Customer Feedback: Why It Matters and How To Get It
As if banks and credit unions didn’t have enough competition among themselves, the expansion of fintechs into the financial sector has made the contest for customers’ business even more fierce. You may think you’re doing a terrific job and that your customers love you, but how will you know for sure unless you ask?
Know Your Customer
According to a Consumer Banking Survey, 93 percent of customers said that their financial institution at least meets their needs, but only 36 percent felt their bank or credit union exceeded their expectations. That means that, while most people are satisfied with what their financial institution is doing for them now, more than a third of them could be lured away by someone else who goes beyond meeting their needs to outright delight them. It also highlights the risk banks and credit unions run when they don’t seek out customer feedback and act on it.
Take customer complaints, for instance. They’re one fact of life in the financial services industry that can’t be avoided, and tracking customer complaints is one of the newer Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) requirements. Performance improvement specialists know that resolving negative issues is vital for creating a successful customer experience. Institutions that respond to complaints quickly and consistently are taking a step in the right direction. Often, however, banks and credit unions stop with tracking grievances instead of seeing them as opportunities to dazzle customers and exceed expectations. Analyzing complaint data can give financial institutions insight into who customers really are—what do they expect, how can you help them, and what else can your bank or credit union do that will surprise them and improve their experience with you? Viewed in that light, gathering feedback is valuable not only for taking corrective action but also as vital input for new product development.
Loyal Customers = Increase in Revenue
The level of loyalty your institution generates can offer a prediction of your future profitability. An article in Harvard Business Review reported that an increase in customer loyalty by 5 percent can increase the profit of a business up to nearly 100 percent. That means improving the quality of service and, in turn, the customers’ experience is an investment, one that typically pays a larger dividend than cost-cutting strategies.
Knowing this, it makes sense to stay in touch with customers, keeping a finger on the pulse of their needs and expectations. In today’s increasingly competitive market, banks and credit unions that can cultivate loyal customers are the clear winners. A happy customer won’t go looking for someone else to provide financial services. It makes sense, then, to invest in gathering feedback so you can start funneling customers into the loyal category and beef up profits to boot.
A Proven, Effective Customer Feedback System
At Avannis, we already have a proven system in place to collect data from your customers. We offer a variety of tools, available in a convenient, centralized location. We monitor incoming information and provide continuous feedback, so you don’t have to try to analyze the data on your own. With more than 20 different surveys to choose from, you can customize the feedback you’re looking for from relationship studies to transaction-based studies and we even offer surveys geared toward chat or call center interaction.
To help collect data, Avannis uses every method available, including receiving a management query report from your core, never interfacing or accepting anything private. Additionally, we monitor social media for comments, use transaction-triggered surveys, chat connects, or call center monitoring.
Next, we analyze and execute, scanning the reports for relevant interactions that fit your priorities, scrubbing and protecting the data. We combine it all and make it easy to access from your institution’s private, customized dashboard.
In the end, at Avannis, the feedback we gather from your customers drips in daily to each part of your bank or credit union, in small actionable quantities. This continuous flow of feedback keeps you well informed about everything, and we monitor it all so you don’t have to.
Avannis has been gathering feedback successfully for smaller banks and credit unions for 23 years. We specialize in customer feedback and offer a cost-effective way for banks to truly get to know their customers, improve the customer experience, increase customer loyalty, and capitalize on what their customers are thinking. What’s more, we make it easy for financial institutions to comply with CFPB requirements. Contact us today to learn more about how Avannis can help you connect with customers, reduce attrition risks and, most importantly, gather reliable data to improve services and train your team.