Five Insights into the Top 25 Bank Search Terms

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customer-6-20-19.pngBanks can use customers’ search queries to create a more efficient, optimized user experience.

Most marketers rely on search engine optimization to drive traffic to their website, missing a crucial opportunity to optimize searching on the site itself. But on-site search optimization is a critical component of search and self-service for customers, and is a way that banks can create a better experience for users.

Search engine optimization, or SEO, focuses on attracting new visitors to a website. On-site search optimization addresses the existing and returning traffic base—a bank’s current customers and prospects. This approach helps them find helpful and relevant content once they are on the site, which is as important as getting them to the website or mobile application in the first place.

A growing percentage of customers use digital channels to interact with banks and require intuitive search and easy-to-find support information. Banks will benefit from delivering superior on-site search functionality with actionable support answers on their websites and mobile apps.

Transforming a bank’s website, mobile or online banking applications into a true digital support center involves more than a simple search bar. Search terms and activity can be used to inform the support content strategy, while monitoring customers search queries ensures a bank is providing the most sought-after answers across its digital and mobile channels. This continuous process directly impacts an institution’s customer experience, service levels and operational efficiency.

The top 25 search terms across banking websites in 2019 included:

1. Routing Number 10. Direct Deposit 19. Mobile Deposit
2. Overdraft Protection 11. Rates 20. Login
3. Order Checks 12. Address Change 21. ACH
4. Skip Payment 13. Loan Rates 22. Stop Payment
5. Online Banking 14. Debit Card 23. ATM
6. Wire Transfers 15. Check Card 24. Mortgage
7. Credit Card 16. IRA 25. Bill Pay
8. Open Account 17. CD Rates  
9. Account Number 18. Hours  

Customers’ search patterns in a bank’s digital and mobile channels differ the terms used in a search engine platform such as Google or Bing, according to data from SilverCloud. Searches on banking websites and apps average 1.4 words per search, compared to four on search engine platforms. On Google, people search for “the best checking account for me;” on a banking website, they use broader terms like “online banking.”

Two factors drive this search behavior. First, banking consumers are already on the desired site, so they use more narrow search terms. Second, financial terminology can be confusing and unfamiliar. As a result, customers who lack knowledge of specific banking terms tend to use broader search terms to home in on exactly what they need.

There are five takeaways for banks that are interested in how top search terms can help them grow more efficiently:

Banks need to deliver a better customer experience. Having a strong on-site search engine allows customers to service themselves in a way that is easy, fast and efficient.

Strong search could reduce call center volume. Having robust content, frequently asked questions and support answers allows customers to get answers without needing to contact call center agents.

Provide support as mobile adoption increases. Customers will have more questions as banks introduce more self-service options, like online account opening, mobile deposit and online bill pay. Banks should anticipate this and have support answers in place to facilitate faster adoption.

Create opportunity and invite action through search. Banks can drive deeper customer engagement into various product offerings by writing actionable support answers. For example, the answer for a search query for “routing number” could include information about what customers can do with a routing number, like set up direct deposit or bill pay. This approach can increase the likelihood they take such actions.

Banks can do more with less. The more that customers use self-service digital and mobile channels and find information that addresses their queries, the fewer employees a bank needs to staff customer service centers. Institutions may find they can grow without adding a commensurate number of employees.

Banks should review their digital channels to ensure they are providing support content that addresses the ways customers seek information. Content around general search terms needs to be robust. Executives will need to keep in mind that most search terms require 10 or more custom answers to address the transactional, informational and navigational forms of customer intent.

Small Business Lending: A Case for Digital Improvement

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lending-1-3-18.pngIn a world where we can summon a car to pick us up in five minutes, and pizzas are delivered by drones, banks are being challenged by small business owners to create a secure digital environment to meet all of their customers’ banking needs—including applying for a loan—at their convenience.

Banks today have a great opportunity for digital improvement in the area of lending. For example, in traditional small business lending, the administrative and overhead costs to underwrite a $50,000 loan and a $1 million loan are essentially the same. With the aid of technology, underwriting costs are greatly reduced through a more efficient process.

In addition to reducing the cost to generate a loan, another direct benefit is the reduction in time for both the borrower and bank staff. Banks that implement technology that allows new and existing customers to apply for a small business loan online can reduce end-to-end time for both the borrower and the lender. The borrower can apply for the loan, upload documents and receive all closing documents digitally. If the online borrower has questions, the customer is assigned to a lender who can provide help through the process via phone, email or even in person, if needed. As an added benefit, the banker can focus on the customer in front of him and can start an application in the branch for the borrower, who then can finish the application in their home or office.

