New competitors are disrupting the financial services industry through technology innovation and digital acceleration. According to Gartner, large applications like Alipay, WeChat, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay already have an estimated 3.2 billion combined users. Moreover, digital giants like Amazon and Google are molding consumer expectations for seamless and sophisticated experiences.

Over the last few years, we’ve seen rapid acceleration and innovation in mobile payments, digital currencies, and financial lending. This innovation puts pressure on banks, credit unions, and other regulated financial institutions to embrace digital transformation, adopt new technologies, and serve heightened consumer expectations. 50% of consumers are now interacting with their financial institution through mobile apps or websites at least once a week, an increase from 32% two years ago. Consumer preferences are quickly evolving and as fintech's place their stake in the ground, traditional banks and credit unions face a pivotal moment: fold to the threat or capitalize on the opportunity.  

96% of consumers know of at least one alternative FinTech service available to help them transfer money and make payments. 

-EY

88% of U.S. consumers use digital apps and services to manage their finances. 

-Plaid

3.2 billion combined users of the top 5 fintech applications.

-Gartner

Next-gen competition is founded on flexible, scalable cloud solutions. Mid-size banks and credit unions should invest in a modern cloud strategy to speed up customer onboarding and support smoother experiences. 

Your organization should develop a position on fintechs. Understand what they do, how they could be a potential threat, and how to engage or partner with them.

Consider integrating cutting edge AI and machine learning capabilities to augment existing data ingestion processes throughout the organization. Stronger data management can become a key advantage in the race to stand up new products and services. 

If you’re falling behind in the digital realm, the time to invest is now. If you miss the mark in delivering on digital, you can expect your prospects and customers to go elsewhere for smoother, more accessible experiences. Remember to steer your digital transformation in the same direction as member and customer expectations.

It’s important to develop a position on new fintech competition. Unfortunately, ignoring this trend could result in lost customers and lost revenue. Consumers’ expectations for seamless experiences are heightening every day. The time to invest in digital transformation is now. For those that have already responded to the disruption, it’s time to optimize and enhance – or risk falling behind. 

COVID-19 was the catalyst that emphasized the need for digital transformation within the financial services sector. At the onset of the pandemic, it became clear that consumers needed access to digital capabilities to successfully manage their finances. While the industry was already headed in the digital direction, digital transformation moved from a nice-to-have competitive advantage, to a table stakes business imperative. According to research by BDO, 97% of middle market financial institutions already have a digital strategy in place or in development, but only 30% are currently implementing that strategy, signaling more transformation ahead. In 2022, it is clear that the digitization of the financial services industry needs to match the shifts in consumer behavior. And the trend toward digitization is expected to far outlive the pandemic.

Your customers want to make online deposits, check their account balances, and make transfers through your mobile apps, and make e-bill payments from their fingertips. 80% of Americans believe they can manage their money without going to a bank. This means you will want to focus on developing an omnichannel experience strategy that considers all channels including voice, website, apps, portals, bots, SMS, and more. Empowering your customers and members to self-serve is the only way to win in 2022. 

90% of consumers say they will continue to use digital technology to make their life easier once the pandemic has resolved. 

-Mobiquity

76% of Americans used their primary bank’s mobile app in 2021.

-Forbes Advisor

80% of Americans believe they can manage their money without going to a bank. 

-Plaid

43% of consumers say the way they bank has changed due to COVID-19. 

-EY

Contact center platforms like Genesys Cloud deliver an intuitive, assisted employee experience and come with all the features a modern contact center needs right out-of-the-box. 

It is critical that you build an integrated tech stack with API-enabled, cloud-based technologies that empower your employees to be efficient and enable your members to self-serve.  

Leverage AI to automate back-end operations like administrative tasks and data collection, so your employees can focus on better serving your customers and members. 

Consider all the possible channels your customers might interact with you on and build strategies for them. This may include website, voice, chatbots, mobile apps, portals, SMS, and more. 

Consumers prefer to self-serve now more than ever. It’s key to the success of your financial institution to provide your customers with the tools and features that empower them to pay bills, make transfers, check account information, and manage their finances on their own time.  

Historically, financial institutions built customer relationships through face-to-face, in-person interactions and branch visits. Today, consumers essentially have their banks in their pockets. However, the human element of financial services will never go away. In fact, according to research by Samsung, 77% of customers still seek out face-to-face interactions when dealing with complex financial matters. Customers still rely on humans for advisory, key decision-making, and high-stakes transactions. The human element of financial services is still needed, but the method for delivering that human element has certainly evolved.

Across industries, face-to-face engagements are now taking place over Zoom, Teams, and other virtual conferencing platforms. Many banks and credit unions have deployed video conferencing with a banker over zoom, and this behavior is expected to stick long after the pandemic recedes. Leading financial institutions recognize that optimizing customer face time is still a key piece of any successful omnichannel strategy. Video options help engage customers, drive employee efficiency, build loyalty and trust, and deliver a truly personalized experience.  

30-40% decrease in branch transactions between March and November 2020. 

-Forbes

38% of U.S. consumers still prefer a branch as the dominant channel for their banking needs.

-McKinsey & Company 

77% of customers still seek out face-to-face interactions when dealing with complex financial matters. 

-Samsung

Empower your agents with a single, unified contact center platform that includes video conferencing capabilities and is API-enabled so you can create a flexible foundation for future enhancements over time. 

Consider the expenses of running your branches and identify gaps and opportunities for cost savings and supplemental digital channels. 

