Banking Fails to Deliver on the ‘Personalization Promise’

The banking industry touts that they want to meet the individual needs of consumers. But how well are banks and credit unions achieving the holy grail of omnichannel personalization and contextual engagement?

By Jim Marous, Co-Publisher of The Financial Brand and Publisher of the Digital Banking Report

Most financial institutions are working to change a legacy of depersonalized service, leveraging the considerable technological sophistication and vast data resources at their disposal to give consumers the customized guidance and services they desire. The goal is to replicate the level of personalization found in other industries such as retail, travel and hospitality, making engagements more seamless and offering solutions that are both real-time and contextual.

Unfortunately, while financial institutions know what they want to achieve, they are still falling significantly short of their objective according to “The Power of Personalization in Banking,” published by the Digital Banking Report and sponsored by Personetics. In fact, there are still many instances where the basics of personalized delivery of financial services are not being met.

The study, which surveyed more than 300 financial institutions worldwide in Q1 of 2016, examined the ‘personalization maturity’ of financial institutions to determine how well they understood the way a consumer feels about their bank or credit union as well as the following:

• The importance of knowing a customer’s personal financial situation.
• The importance and ability to provide real-time personalized guidance.
• Current use of personalized contextual alerts and notifications.
• Prioritization of alternative digital strategies.

Click Here to Download the Personalization Research

Importance of Knowing the Customer

The importance of leveraging consumer insight and data is more important than ever. New tools and technologies make advanced analytics available for all sized organizations, while digital channels and the desire for personalized offers make the investment in data analytics mandatory for success.

Unfortunately, while the need to use advanced analytics for insight-driven marketing is one of the most important trends in marketing, it still ranks very low on priorities according to our 2016 State of Financial Marketing report. This is the dilemma facing the banking industry … know the problem, but not solving the problem.

According to the research from “The Power of Personalization in Banking,”, there was general consistency across all institution types and asset ranges when financial institutions were asked about the importance of knowing their customers’ and members’ personal financial situation. Only 12% – 20% of organizations surveyed didn’t think it was either ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important to know their customers.

The importance of knowing the current financial situation of consumers is aligned with what consumers believe should be known about them according to the study. Unfortunately, consumers made it very clear that they don’t believe their primary financial institution really knows the important components of their financial life ...

Click Here to Download the Personalization Research

To read the rest of the article on the research done to evaluate the consumer demand for personalization and the banking industry's response, go to the complete article here ...

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