We now live in an era where user experience is at the front and center of everything a company does, and a painful process or poor user experience means that a prospective borrower may go elsewhere to apply for a loan. Banks that embrace digital lending technology today can differentiate themselves by delivering exceptional customer service. In addition to reducing costs and streamlining the process, lenders and borrowers can see several additional advantages to a digital experience.

Borrowers complete the application in less time.
Technology is transforming the way banks can accept applications, and can provide borrowers with a secure application that can be completed anywhere on any device, including with their banker in a branch or online.

Documents are managed securely.
Digital lending technology is advantageous because it also enables the borrower to deliver important documents to the lender quickly and securely. Instead of the lender waiting for physical copies, borrowers can upload documents to a secure portal, helping to shorten the process.

A more efficient process increases customer satisfaction.
Paper-based applications take a lot of time to fill out, and can create frustration for the borrower and the lender if a section is missed. The more efficient the lending process is, the greater the borrower satisfaction rate will be—allowing your team to build better and larger relationships.

From slim interest rate margins to competitive alternative lenders, many financial institutions are facing pressure to find a way to make lending profitable again. Leveraging technology to streamline the loan process and improve the borrower experience will lead to increased profitability for financial institutions, which is possible today with the help of technology.

Defining, Adopting and Executing on Fintech

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fintech-9-5-17.pngFintech has become a convenient (and amorphous) term applied to virtually any technology or technology-enabled process that is, or might be, applied within financial services. While the technologies are complex, the vast array of the current wave of fintech boils down to three simple dynamics: (1) leveraging technology to measure or predict customer need or behavior; (2) meeting customer need through the best customer experience possible; and (3) the ability to execute more nimbly to evolve products and services and how they are delivered.

Every reasonably well-versed person in fintech knows that the ability to predict customer need or behavior is achieved through a strong data infrastructure combined with a high-quality analytics function. But what defines the quality of the customer experience? At Fundation, we believe the quality of the customer experience within financial services is determined by the convenience, simplicity, transparency, intuitiveness and security of the process by which a product or service is delivered. The challenge for many financial services companies in developing the optimal customer experience lies in the rigidity of their legacy systems. They lack the flexibility to continually innovate products and services and how they are delivered.

The distinct advantage that fintech firms like Fundation have over traditional financial services companies is the flexibility gained from building their technology infrastructures from scratch on modern technology. With in-house application development and data operations capabilities, fintechs can rapidly engineer and, more importantly, reengineer the customer experience and their business processes. The capacity to reengineer user interface (UI), user experience (UX) and back-end processes is a major factor in the ability of financial services companies to maintain a competitive edge in the digital era where customers are accustomed to engaging with the likes of Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple in their digital lives.

Banks Remain Well Positioned to Win With Fintech
Armed with these capabilities, we, like so many fintechs, could be thumping our chests about how we are going to transform banking. But at Fundation, we see the future differently. We believe that the biggest disruption to banking is not going to come from outside of the banking industry—it’s going to come from the inside. A handful of banks (and maybe more) will reengineer their technology and data infrastructure using modern systems and processes, developed internally and augmented through highly integrated partnerships with fintechs. As a result, these banks will generate superior financial returns and take market share as customers migrate to firms that provide the experiences they expect.

In addition to enjoying a lower cost of capital advantage versus fintechs, we believe banks are well positioned for three other reasons. First, banks will remain the dominant choice of customers for financial products given their brand strength and existing market share. Second, banks have far more data than the average fintech that can be used to develop predictive analytics to determine customer need or behavior. Third, and perhaps most important, banks have what we at Fundation call the “trust asset:” their customers trust that they will protect their information and privacy and that they will recommend products best suited to their needs.

Be the Manufacturer or the General Contractor
Banks are in a strong position to win the fintech revolution but what remains are the complexities of how to execute. There are a few basic strategies:

  1. Do nothing
  2. Manufacture your own capabilities
  3. Operate as the general contractor, aligning your institution with third parties that can do the manufacturing
  4. Some combination of manufacturing and general contracting

For banks that are predominantly in relationship-driven lines of business rather than transactional lines of business, doing nothing is viable for now. The pressures on your business are not as severe, and a wait-and-see approach may enable you to make more informed decisions when the time is right.

