Be digital-first to be consumer-first

Before the pandemic, financial services leaders acknowledged seamless consumer experience was becoming necessary for future-readiness. Since the onset of the pandemic, retail financial services had to move most of their services online. Overnight the traffic online increased manifold. Smaller financial institutions like Credit Unions, with members accustomed to in-person banking, had to up the ante in their digital game. Robust apps, agile web portals, enhanced online transactions, artificial intelligence-based customer service, and very significantly an IT infrastructure that could support the traffic flexibly and securely took center stage to fill the gap of the personal touch service.?

Though in-person services are back with increasing vaccination rates, digital services are here to stay.

Consumer preferences have shifted, and that has changed the competitive landscape. This changing scenario opens the doors for the non-traditional online-only, digital presence financial services competitors to work their way into the consumer mindshare. These new-age financial firms provide the same level of service with better online presence, higher interest rates, and other incentives. Smaller financial services firms like credit unions could no longer thrive behind the competitors' entry hurdle of having a physical presence.

Traditional retail financial services firms now compete with cloud-first, digitally born firms.

These smaller financial services firms need to have robust IT infrastructure and agile cloud backing to offer a competitive digital presence. Cloud has become a strategic enabler of services.

Consumers are looking at high-touch smaller financial firms to make their digital offerings as personal as their physical offerings.

The opinions expressed here belong solely to myself, and do not reflect the views of my employer.