According to a recent Forrester report, Customer Experience (CX) scores at large FIs have taken a dramatic dip since the peak in 2020. Among banks that had multi-channel account access, CX was down 53%, a decline that Forrester declared as “unprecedented.” But the burning question is “why?” According to Alyson Clarke, Principal Analyst for Forrester, the industry is working against its own interests in some cases. “I don’t know about you, but I find it just becomes increasingly harder and harder to talk to a human being at your bank when you want to,” says Clarke. The Forrester report was the subject of a recent Financial Brand article (link to read at end of this article). What Clarke and others suggest is that larger financial institutions are making it harder to access customer support. The inference is this direct access is being limited in lieu of the self-serve channels. Clarkes even goes so far as to say that “banking is not Amazon, if something is not right, you want to speak to a person.” And yet, based on my own experience and from talking to many bank customers of all age groups, the need to “speak” to someone is not ever mentioned as a necessity being restricted. What customers want is an option to resolve problems in the most efficient way possible that aligns with their desired method of support. As most community banks offer greater access to self-serve options such as online and mobile banking AND make those self-serve applications more compelling, it’s easy to see that customers would prefer to access their financial information at a time and place of their choosing with whatever device they have in their hand. It’s inevitable that some using those apps might have an issue while online where they need support from the institution. Does that mean that they need a phone call? In fact, if they are accessing online via their mobile phone or app, it is not desirable to conduct a phone call for support. Thus, the option for a live SMS chat or even better, a video chat integrated into the mobile app itself would be the most efficient and engaging way to resolve an online or mobile app problem. Consider your customer is using your mobile app and there is an issue where they get an error message while trying to execute a transaction. If your FI offered a live “agent” that can be called on using a link on the app without leaving the current application page, then the agent can communicate with the customer, either via voice or video. Either way, the agent would see exactly what application page the customer was on and specific details on the error. With the ability to see exactly what the issue is, as opposed to having the customer attempt to describe the issue to the agent, the issue can be quickly addressed. The user can easily complete the transaction without delay or the need to start over. Moreover, since the access to support would be instigated from a specific place from the customer’s device, the resulting support can come from an individual in the institution trained on that part of the application, greatly enhancing the situation where the problem is quickly resolved. This feature would certainly provide the direct access to the support needed without the need to make a separate call to the institution. As to where the people are that are taking these calls, many banks already have people manning the interactive teller machines at drive-throughs and other locations. The ability to stream to a mobile phone or computer would not be substantively different than providing support at an ATM. Would those people need some additional training? Yes, they would, but this is incremental knowledge for individuals already in the mode of providing virtual service tasks. However, is access to fast and accurate solutions to problems the only cause of the CX decline? According to Alyson Clarke, there is also the issue of digital banking lacking an emotional appeal. I think there is much truth in this statement. Banks do need to reach their customers from an emotional standpoint, but I believe this can be done without diminishing the value of fast, reliable self-service online banking. First, if we empty our retail branches of all of the transaction related activities and replace them with engaging personal experiences, that would make a branch visit way more compelling. Elements such as consultative selling, education and problem-solving would form the basic components of engagement banking. Add in such options as a Maker Bot 3D printer, Virtual Reality Cube or perhaps a professional podcasting booth. Any (or all) of these would be an immediate draw for people making the branch a destination visit. Especially if you want to attract younger customers, a demographic that banks desperately need to attract and keep. Notice I did not reference putting in a professional espresso maker. People will drive across town for a Starbucks, but fancy coffee maker does not a Starbucks make. We can also reach customers emotionally if we would change our online/mobile banking to a game. I mean literally a game. This would not even be that hard, but it would take our collective will to lobby the vendors that make our online banking solutions to offer a gamified version of the mobile app. This is not even a Millennial or Gen Z issue. My mom is 95 years old, and she plays games on her computer or phone. One final admonition from Clarke. She opines that those institutions that poorly rollout Generative AI (GenAI) solutions to attempt to up their CX game may be making things worse. While GenAI has great promise, it is still not ready for prime time. Firstly, there needs to be more work done to make sure that GenAI is correctly understanding the intent of queries. Even past that hurdle, GenAI is pretty “matter of fact” in what it delivers as responses. The level of empathy needed is still beyond most GenAI applications. If you are a Star Trek fan, think of Next Generations character Data with and without the emotion chip. The beginning of any interaction with a customer experiencing an issue must be “I am so sorry you are having difficulties, let me help you resolve that…” Community banks are in a prime position to marry high tech self-service online apps with the personalized service that has been their hallmark for many decades. Just remember that great personalized service does not overcome a weak digital banking presence. Resources https://thefinancialbrand.com/news/customer-experience-banking/digital-channels-sap-bankings-emotional-appeal-179849/#:~:text=Digital%20is%20Draining%20Banks%27%20Emotional,ratings%20issued%20annually%20by%20Forrester. The views expressed in this blog are for informational purposes. All information shared should be independently evaluated as to its applicability or efficacy. FNBB does not endorse, recommend or promote any specific service or company that may be named or implied in any blog post.