For others, doing nothing is fraught with peril. Assuming that you choose one of the remaining three options, the implementation process will be hard, but what may be even harder is the change in organizational psychology necessary to execute on your decision. Resistance to change is natural.

That is why fintech initiatives should be driven top-down. Executive leadership should command these initiatives and set the vision. More important, executive leaders should explain why the institution is pursuing a fintech initiative and why it has decided to build, partner or outsource. Explaining why can reduce the natural resistance to, and fear of, change.

Manufacturing your own capabilities is hard work but has advantages. It provides maximum control over the project and limits your vendor management risk. The downside is that the skill sets required to execute are wide-ranging. That said, building in-house doesn’t mean that everything needs to be proprietary technology. Most fintech platforms are a combination of proprietary technology along with third-party customized components. Should you elect to build off of third-party software, you must ensure that the platform is highly configurable and customizable. If you don’t have significant influence over customization, you will lose the opportunity to reengineer the processes necessary to rapidly innovate and evolve.

Being the general contractor isn’t easy, either, but banks are very adept at it. You could make the argument that most banks are just an amalgamation of business lines, each of which employs a different system (mostly third-party) and are already operating as general contractors. The business line leaders we have come to know have significant experience managing critical third-party vendors and therefore have the skill set and knowledge to manage even the most innovative financial technology partners. What’s more, they often know what they would want their operating platforms to do, as opposed to what they are built to do today.

Should your institution decide to outsource services to a fintech firm, it is paramount to align interests. Banks should embrace their fintech counterparty as a partner, not simply a vendor. Welcome the flexibility that they offer, and allow them to empower your institution to innovate and evolve.

Don’t Squander the “Trust Asset”
In a world where Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple dominate the digital landscape, deliver ideal customer experiences, and may possess a “trust asset” of their own, the status quo is not an option, no matter how painful change can be. If your financial institution intends to compete over the long term, executing on a fintech road map is vital, moving towards infrastructures with a foundation of flexibility. Over the next decade, flexibility will allow financial services companies to compete more effectively by delivering the products, services and experiences that customers will demand. Flexibility is what will allow your institution to maintain its competitive position over the long term.

Mobile Deposit Penetration Key Indicator of Readiness for Digital Transformation

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Banking is being dramatically transformed by digital and mobile technologies. The widespread proliferation of smartphones, with their sophisticated cameras and mobile capture capabilities, creates a valuable opportunity for banks to shift both their retail and commercial customers from the physical banking habits of the past to new, digital channels—which can increase customer loyalty and save banks billions of dollars in operating costs. According to research by Bain & Company, branch visits are expensive for the bank, at an average cost of $4 to complete the same transaction that would cost about 40 cents if done through a mobile channel, and the branch traffic that persists today is dominated by routine transactions that could easily be transitioned to digital. As much as 8 percent of branch visits are simply to check an account balance, and a whopping 31 percent are to deposit checks.

Clearly, U.S. banks have a tremendous opportunity ahead of them if they can migrate more of their consumer and commercial customers from high-cost branches to self-service mobile channels for routine transactions. Mobile deposit technology can provide a strategic advantage by helping banks accelerate this migration. It has long been understood that mobile deposit is one of the most powerful options available to financial institutions for driving increased adoption of all mobile banking services.

Forward-thinking banks, analysts and investors are all recognizing the role that mobile deposit plays as a key indicator of a bank’s readiness for the digital future. That’s why banks like Bank of America Corp. are now reporting their mobile deposit growth rates in their quarterly earnings reports. They understand that demonstrating growing mobile deposit penetration indicates to investors that they are not only on the path to digital transformation, but that they also have the type of mobile-first customer base that every bank wants.

It’s not just consumer banking that can benefit from shifting transactions towards mobile. The commercial side of the business has a major opportunity to increase mobile banking services with mobile deposit as well. Paper checks remain the dominant form of payment for many businesses. A full 97 percent of small businesses still rely on paper checks to make and receive B2B payments, and according to the Federal Reserve, more than 17 billion checks were circulated in 2015. Yet, too many banks continue to rely on outdated practices, providing proprietary hardware to their commercial clients for scanning checks or simply expecting businesses to visit a branch or ATM to make their deposits. By leveraging commercial mobile deposit technology, businesses can batch deposit multiple checks using a mobile device faster than they can via a typical single-feed scanner. As the research firm Celent puts it, “mobile is the new scanner.” Celent also states that banks have an opportunity for 10 percent annual revenue growth over the short term by transitioning more of their commercial customers to mobile deposit.

