How banks can build customer loyalty through design
Consumer habits have changed radically with the Covid-19 pandemic. Consumers began to analyze their choices as well as the products and services they consume much more. And there is no ETA for when these changes will stop happening.
Nowadays, clients have become the protagonists in B to C interactions. They are increasingly demanding and knowledgeable.
These changes in user consumption behavior must always be on your radar, for banks and other financial institutions. Mainly because competitor information is more accessible than ever before.
In this sense, it is essential to restructure companies with new models of digital services that are aligned with their values and products.
Large corporations have already taken the lead and are looking towards investing in digital. Many CFOs already see this trend as fundamental to maintaining their place in the sun.
In this article, we will explain how Design can provide a differentiated experience for your customers.
Remember: UX is gaining more and more relevance in the scenario we live in today and can help you to win over the hearts of passionate and willing communities.
Millennials and the prioritization of experience
Millennials – or Generation Y – emerged in the 1980s and totally changed consumer behavior in relation to their predecessors.
They started to prioritize companies, brands, and services that are aligned with their own priorities, understand their needs, and offer complete transparency.
The seed of this desire for a transparent relationship with companies came directly from social networks, which greatly shortened the distance between companies and consumers.
By narrowing that gap, Generation Y consumers express a desire to hear what companies have to say, and in return, they also want to be heard.
In this way, they have taken the first step towards personalized products and services.
The Millennials’ interest goes far beyond purchasing a product or hiring a service. What they want is to guarantee an incredible experience.
How to meet this new consumer’s demands?
Automation of services
The new customer consumes quickly, dynamically, and efficiently. He no longer has time to go to the bank to manage his account or hire a service, nor does he want to sit down and listen to a broker talk about all the benefits of his insurance.
They want a differentiated product that comes to them in the most practical way possible: in the palm of their hands. For this, your company needs to be open to the possibility of structuring its products and services in a fully automated way.
- Bringing your products and services to mobile is essential (and urgent!), so as not to lose consumers or opportunities to generate revenue.
We have to talk about smartphones because it is evident that they are becoming increasingly important to this process. However, we cannot forget other devices, such as browsers.
In addition, we must not lose sight of the combination of online and offline data. The new customer wants to stroll between the two environments and have the same quality experience.
Therefore, all channels need to communicate and be aligned with each other. Only in this way will the company be able to have a complete overview of the intention and purchasing power of this omnichannel consumer.
The fact is that new consumers already expect products and services to be purchasable and carried out digitally.
GAFA model
After going through the previous topics, it is important to know that frictionless interaction is an impossible goal.
No matter how much a company is engaging and prioritizes 100% customer satisfaction, at some point, the customer will be frustrated.
This is because the competition is always evolving and improving their services and products. All companies are focused on creating the best experiences for their users.
The main thing responsible for creating high expectations for consumers was GAFA: the group that comprises Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple. The conglomerate of technology giants dictates market rules.
They are always proposing better experiences for customers and this causes the consumer to automatically expect nothing less than perfection.
GAFA is very popular with Millennials. The younger the user, the more adept they are at understanding and interacting with this business model. For them, GAFA represents a much more attractive alternative for carrying out transactions than any insurance or financial company could ever hope to provide.
- Here’s a tip: to reach GAFA’s level, prioritize your faults and resolve them in order of severity.
- Later on, we will talk about personalized services, as well as how data is the new market currency: both are also ways to meet the demands of new consumers.
Fintechs, Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence, Business Analytics, Big Data, Open Innovation, Blockchain, and cryptocurrencies have reshaped the financial services market.
UX: winning consumers’ hearts and attention
The competition for consumer attention has just begun.
Organizations have already realized that they need to head into this dispute to get their share of the market. This is the context that makes UX Design even more popular.
- New features?
- Products?
- Services?
In reality, none of this makes sense if we don’t focus on the user experience.
Another factor that drives UX Design is the fact that the consumers no longer take competitors into account when evaluating company performance. The same dynamic experience he has with a streaming service is required from a banking institution.
To help you better understand what you can do about this, we have highlighted four important sectors that can help you out:
- UX Strategy
The delivery of a UX strategy involves the complete redesign of an application, product, or service. Projects in this area are aimed at companies looking to rethink their customer approach.
UX strategy is fundamental for companies to perform well in the market. It can be used incrementally – to improve results – or to completely reshape a company.
- UX Design
Much of the user experience is visual. This is precisely why a UX Designer is so important in the development of new applications, products, and services.
The concern goes beyond aesthetics: a UX designer wants to offer something that really meets the end-user’s needs.
- UX Writing
Text can be confusing. Very confused. Some prefer to turn their backs on this problem, but others hire UX Writers to solve it.
UX Writer can completely review an organization’s content production, down to the smallest details. All while focusing on user perception and experience.
- UX Developer
The idea that programming is only for complex machines is outdated.
Today, we already have entire languages made in a semantic way. That is precisely why we must count on the support of UX Developers.
Professionals help to create a clean schedule, ideal for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and to generate impacts on the user’s own experience.
The customer is your most valuable asset!
In a world of information overload, the bank’s customer is no longer the same. Going to the agency, finding it difficult to transfer your own money, being held hostage by fine print, having little app compatibility, and waiting in line to talk to the manager are situations that are no longer a part of the bank’s customer journey.
All these traditional and obsolete processes culminated in the dissatisfaction of users, who were unhappy with the relationship but still continued to use the same service because they had no other options.
In turn, banks made little effort to consider their consumers’ feelings when planning their positioning, products, services, and communication.
Financial institutions need to rethink their role in the lives of users and be proactive in valuing this relationship.
It is time to build a much more humanized strategy, structured on transparency and truth. And, most importantly, one that solves the customer’s problems – the main objective of the UX discipline.
