Customer experience in financial services: Trends & best practices

Nearly 72% of customers say personalization influences their choice of bank—but only 3% actually use the personalized tools banks provide. This gap signals a major opportunity.

Financial organizations that prioritize delivering a superior customer experience are poised for success.

In this article, we'll explore how customer expectations are changing and what you can do to deliver superior experiences that foster lasting customer relationships and drive a competitive advantage in the financial services industry.

Traditionally, financial institutions focused on differentiating themselves through the products and services they offered.

But in today's market, features and rates are quickly copied by competitors. What sets financial institutions apart is customer experience, the ability to deliver seamless, personalized services, and engaging interactions across every touchpoint, from onboarding to support.

A positive customer experience can help:

Digital transformation and the entrance of new players into the market, like fintech companies and neo-banks, have disrupted the financial services sector—introducing more user-friendly versions of traditional financial products and raising the bar for customer experience.

Whether it's applying for a debit card, opening a savings account, or renewing coverage, customers expect a superior, frictionless, and personalized experience. However, only 21% of banking customers and 27% of wealth management customers state they're completely satisfied with the digital experience offered to them.

According to Benjamin Humphrey, CEO and co-founder of Dovetail, there's been a notable shift in the financial sector towards creating a more user-centric model.

Now that we've discussed what your customers expect, let's delve into the unique challenges the financial services industry faces in meeting these needs.

Now, with these limitations in mind, let’s consider how you can go about improving the financial services experience for your customers.

Improving customer experience is about deep-diving into all aspects of your products and services and tuning them to the needs of your customers. Here are six actionable initiatives you can focus on to ensure a solid CX strategy that meets—and even exceeds—your customer's expectations.

Understanding your customers is crucial for successful customer experience optimization. Product development within financial services—and any industry, for that matter—should never be based on what you think customers want.

With generative research, you can develop a deeper understanding of your customers' motivations, pain points, and expectations. This helps you identify the right problem you want to solve and gather the evidence needed to move forward confidently.

Map out every touchpoint your customers interact with—from the moment they become aware of your platform to when they either complete a transaction or choose to exit. By mapping out the customer journey, you can get a holistic view of the entire customer experience with your services and products and see what you need to optimize.

This is an ongoing effort that requires cross-functional collaboration, collecting customer input, and the willingness to adapt based on insights gained.

Here's how you can go about it:

Customer-centricity puts the customer at the heart of every decision, strategy, and interaction. Involving customers continuously throughout the product development process leads to better experiences optimized with customers' wants, needs, and goals in mind.

Plus, it's not just the customer experience that benefits from a customer-centric approach. The 2023 Research Maturity Report shows that companies that leverage research at their highest potential achieve 2.3 times better business outcomes than those with low-maturity practices. These include 4.3X faster time-to-market, 4.2X increased revenue, and 3X improved brand perception.

Here are some best practices for building a customer-centric culture:

The transition from in-person to online banking and digital payment methods demands a fresh approach to delivering personalized experiences that build trust, enhance satisfaction, and foster long-term relationships.

Here are some strategies to consider:

The digital landscape is fast-paced and ever-changing, and providing an optimized customer experience requires that you stay up-to-date with the latest technologies and CX trends.

In the 2023 CIO Agenda Report, Gartner found that 21% of enterprise businesses within the banking and investment industry consider improving the user experience their top priority—and plan to increase funding for total experience solutions from 35% to 42% in 2023.

According to the report, artificial intelligence (AI) is the technology most likely to be implemented by 2025, followed by distributed cloud and machine learning operations.

Continuous research provides valuable insights into customer behaviors and expectations across all customer journey stages. This data can be used to further refine the onboarding process, simplify transactions, and encourage positive referrals.

Here's how you can adopt a continuous research mindset:

Improving customer experiences isn't a one-off task but a continuous journey. It's about tuning into your customers' needs and meeting them with data-driven quality and excellence at every touchpoint.

With a continuous product discovery tool like Maze, you can create intuitive, user-friendly experiences that resonate with your customers.

For example, Itaú Unibanco partnered with Maze to scale their usability testing. As one of Latin America’s largest banks, they needed a faster, more reliable way to validate hundreds of digital products for millions of customers.

By shifting to Maze, Itaú:

Financial services customers are demanding more from their customer experience, and they're switching when they're dissatisfied. The future of finance is here—make sure your financial services company isn't left behind.