition cost) is a sign of marketing strategy success, the cost of acquiring new customers.

You can check our experts' insight into all fintech KPIs and metrics for a more detailed review and decide what will work best for your business.

Regular checking enables early problem-catching and active improvement of problematic areas. Paying attention to employees' feedback enables a better understanding of pain points behind the scenes, including ineffective workflows, glitchy tools, or a lack of data in informational resources. 

Conclusion

Customer experience is an indicator of a company's success, and the better it is, the more likely your company will continue to grow and stay at the top of the competition. Positive CX makes customers use your financial services and share their impressions with friends, forming an excellent brand reputation. Technological improvements, feedback analysis, performance evaluation, and teams' ongoing training will enable a powerful approach to personalized, customer-centric services.

Ready to transform your customer experience?

At Simply Contact, we specialize in creating personalized customer support solutions that drive business growth and customer satisfaction. Let us help you elevate your customer experience and stand out from the competition.

Get in touch today
Industry-Specific Support
Was this article helpful for you? Share it with your friends.
Subscribe

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive valuable industry insights and the latest research reports.

    For fresh updates, follow us on social media