To help transition both consumer and commercial customers from the physical banking habits of the past to the more mobile, self-service model of the future, banks must provide a superior mobile user experience. The research firm Futurion Digital conducted a thorough analysis of the mobile deposit user experience at 15 of the top U.S. banks and discovered a direct correlation between the quality of the user experience and adoption rates for mobile banking services. Banks that want to increase customer usage of their mobile banking applications would be wise to review the best practices and recommendations identified in the report in order to better position themselves against their peers.

In short, as physical branches become less important to a bank’s consumer or business banking strategy, transitioning customers to digital channels will be critically important to ensure they still have access to the services they need. Doing so can actually help banks increase customer loyalty and save billions of dollars by moving routine transactions to lower-cost, self-service channels. As one of the most popular features among mobile banking services, mobile deposit plays a strategic role in enticing customers to adopt all mobile banking services, and a bank’s mobile deposit penetration rates serve as a key indicator of its readiness for digital transformation. By focusing on delivering a superior mobile user experience and actively engaging with customers to help them make the transition to mobile, banks will be well-positioned for the future.

Innovation Spotlight: BankMobile

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Dan Armstrong, Managing Director and Chief Digital Officer, BankMobile

In his role as chief digital officer, Dan Armstrong is responsible for co-leading BankMobile Labs, which houses BankMobile’s technology development team focused on user experience and innovation. In this interview, he discusses how BankMobile has taken ownership of its technology to provide a curated consumer experience. In early March, BankMobile announced its acquisition by Flagship Community Bank in Clearwater, Florida, for $175 million. Previously, it had been a division of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania-based Customers Bancorp.

Who helps execute the innovation strategy at BankMobile?
We have BankMobile Labs—a whole division of programmers, business systems analysts, graphic designers, onboarding and fraud specialists and more, all in-house. We also have a student labs division in New Haven, Connecticut, managing the BankMobile Disbursements business and the BankMobile Vibe app for students. We have so many people charged with innovation, and it’s pretty much the core of our consumer proposition.

How does BankMobile keep a pulse on changing consumer expectations?
I suppose the same way other banks do: media, conferences, trends, recommendations, reading and participating on panels. We have a very strong strategy of testing other fintech products in the market, too, to see what we can learn about making a better customer experience.

When it comes to implementing a fintech solution, would you rather buy, build or partner?
In May 2015, BankMobile set up a fintech software and services development division, so we build 90 percent of our technology in-house. We do have vendors for elements of our solutions, like cards, remote check deposit, photo billpay and P2P payments, as well as risk, fraud and credit-scoring—but they are all integrated into our in-house technology, platforms and apps. We don’t put vendor/partner technology directly in the hands of customers, as we strongly like to create and curate the customer experience, and differentiate where possible.

Marstone: Friend or Foe

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One of the biggest competitors that incumbent banks, institutions and advisory firms face today is the Robo Advisor. Fintech startups and apps like Betterment and Wealthfront are giving consumers convenient, seamless access to financial planning using automation and artificial intelligence (AI).

However, one fintech startup is trying to do the exact opposite, putting robo advising technology in the hands of incumbents: Marstone. As a digital, white label robo advisory platform for wealth management, Marstone’s goal is to create branded user experiences that are on par with cutting edge fintech competitors. Towards that end, Marstone recently partnered with fintech leader Fiserv to offer banks that rely on Fiserv for their core processing technology a full suite of robo advisory services under the “Powered by Marstone” moniker.

But exactly how powerful will Marstone be when it comes to helping established institutions? Let’s take a closer look and find out.

THE GOOD
The main challenge that Marstone attempts to address for incumbent financial institutions is the speed at which they need to innovate to keep pace with fintech robo-advisory apps and services. Through their existing relationship with Pershing and their partnership with Fiserv, Marstone can provide white label robo advisory services to more institutions across the country that are also Fiserv clients. This includes everything from big banks that are competing with services like Fidelity Go, all the way down to local banks and credit unions.

Marstone develops its AI tech through partnerships with some of the top technology companies, such as IBM Watson. Its platform offers automated holistic account analysis, tailored portfolios and a user experience that feels more like a lifestyle brand than a bank. The goal is to demystify financial decision making for the user, while at the same time solving one of the biggest challenges faced by the industry today: asset retention. There’s currently a massive generational wealth transfer going on, as baby boomers pass their assets onto their children.

