50 Shades of Banking
Duena Blomstrom
Author | Keynote Speaker | Podcaster |Digital Transformation & Organizational Psychology Expert | Creator of Emotional Banking?, NeuroSpicy@Work & HumanDebt? | Co-Founder of PeopleNotTech? | AuADHD
I wrote about Irrational Loyalty in banking before but a conversation at Money2020 in Vegas last week, prompted me to revisit it, this time with the thesis that we as consumers have abnormally high pain thresholds when it comes to what we expect of banking as a service and its technology as the manifestation of it. While I'm the first to glare, point and shake a bank, on this topic it's not them, it's us.
"If my bank completely pissed me off I'd leave!" a friend proclaimed and it made me wonder what does that "completely" mean to each of us. With the rise of the 50 Shades phenomenon in popular culture, we all know there have to be agreed limits even in a borderline abusive relationship, what are ours when it comes to being flogged by our bank?
Shall we agree that money and data being safe is a hard limit? I think we should, or we'd be left with no core services we need out of banking.
Outside of that - would we leave if we were unable to open a new account for days? What if the interest rates were clearly lower than the market? What if the mortgages became suddenly perceivably higher? Are these then soft limits, do we negotiate with ourselves whether the pain is bearable as compared to the perceived hustle of changing banks and end up staying?
When else do we entertain it? Do we even think about leaving when we are left on hold for hours? When we need to enter our password for the 20th time and half our day was spent trying to log in to make a transfer online only to find no evident way to do it and no evidence of what it costs to do so?
Do we ever wonder why when you call a telecom company there's a "press 4 if you are thinking of leaving us" but when you call a bank there's never that option?
Do we flirt with the idea of leaving every time we catch a glimpse of a challenger bank flaunting features we've never seen in our bank or are they so far removed from our day-to-day digital banking experience we mentally categorise them as SciFi?
If our bank's mobile app is just another icon on a busy smart phone's home screen why is it we patiently allow it to load in twice as long and crush twice as much as every other app we use? What makes us accept we have to have ridiculous work-arounds for the most basic of actions - spouses setting up direct debits, friends using PayPal to repay us, ATM withdrawals only to load them back in the needed current account and our dead aunt's maiden name tattooed on our wrist?
Maybe it's time we take some responsibility as consumers and admit that we're enabling banks to mistreat us with no limits in place. Maybe it's time we ask ourselves when enough is really enough and why is it that we'd allow this much abuse in poor service and subpar technology, we sure don't enjoy it. Let's make it an early new year's eve resolution that as of now we'll go to our bank with a mental list of what our limits are and be prepared to break up if they don't respect them.
They may learn to love us more that way.
Technology Program Manager at RBC Bank
9 年Is it a case of high pain thresholds or exceptionally low expectations? If the latter, then people are happy with the overall experience. Another barrier to change is the lack of guarantee that the next bank will be better. One can go through the pain of switching and gain nothing at the end.
LinkedIn Top Voice. I help companies drive revenue, reduce costs, and improve culture by scaling business outcomes through AI and Analytics.
9 年Is anyone concerned that with the disintermediation of banking products & services, the introduction of too much choice for the consumer will make them retrench? When balancing the pain of switching against too many options - and potentially too many options across multiple providers - it is basic psychology that will cause us not to choose (read: switch).
digital consulting ? ecommerce ? fintech ? real estate tech ? design thinking ? ai ? data science ? digital ? innovation ? start-up
9 年Unfortunately banking has not really changed. The recent layoffs, regulatory requirements and to a lesser extent fintech advancements in AP indicates a need to change. How much and how fast is open to debate - as they will for the most part, continue to work "well inside the box"
International Fintech & Banking Consultant & Matchmaker / LinkedIn Top Voice
9 年Banking sucks, it's a chore we try to avoid and consumer expectations are relatively low. For me, "my bank" is where I keep my household and business checking/MMA account, and regardless of where I could move said relationship, I don't see added benefit to offsite the pain of the move. I have unbundled my banking relationship years ago, and have different relationships, with different FIs for different reasons, typically associated with what I perceive is their core competency.
Top 5 Retail Banking Influencer, Global Speaker, Podcast Host and Co-Publisher at The Financial Brand
9 年Part of poor service is to make it difficult to switch. Unlike the UK, we don't have account portability in the US. That would change things, making it easier to leave a banking relationship that is abusive. As was said below, 'good' service in banking is a level of service that would be untolerated in other industries. When J.D. Power says that banking satisfaction has gone up, bankers don't want to face the fact that the consumer grades banking on a curve against very low expectations. I bet the satisfaction ratings on the postal service have gone up as well, but I would not tolerate what I get from the USPS from UPS or FedEx.