Page 29 - Banking Finance December 2023

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that the product cannot provide, leading to higher
disappointment in user expectations.
Emotional Gap: If brand communication is purely
informational and focused on functional features, an
emotional connection with users cannot be formed.

Digital channels are the main marketing and PR of the
brand. A negative experience with a mobile application or
Internet Banking can negate all the positive promotional
efforts. It is important to bridge these seven experience gaps
that might arise when creating digital products.

4. Emotional Connection
Forming an emotional connection with customers is one of
the key factors to ensure a brand's success. For financial
institutions to succeed, it's important to consider interface 6. IQ to EQ
usability and digital innovations along with the integration There is a need for highly emotionally intelligent people who
of personalized, positive experiences that form an emotional
serve as bridges between customers and the complex
connection. opportunities uncovered by new technologies. They are the
"user advocates" that ensure a user-centred approach in
When customers compare their digital experiences, there's
often a large gap between the usability and experience of digital product development.
social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram and
their banking app. To keep up with the experiences delivered In the digital age, the focus is shifting from IQ to EQ-from
by Big Tech, finance companies should find out what users intellect to emotion. EQ is all about the emotional impact
love about their products and think about how to integrate the product or service of the brand has on people's lives.
that to create a more emotionally engaging experience.
Future technologies, like artificial intelligence, big data,
machine learning, and automation, can take customer
5. Experience-driven KPIs
experience to a brand-new level. Successful banks will be
As digital transformation shifts more toward customer- the ones that unite the power of technological capabilities
centricity, it's crucial how performance is measured. For with the power of genuine empathy and emotional
decades, the key performance indicators (KPIs) have been connection that only humans can create.
the level of loans, accounts, and the number of leads and
prospects. But to become a successful financial brand, the 7. Consistency through Product Ecosystem
focus should be on:
Often, many banks digitize their products separately. This
User feedback.
causes high fragmentation within the financial customer
The number of actual users who recommend the experience as the usability, information architecture, and
product to friends. the interface itself differ. Also, having different departments
The number and reasons for complaints about the each working on their own product creates fragmentation.
service. This leads to a broken banking customer experience because
users expect their banking services to be a connected,
The number of positive and negative comments about
holistic flow and not separate fragments.
the company on social media platforms.
To evaluate the impact of user-centred actions taken The main problem is caused by the lack of a united vision
by the company, there must be certain performance that would include all the products and services provided
indicators in place that help focus team efforts on the by the bank. This is often since digital channels are
right direction. considered an alternative or additional form of service

26 | 2023 | DECEMBER | BANKING FINANCE