Big banks and advisory firms that do not offer the younger generation seamless, cost-effective technology solutions that are competitive with apps like Betterment and Robin Hood risk seeing that money walk out the door as soon as it lands in the hands of millennials. By providing a branded solution developed by Marstone to these younger customers, incumbents give themselves a better chance of retaining those assets.

THE BAD
As robo advisory apps, solutions and platforms continue to enter the market, the struggle for incumbents just getting into the game is differentiation. So, one of the questions for some of Marstone’s future clients is, exactly how different will their robo advisory platform look and feel from everyone else’s? Vanguard and Schwab are already well ahead of the robo advisory game in terms of awareness, so do institutions that licensea white label Powered by Marstone suite of services stand a realistic chance of catching up? And will consumers that use the most popular fintech apps like Betterment and Wealthfront be willing to switch over to a branded robo advisor that they’ve never used before? These are a few of the major question marks (and potential hurdles) that Marstone and their incumbent partners will likely face in the years ahead.

OUR VERDICT: FRIEND
Innovating to keep pace with fintech startups is a huge challenge for big banks, traditional wealth advisories and even smaller credit unions. The cost of internal innovation and development is huge, especially when it comes to complex AI robo advisory solutions. Marstone is helping to alleviate much of that burden, allowing banks to offer competitive robo advisory services without the cost and headache of both development and ongoing maintenance. We see their partnership with Fiserv as a sign of friendship to incumbents, as Marstone will now be able to scale its operation and bring Powered by Marstone white label solutions to even more institutions. This should have a substantial positive impact on customer experience, and asset retention, for clients of Marstone.

The Seven Facets of a Digital Bank

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If one were to start a new digital bank today, what would the defining characteristics be? Although there are some similarities to traditional bank counterparts, digital-only banks are in many respects very different. Here are the seven facets of a digital bank that will help drive its success.

Adjacent to each facet are organizations, including digital-only and traditional banks, as well financial technology companies, that Bank Director believes embody each characteristic.

Why Banks Are Buying Design Firms

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design-1-22-16.pngWithin the past 18 months, two of the industry’s more innovative banks have made some seemingly odd acquisitions. McLean, Virginia-based Capital One Financial Corp., in October 2014, acquired Adaptive Path. The Spanish-based BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria) acquired Spring Studio in April 2015. The common thread between these acquisitions? Both are San Francisco-based user experience and design firms.

Banks are seeing a critical need to improve customer experience, says Norm DeLuca, managing director of digital banking at Bottomline Technologies, a technology provider for commercial banks. He believes that changing consumer expectations and competition both within the industry and from fintech startups are contributing to a heightened focus on user experience. “One of the biggest differentiators that fintechs and new innovators lead with is a much simpler and [more] attractive user experience,” he says.

Customers increasingly identify their financial institution through their online experiences more than personal interactions, says Simon Mathews, chief strategy officer at San Francisco-based Extractable, a digital design agency. He believes that Capital One and BBVA found a way to more quickly improve the digital experience at their institutions. It’s a relatively new field, and good user experience designers aren’t easy to find. “What’s the quickest way to build a team? Go buy one,” says Mathews.

Design is only one piece of the puzzle. “Great design is important, but it really is only the tip of the iceberg on user experience,” says DeLuca.

A bank can’t expect to place a great design on top of outdated technology and create a good user experience, says Mathews. Data plays a key role. Customers with multiple accounts want to see their total relationship with the bank in one spot. That requires good, clean data, says Mathews.

The products and services offered by a financial institution need to be integrated. Can the customer easily manage and access separate products, such as loans and deposit accounts? Often, the process can be disjointed, and it’s a competitive disadvantage for the bank. “You might as well be buying from separate providers, if the experiences are separate,” says DeLuca.

Data analytics can also help banks personalize products and services for the customer, says Stephen Greer, an analyst with the research firm Celent. The industry is spending a lot on data analytics, “largely to craft that perfect customer experience,” he says.

While technology can be updated, organizational challenges are more difficult to overcome. Banks tend to operate within silos–deposit accounts in one area, wealth management in another and that doesn’t align with the needs of the consumer. “They don’t think, necessarily, about the total experience the user has,” says Mathews. “Users move fluidly between [delivery] channels.”

