Previously I reviewed post-digital transformation in banking. This blog analyzes the current themes in banking according to executives.
In recent years, five themes generally dominated (and rightly so) what bank executives paid attention to and invested in:
1. Generational Relevance
The Millennial generation ushered in a different attitude regarding convenience, access, and responsiveness, and banks had to change their service models to meet the needs of younger customers, with the main focus on digitizing transactions and expanding mobile features and functionality.
2. Busting Silos
Most banks’ operating models evolved based on the limitations of legacy technology. Inflexible, isolated applications led to inflexible, siloed business practices. Banks focused on breaking apart silos and making the customer the center of their digital transformation strategies. They implemented technologies like master data management (MDM), service-oriented architectures (SOA), and application programming interfaces (APIs) to extend legacy investments with bolt-on digital enhancements.
3. Customer Needs Instead of Products
Product-centric approaches – like new interest rates for savings accounts or a different affinity group for a credit card – have been supplemented by a broader customer-needs approach. Banks now understand, for example, that the process of buying a home involves more than just a mortgage, and opportunities exist to provide ways to help customers save for a down payment, pay for renovations, obtain insurance, and make plans for keeping the house in case they are injured and can’t work. There have been a plethora of planning, budgeting and cash-management tools, personalized alerts and service experiences, data visualization, analytics, and contextual search capabilities incorporated into the customer experience.
4. Seamless Omnichannel
Customers consistently rank “service quality” as the main attribute that differentiates banks. It is more important than a bank’s local branches, ATM locations, products and services, fees, websites, and mobile apps in determining customer satisfaction. Banks have responded by investing heavily in seamless customer experiences across self-service channels, including online, mobile, and ATMs. This has resulted in mobile applications with more-intuitive user interfaces; task simplification across online and mobile portals; collecting, managing, and integrating disparate data sources to gain a holistic view of the customer; and advanced data analytics addressing segmentation, text/voice sentiment, and pattern recognition.
5. Organizational Alignment
Banks also understood that in order to transform into more digitally focused organizations, they needed to emphasize the development of new skills for employees to meet the needs of consumers across all digital channels. These included basic technical and project management skills along with more-advanced digital skills including agile development, product management, user experience design, data science, and digital marketing analytics. Increasing the adoption of agile, iterative product and application development methodologies is decreasing time to market for new features and capabilities.
To learn more about previous digital transformation themes in banking, post-digital transformation themes and trends, and how to ensure the successful implementation of post-digital transformation programs; you can click here or complete the form below.
