Aligning Digital Strategies with Customer Expectations

Your customers are focused on making their New Year resolutions for 2021. Do you know what they are hoping to achieve? How will you align your digital strategy to help them improve their financial wellness and reach their goals?

2020 was full of rapid innovation, dramatic shifts in operations and seemingly never-ending challenges. The financial industry had to rapidly adapt to these challenges to help consumers and businesses in troubling times. While bankers started 2020 with a focus on digital experience initiatives, it quickly became clear just how important the customer’s digital experience and trust in their institution was.

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better,” stated Maya Angelou an American poet, memoirist and civil rights activist. The beginning of a new year is full of potential. Even when faced with uncertainty, economic instability and an ever-changing pandemic environment, financial institutions are eager to do better. The challenge lies in the knowing. 

Knowing that your customer’s digital experiences are urgently important is just the beginning. The real work is in the preparation and action required to move towards effective change. Determining how to align your digital strategy with your customers’ expectations while moving the business goals forward can seem overwhelming.

The good news? You’re not alone. Experts across the financial industry are deep in the trenches of identifying, preparing, and taking action to help their customers. At MX, we work with many of these experts everyday to help them transform their digital experience into something which delights and strengthens their relationships with their customers. 

How do we help facilitate these transformative strategies? We simply show them the power and opportunity that lives within their data. Catalyst, the professional services team at MX, is helping financial institutions accelerate the success of their digital experience initiatives by reviewing the current state of their data and their customer’s behavior through a customized HealthCheck™. 

1. Data Analysis

Having data and using data are two completely different things. How well you know your customers requires analysis and action on the data you currently have. First and foremost, what gaps are currently present in your data? How are you utilizing the data you have? Have you identified the opportunities to maximize the impact of your data?

Providing a delightful customer experience requires understanding customers more deeply through using cleansed transactional data. If you don’t know your customers preferences and needs, the likelihood your digital strategies will be aligned with their expectations is improbable at best. Having access to customer data that can be analyzed, understood, and then leveraged is critical to developing a digital strategy that results in delighted, loyal and ultimately more profitable customers.

2. Understanding Your Customer

Why is knowing your customer such a big deal? You may offer the best-in-class loan application process. However, if your customer is interested primarily in investing, your state-of-the-art loan application process will not serve their needs and they are likely to take their investing business elsewhere. If you don’t know your customer, your efforts to gain their trust and loyalty to your products and services will lack authenticity and relevance. 

Consider what your customers are hoping to achieve in 2021. Are they looking to reduce or consolidate their debt? Planning to buy a new car or pay off an existing car loan? Looking to refinance their home, finish their basement or finally stop renting? Maybe they want to find ways to travel, begin new hobbies, increase contributions to their retirement or start an emergency fund.

According to U.S. News, roughly 80% of people abandon their resolutions by the middle of February. The key to achieving any success in goal setting involves identifying and establishing new behaviors which support long-term change. 

To gain insight into what your customers are hoping to achieve this year, you need digital tools that are capable of providing the right insights into their behaviors. Using this information coupled with your expertise and product offerings, will position you to make recommendations and provide guidance to help your customers achieve their financial goals. 

If you are not sure where to start, MX offers personalized data reports for financial institutions using MX solutions. These reports demonstrate how many customers are using the MX tools available to them and to what degree they are engaged. Opportunities to increase your customers' adoption of and engagement with the MX tools are discussed, along with insights into how your customer’s behavior compares to other financial institutions with a similar asset size. 

3. Capitalizing on Your Opportunity

These insights translate into real measurable revenue and increased opportunities for your institution. On average, customers who are engaged with the MX tools maintain significantly higher deposits (for checking and saving products) at their financial institution, when compared to customers who are not engaged. 

You can increase adoption and aggregation by measuring how often customers use the MX tools you offer. Furthermore, as customers aggregate and engage with MX tools, your institution’s insights into their financial data and behaviors deepen. A fuller picture of your customers’ wallet emerges and you can identify where their money is coming from, where it is going, and what opportunities you have to help them reach their financial goals.

How Healthy Is Your Data?

The reason flight attendants instruct all passengers to secure their own oxygen before assisting others is simple. If you aren’t breathing, the probability that you will remain alive long enough to help others is slim. As a financial institution, you must first secure your own mask by reviewing the health of your customer’s data. 

Determine the root cause of your customer’s low adoption and engagement with the MX tools you offer. Once you clearly understand your customers’ needs and behaviors, make a plan to address any gaps through your digital strategies. With your intentions clear and your strategies aligned, you’ll be able to help your customers claim their own financial security and thrive during these turbulent times.