Page 28 - Banking Finance December 2023

ARTICLE

to the fullest, especially in the banking and finance industry. adaptation, removal of old practices, and adoption of a new,
Companies can create new ways to deliver existing products user-centric culture. Good digital transformation and
and services or expand various engagement methods. innovative products cannot work if there is no customer-
oriented mindset.
Despite the need for well-developed digital channels and
top-notch banking customer experiences, COVID-19 It is important to integrate customer-centric thinking
highlighted the fact that the financial industry is unprepared throughout the whole organization at every level, along
to embrace the digital age. In a situation where digital with operational and strategic processes. This ensures that
means everything, there are still cases where people are financial solutions match user needs and expectations.
expected to risk their health just to visit a banking branch,
even though all the necessary technologies to avoid such A customer-centric approach inspires the whole team to
situations are already available to the banks. create products and services striving to make the world a
better place for people to live. It allows the maximum
In today's times, when the importance of digitalization is utilization of the full potential of a financial company and
stressed, it's critical to carefully evaluate the proper way to its digital products.
create and integrate a digital strategy. Otherwise, there's
a big possibility of reliving the unfortunate situation in the If customer-centricity is taken into consideration during the
recent past when banks were the last ones to develop other development of products and services, it would attract
channels for services. consumers like a magnet.

"The number one bank in the world will be a 3. Overcoming the Experience Gap
technology company," Brett King.
Customer experience is what differentiates successful digital
financial services from failures. Even though it is common
Successful digital businesses are always two steps ahead, knowledge, customer experience improvements do not
constantly monitoring changing customer behaviour and
always work.
innovating new ways to adapt their products and create new
ones according to rising expectations, which applies to the There are several factors that go unnoticed while defining
banking industry as well. Banks also need to develop their customer experience; this is known as the experience gap.
digital competencies to instantly adapt their service to any The "experience gap" is the negative difference between
kind of digital platform. Their digital strategy should not only customers' expectations and the experience they get from
encompass their existing products and services but also the financial product and service.
provide a clear vision for future development.
Some common types of experience gaps observed
2. Experience-based Inner Culture are:
Digital-first companies are flexible as they require quick Culture Gap: The lack of customer centricity in a company's
culture prevents employees from bringing service closer to
customer expectations.

Feedback Gap: The gap that results from a lack of data
about customer expectations and their experience OR
collecting data but not acting upon it to solve user problems.
Design Gap: This results from poor design execution.
Execution Gap: This is formed from incompetent design and
poor methodology.
Value Gap: This gap is formed when the design ecosystem
does not comply with user expectations.
Overpromise Gap: This is defined as promising something

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