FSI Expert on How FIS Can Foster Long-Term Loyalty Amid the Cost-Of-Living Crisis

Kristina Leach, Director of Global FSI Insights at Quantum Metric

As the cost of living continues to rise, consumers are becoming increasingly stressed. Data from Quantum Metric’s recent Account for Financial Security benchmark survey revealed that 67% of people admit to being regularly stressed about finances over the last six months. To combat this, financial companies must help build consumers’ financial confidence. 

Visibility of customer experience

Digital experiences must be clear and user-friendly, making it crucial to optimise the customer experience (CX). Journey analytics is a key tool for this purpose, enabling financial institutions (FIs) to monitor and assess customers’ online experiences and gain insight into the ease or difficulty of their interactions. By leveraging data-driven journey analytics, FIs can gain valuable insights into customers’ actions, errors, frustrations, and behaviours, which can help firms retrace customers’ journeys and empathise with them. High levels of customer frustration can be costly, especially when financial anxiety is high, which is why identifying friction points and usability issues is essential.

Real-time behavioural KPI alerts and friction monitoring can help FIs monitor and respond to customer frustration quickly. Depending on the situation, personalised offers, surveys, email updates, or chat invitations may be sent to customers. Voice of the Customer (VoC) feedback can also be collected to track and address customer concerns. However, VoC alone does not provide a comprehensive understanding of the problem’s scope and size, so one-click quantification can be used to augment VoC feedback, providing a clearer picture of how many customers have experienced the same issue and the overall effect on revenue.

Understanding how customers engage with channels

As customers increasingly engage with financial services providers through multiple channels, it’s important for FIs to have visibility into their experiences. Often, a process may begin online and be completed by calling the contact centre due to friction. 

Therefore, FIs should utilise behavioural analytics to understand how people behave across channels, allowing them to accurately predict future behaviour and ensure that digital journeys are clear and user-friendly. 

By gaining a better understanding of what customers want from products and services, FIs can create a more seamless and personalised CX, which can ultimately reduce churn and increase customer lifetime value (CLV). In the face of economic uncertainty, consumers are relying more on digital channels to build confidence in their financial decisions and 57% of Brits say they now bank
 completely online. By enhancing their digital experiences to meet today’s financial needs, banks can drive adoption and break through the digital plateau.

Besides understanding customer behaviour, FIs must also establish effective communication with their customers. As consumers become increasingly anxious about their financial security, frustration and panic may lead to higher rates of site abandonment. To nurture long-term loyalty, FIs must communicate the potential effects of the economic situation on consumer finances and deliver a consistent experience that reinforces consumer trust. Added to this, FIs need to provide evidence of regulatory compliance to show they are complying with new rules such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Consumer Duty. FIs should also take contact centres into consideration. By providing real-time visibility into customers’ experiences, customer support employees can serve customers more promptly and effectively.

As inflation rises and uncertainty prevails in the global economy, the definition of “financial security” has shifted. This has affected how consumers manage their finances and establish not only relationships but also trust with financial institutions. FIs that revaluate their digital experiences are more likely to cultivate enduring loyalty.