To determine whether video conferencing is right for your organization, consider a customer journey map or voice of customer surveys to better understand how to best serve your customers in today’s digital age.

Determine how going digital for face-to-face interactions could save your institution costs. Remember, video banking is a great way to keep the human element in your strategy. 

No matter how advanced, digitized, and automated financial experiences become, the human element will never go away. Person-to-person interaction is key to providing a quality customer experience that ultimately builds customer trust and loyalty. However, the financial services industry is quickly learning and understanding that person-to-person interactions don’t have to happen in person to be successful. Video banking provides numerous benefits for both your employees and your customers. It’s the best of both worlds – the convenience of a digital interaction, with the power of the human touch. 

Data and analytics fuel every aspect of a seamless customer experience. Your customers expect you to know them, value them, and help them along their financial journey. Delivering on these expectations requires a strong data agility strategy. In other words, you’ll want the ability to leverage data or move data quickly throughout disparate platforms to inform stronger business, sales, and marketing decisions. Driving data agility across your organization will enable you to drive product innovation, automation, and revenue. In 2022, we will see many FSIs focus on stronger data agility. In fact, according to IDC, 34% of FSI enterprises have already made data monetization and data capitalization a top digital transformation strategy.

The same study found that limited visibility into data, data silos, and the spiraling costs of data management were in the top five data management challenges for financial services organizations. Leading financial services organizations will double down on data management, governance, and orchestration while integrating cutting edge AI and machine learning capabilities to augment existing data ingestion processes. 

5% to 10% of bank revenues were based on data monetization and information-based products in 2021.

-IDC

34% of FSI enterprises have made data monetization and data capitalization a top digital transformation priority. 

-IDC

66% of senior financial services industry decision-makers expect to see a positive impact as a result of AI. 

-Forbes

Your employees need a single source of truth. Deploying a modern, integrated data management platform will help you break down data silos and provide consistent access and transparency into the data that exists in your organization.

Speed up customer onboarding, improve loan and account lifecycle management, and support smoother technology transitions with a modern cloud strategy that considers your technology ecosystem, people and processes, timeline, and adoption readiness.

In order to get the most out of your customer data you’ll want to consistently analyze operational, sentiment, and loyalty data points. This will allow you to gain insights into logistical elements of your CX, emotional connections to your brand, and customer stickiness measurements. 

Turn your data management into a key competitive advantage with cutting edge AI and machine learning capabilities that augment existing data ingestion processes, without the need for considerable upfront budget and time investment from your team.

Leading financial services organizations will leverage big data analytics and other customer relationship management tools to their advantage, improving employee and operational processes in a way that will allow them to totally overhaul the customer experience. By making sure that consumer data can flow freely across an organization, and by doing what it takes to break down the data silos that formerly existed, financial institutions will offer a quality, consistent experience regardless of who is interacting with a customer.

Unfortunately, cybercriminals have continued to commit an alarming amount of fraud in the financial services industry. During the first four months of 2021, the financial services industry saw a 149% increase in suspected global digital fraud attempts. The most prominent type of fraud targeting financial institutions in 2021 was identity theft. In fact, two thirds of all fraud incidents globally were identity fraud cases.

Leading financial institutions must combat this rising fraudulent activity and seamlessly, and safely authenticate customer identity anywhere, anytime. Customer identity verification will be mission critical to information security and seamless customer experiences in 2022. It will help organizations prevent identity theft, money laundering, and other kinds of fraud.  

18.12 billion is the projected market revenue for IDV by 2021. 

-iDenfy

149% increase in suspected global digital fraud attempts in financial services during the first four months of 2021. 

-TransUnion

62% of breached data came from financial services in 2019. 

-CIODive

2/3 of all fraud incidents globally are identity fraud cases. 

-Veriff

As digitization continues to accelerate, keep in mind that you have more access to customer and transaction data than ever before. Be sure to unify and analyze this data to identify potential fraudulent activity and at-risk customers. Watch out for alerts for card spend in unusual locations or unusual amounts. 

Communicate with your customers about safety and security, and educate them on your procedures, explaining why they are necessary. The more transparency you can give about how their data will be used, or why their identity needs to be verified will only help foster trust and build loyalty.

Collect only the data you absolutely need to service your customers, and don’t allow anyone to access it unless it’s absolutely necessary. Keep data privacy and security top of mind when dealing with any sensitive information. Consider what data is mandatory for successful operations, and what data may be unnecessary. 

Just as financial experiences are omnichannel, so too is security. Your customers’ need to feel safe regardless of the channel they are using to interact with your brand and conduct digital banking. Remember, cybercriminals will attack the most vulnerable channel, so ensure each channel has safety and security protocols. Solutions like SSO and others allow users to move seamlessly and securely through channels.

Leading financial institutions should examine their approach toward Identity Verification (IDV) and ensure they are providing an intuitive, safe, and frictionless IDV experience. This will be key to the online banking adoption. Today’s modern, digital IDV solutions are capable of verifying official documents and analyzing extensive user records in minutes. As fraud and data breaches continue to rise, it is essential to have organization-wide security and privacy best practices.   

We help you deliver seamless customer experiences through strategic design and careful orchestration across a number of overlapping CX disciplines, strategies, applications, and technologies.

1. We’re a true end-to-end CX partner offering strategy, design, and orchestration
2. We’ll meet you where you are, whether you’re just starting your CX transformation journey or you’re looking to innovate and expand on strategies you already have in place
3. We have deep partnerships with companies like Microsoft and Genesys
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5. Over the last nearly 50 years, we’ve helped hundreds of clients see success with CX transformation

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