People traditionally consider a bank’s history and reputation when it comes to entrusting their hard-earned money. These factors, however, are no longer the only things that matter.
Technology evolution altered people’s priorities, making the customer experience more critical than ever before. As times change and unforeseen circumstances, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, transform people’s thinking and living, it’s crucial to remain relevant.
For banks, this means stepping up. But how exactly? Read on as we explore nine ways your bank can stay relevant as your customers’ needs change.
9 Ways to Keep Your Bank Relevant Amid Changing Times
1. Update your knowledge base.
At this time of uncertainty, customers are more likely to ask tons of questions. This is the reason why you need to update your bank’s knowledge base.
Allocate enough time to build a precise knowledge base that your support team and customers can easily understand. Remember that accurate information is crucial for your support staff to resolve issues quickly and provide excellent customer service.
Customers will also need reliable data for quick reference and frequently asked questions. In a nutshell, having an updated knowledge base is the first crucial factor for keeping up.
2. Prioritize transparency.
Potential customers will have several considerations, so you have to prove that your bank is worthy of their trust. Earning your existing customers’ trust is equally important, and here’s where transparency plays a pivotal role.
The good news is that there are many ways you can go about doing this. For instance, your bank can initiate proactive communications with your stakeholders.
Inform them about key business decisions so that your stakeholders are updated and assured that the business is managed competently. Also, make sure that your credit and market risk and other important information are easily accessible.
3. Keep your remote channels updated.
Remote channels such as a custom website, mobile apps, and social media help boost the customer experience in many ways. However, there is no point in having these platforms if they are not updated regularly.
Similar to your knowledge base, having updated remote channels is crucial to keeping your customers well-informed and properly guided. Apart from keeping them up-to-date, it is also vital to ensure that these platforms are working optimally.
Third-party service providers prove beneficial to your bank if you want to scale and meet your customers’ demands and expectations. For instance, Yondu can customize your website and ensure its functionality so that your customers can manage their accounts anytime and anywhere seamlessly.
Having fully functioning and updated platforms allows you to serve your customers even remotely. This offers convenience for them, helping to boost trust and confidence in your financial institution.
4. Utilize chatbots for quicker support.
Chatbots are also useful for assisting customers at scale. They help accommodate common customer concerns, allowing your team to focus on their key roles and stay productive.
You can take inspiration from some banks using chatbots on their custom website and social media to help customers check their balances or find a nearby ATM. You can also utilize this AI to assist customers in monitoring their statements or activate a new card.
5. Provide a seamless customer experience.
In today’s highly digital world, it’s crucial to provide a seamless omnichannel experience from device to device. These days, people tend to switch gadgets before finishing a transaction.
For example, a user finds a credit card offer through his mobile device and shifts to his laptop to complete the application. To provide a seamless experience, you need to make sure that all your channels work together.
You can do this by making sure your digital assets are mobile-friendly and response times are quick. Also, maximize live chats on your custom website for support and track interactions across all your platforms to understand user behavior.
6. Maximize customer information.
Personalization is one of the best ways to boost customer experience. To provide a personalized experience, you need to utilize your customers’ information wisely.
Keep track of your customers’ interactions and activity history. This way, you can offer relevant advice or pitch products that are fit for their needs and preferences.
7. Send personalized messages.
Another way to maximize customer information is to send personalized messages. By tracking customer journey maps, you’ll know who your customers are, which channels they are using, and what their goals are.
This allows you to create behavior-based messages that your customers could use for support. Personalized messages also help increase your marketing effort’s effectiveness and build brand loyalty.
8. Provide money lessons.
You can also use education as a unique driver for your brand. Financial literacy is crucial, especially during this critical period.
Help educate people on how they can save money to survive unforeseen and unexpected events like the COVID-19 crisis. You can also consider building an informational website where people can learn more about their finances or initiate a webinar about money topics.
9. Collect customer feedback.
Lastly, collect customer feedback to complete your strategy. Gathering feedback from your customers will help you address issues before they even worsen.
Collecting user sentiments also helps you pivot your plans to match the changing needs of your customers. Simply put, maximize feedback to improve your strategies and tailor-fit offerings to boost the overall customer experience.
Updating your knowledge base and channels, gathering customer feedback, and maximizing technology innovations are effective ways to keep up. The good news is, you can make these changes with the help of the right third-party partners.
Keep in mind that while the future is not certain yet, all hope isn’t lost if you want to rebuild and strengthen your brand. The trick is to continue evolving to meet your customers’ ever-changing expectations and priorities.
Are you looking for a web app development company to help you launch a custom website? Get in touch with our team today to kick off your digital strategy and boost customer experience.
