Banks started to digitize years ago but never implemented it with such haste as in the past year. Creating seamless, digital experiences for customers now sits near or at the top of most banking leaders’ priority lists. Banks that have relied for too long on physical branches and manual processes are now scrambling to piece together the tools and technology needed to make digital transformation happen.

To add to the challenges, incumbents face fierce competition from new, digitally-enabled FinTech disruptors that have entered the market aiming for a share of the pie. To retain the customer base and acquire new segments, established banks must take up the challenge and find ways to provide outstanding customer experiences, both digital and traditional, worthy of customers’ loyalty.

It’s essential that they do as research shows that customer experience contributes directly to growth. A 2019 McKinsey analysis revealed that in the United States, top-quartile banks in terms of customer experience saw significantly higher deposit growth across the past three years.

Clearly, bank marketers have a critical role to play in helping their companies meet or even surpass customer expectations. To do so, they’ll need to move away from fragmented cross-channel marketing strategies and focus on an omnichannel approach that transforms the way they engage with customers.

Here are five proven tactics for building a successful customer experience strategy for your bank this year:

Unlock data and advanced analytics

Because data is an indispensable asset for banks, they need an enterprise-wide data strategy to accurately consolidate data from various sources, empower employees across multiple business functions, and produce insights for customer journey refinement. After all, data that is comprehensive and actionable can help fuel behavior prediction, enrich customer profiles, and target customers more precisely.

A customer data platform (CDP) can help. But which one will help the most? Here are some capabilities you should expect in a high-performing CDP:

• Integrates large amounts of audience data and continuously augments it segments audiences precisely using advanced filters, complex rules, and triggers in real-time.
• Activates data to enable attribute management, persona creation, lead scoring, and contextual personalization of messaging and experiences.
• Here is a case study of how one major bank streamlined the integration of 52 data sources, seven billion data points, and around 100 million audience records with the Resulticks CDP.

Enable marketing personalization at scale

The era of mass marketing tactics has passed. It is time to demonstrate that you truly understand and value your customers at an individual level. Send them relevant communications tailored to who they are, what they like to do, and how they have interacted with your campaigns.

To do so, you’ll need a marketing automation engine powerful enough to auto-map entire audience journeys based on key occasions, communication goals, benchmarks, and other dimensions. Resulticks’ AI-powered rCloud algorithms continuously refine the orchestration of ongoing and future journeys using data collected from campaigns and audience interactions.

You can also use an intuitive journey canvas and an expansive list of attributes to create specific target segments and build personalized customer journeys across the channels your customers love most.

Build an agile tech stack

Banks may find managing point solutions and stand-alone tools an arduous task as they often fail to meet expectations, contribute to siloed processes, and require significant time and resources. Don’t let your tech stack slow you down and stifle innovation. Instead, use integrated platforms that can connect and work with your bank’s core systems and microservices. Such applications are often adaptable and can be updated frequently as the marketplace evolves.

Expand digital services and forge partnerships

Highly successful banks don’t just perfect their regular web and mobile app services, they also constantly seek to expand on what they can offer by introducing new platforms or partnering with like-minded companies.

Banks like DBS in Singapore and JP Morgan Chase in the United States are examples. Their mobile offerings not only provide must-have services (e.g., deposits, loans, payments, cards), but are continually tweaked to adapt to customer demand for personalization. DBS has established DBS Marketplace, a platform for consumers to search for homes, cars, auto loans, and more. These banks are making a name for themselves as customer-first technology leaders.

In Asia, partnerships between incumbent banks and FinTech start-ups have been forged to promote digital payments. BRI (Bank Rakyat Indonesia) has partnered with Alipay to bolster point-of-sale mobile payments for Chinese tourists in Indonesia. In Thailand, Grab and Kasikornbank have collaboratively launched a mobile wallet, GrabPay by KBank.

Stay on top of new channels:

Put yourself ahead of the race by exploring channels not yet widely used by competitors. Some banks have already ushered in a new era of voice-assisted banking experiences, chatbots, and wearable technologies.

Voice

Given the popularity of smart speakers today, it is no wonder banks are exploring voice technology to connect with customers. In 2020, Resulticks helped a major bank in India implement an interactive voice response (IVR) system that came with an option to speak to human agents.

During the lockdown, 40% of its customers (mostly elderly) relied heavily on physical branches and were forced to switch to digital channels. By fusing both automated processes and human touch, banks can continue delighting both digitally-forward and relationship-focused customers.

Chatbots

Chatbots built with robust AI capabilities can handle complex customer inquiries and help streamline sales processes. Using chatbots for conversational marketing can increase customer satisfaction and sales. The Financial Times reported that Bank of America’s AI chatbot, Erica, now handles 400,000 client interactions per day, twice the number a year ago.

Wearable technology

Wearable technology presents another way for banks to stand out. Emirates NBD launched a Fitness Account compatible with fitness trackers like Fitbit and Garmin to reward customers for tracking a certain number of steps each day. Users can earn up to 3% interest per annum on savings accounts by tracking 15,000 steps a day, giving them the motivation to not only get fit but also increase their deposits.

There is no argument: data-driven, omnichannel customer engagement is the way forward for banks and businesses in other industries. With the right technological foundation and empowered by future-forward alliances, banks will reap the full benefits of digital all while delivering the superior experiences their customers expect.