Great user experience requires “a really deep understanding of customer’s lives, and the environment they’re in, and what they’re trying to do and why,” says Jimmy Stead, executive vice president of e-commerce at Frost Bank, based in San Antonio, Texas, with $28 billion in assets.

Many banks rely on vendors for their technology needs, but “if the user experience relies on the vendors that they’re working with, and those vendors have solutions that are not customizable, then it’s really hard for them to address the customer experience,” says Alex Jimenez, a consultant and formerly senior vice president of digital and payments innovation at $7.1 billion asset Rockland Trust Co., based in Rockland, Massachusetts.

According to a June 2015 poll of banks and credit unions conducted by Celent, more than one-third rely on the user experience supplied by the bank’s vendor for online banking, mobile and tablet applications, with minimal customization. Realizing the increasing importance of the online channel, Frost Bank decided to build its own online banking platform internally in 2000, and continues to manage its user experience in-house. The bank still works with vendors, but is picky when it comes to those relationships. “How can we integrate them seamlessly into our experience?” Stead says he asks of vendors.

Today, expectations are shaped by Apple and Amazon, companies that have done a great job of defining the consumer experience. While more innovative banks like BBVA and Capital One are making user experience a priority, many financial institutions don’t provide a cohesive digital experience, or let their website and mobile app lag behind consumer expectations.

“We can’t fall too much in love with what we have today,” says Stead. “Technology moves so fast.”

What Should Your Internet Banking Platform Look Like?

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internet-banking-06-24-15.pngInternet banking is undergoing a transformation. In many ways, this evolution of the legacy Internet channel is being driven by the emergence and potential prominence of mobile banking. According to a report from the Federal Reserve, Consumers and Mobile Financial Services 2015, “the prevalence of mobile banking continued to increase, reaching 39 percent of mobile phone users with bank accounts and 52 percent of smartphone users with bank accounts.”

As Internet and mobile channels continue to evolve, so does the proliferation of other device categories, such as wearables, including smart watches. The expansion and convergence of these new categories give financial institutions the ability to better service customers and create a consistent user experience regardless of channel.

This is not about a single channel handling all customer interactions; users will likely choose all channels, and some will likely lead over others. Rather, it is about a blended experience across channels. Ask the management team of any community bank if they still offer telephone touchtone banking and the answer is yes. Channels rarely go away and there is nothing wrong with that. Again, the challenge is blending all these categories.

How Does This Impact Internet Banking Today?
The Internet channel can be classified as legacy technology. The way a customer uses the channel, the screens they see, the features available to them, are all “set-in-their-ways” and reflect a certain very specific design sensibility. No doubt this is a powerful legacy, so much so, that when the industry started creating the mobile banking experience, it was highly influenced by the Internet. Internet led the charge. Internet defined the standards. Then something changed. Mobile devices became ubiquitous.

According to the Federal Reserve study, as of December 2014, 87 percent of the U.S. population ages 18 and older owned or had regular access to a mobile phone. The smartphone was the most popular type: It runs applications in addition to accessing the Internet and functioning as a phone. The application is the single most significant part of this evolution toward smartphones. Easy to use, much more fun than the Internet and reflecting a new design sensibility, the smartphone marked a departure.

Mobile Is Now Driving the Evolution
The Internet needs a refresh. It is a somewhat old and stale legacy technology that has not been seriously refreshed in a decade. This technology and design refresh is being led by mobile. Internet banking will start to look like mobile banking apps, which have proven to be “cooler” and easier to use. And all of them will start to have a consistency in the features offered and their look. The customer wins. They get to do whatever it is they are trying to accomplish, via whichever channel they choose. The end result is a platform that is convenient, consistent and engaging.

The Best Customer Experience
There are many industry terms that try to encapsulate the concept of the many customer channels. The phrases “digital channel” and “omni channel” represent some of this industry jargon. We all generally agree that the goal is to have mobile, Internet and other systems provide a consistent experience for a customer. Bank boards and management teams should demand that the channels converge around whatever makes the best sense for the customer. The technology and the design sensibility are all avenues to the primary goal of creating satisfied and delighted customers.

The good news is that this is attainable today in a way that was never imagined a decade ago. The technology involved in delivering customer channels, such as Internet and mobile, have matured and in many ways blended due to industry forces and the regular movements of the technology markets. This is good for bankers and good for customers. This next step of transforming Internet banking will create the next big opportunity for banks to differentiate their digital strategies.