The banking industry is in the midst of a digital transformation. Driven by surging customer demand for contextual, personalized financial services experiences, this shift has given rise to several new competitive priorities for banks that wish to maintain market share amid the rapidly evolving landscape. 

To ensure future-readiness, financial institutions must be able to support end-to-end customer journeys, enable connections with external brands and deliver contextual solutions in real-time, supported by data and analytics. 

Achieving these capabilities will require banks to invest in new technology, improve operational efficiencies and partner with third-party providers that can support innovation at speed and scale. 

In a recent podcast, Galileo Chief Product Officer David Feuer spoke with the Financial Brand’s Jim Marous, to share how Galileo’s end-to-end banking platform solution is helping support banks’ digital transformation. 

Among the key concepts Feuer highlighted was how banks can leverage contextual digital data to optimize customer support, thereby increasing user satisfaction–in turn driving long-term loyalty and gaining a competitive advantage by turning what is often thought of as a necessary cost into a valuable differentiator.

Data drives more meaningful engagements.

Historically, banks’ approach to providing customer support has been marked by an emphasis on “call containment,” a principle that prioritizes reducing the number of requests that must be elevated to a human agent for assistance, Feuer noted. 

Under the traditional strategy, banks think, “What’s the fastest way for us to solve this problem? Because it’s a cost issue,” Feuer noted. “I think banks are losing the opportunity to actually create a very specific tailored experience to tell customers, Hey, we’ve got you. We understand what you need."

The key to providing this bespoke experience lies in leveraging the valuable data banks have on hand, such as previous service requests and recent transaction data, to gain clearer insight into a given customer’s needs in order to proactively address issues and offer highly relevant solutions, according to Feuer. 

“It’s not necessarily about solving the problem quickly; it’s solving the problem in the deepest, most informative way,” the Galileo CPO said. That could mean recommending a buy now, pay later solution as an alternative to racking up additional credit card debt, he added.

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“Banks should use data not to drive a whole bunch of engagement in an artificial way, but rather, to help customers get deeper insights into whatever they're trying to solve,” advised Feuer.

Building customer relationships in the digital age.

Financial institutions that can successfully leverage data to provide meaningful support and solutions stand to benefit from happier customers who feel a deeper connection to the bank. That dynamic is particularly important as digital channels have overtaken physical branches as the primary channel via which banks establish and develop relationships with their customers, Feuer observed.

While banks in the past fostered such connections via regular face-to-face interaction with customers, the shift away from brick-and-mortar banking has limited opportunities for such in-person exposure, so banks must find ways to build trust via digital avenues. 

“Banks have always known the relationship with a customer is important, and I think being able to create that sort of connection is really important as banks take their muscle memory from branch banking and bring that into the digital era,” said Feuer. 

In today’s digital-centric banking marketplace, Feuer said one key question banks should be asking themselves is “How do we break down the walls of the digital interface between customers and the bank so that the customer is getting a consistent experience and feels as if they and their needs are front and center?” 

Unlocking the value of data to offer personalized service and meaningful assistance is one powerful way banks can provide that customer-centric experience.

This is the first installment in a special multi-part blog series. Click here to read Part 2. To catch the full interview with Jim Marous from the Financial Brand, click here.

FIs’ top competitive priorities amid banking’s tech transformation.