The Customer Experience Stats Banks Should Be Measuring

For financial institutions, customers are the key to just about everything – from revenue to reputation. But ultimately, they’re the key to sustained success. If your bank or credit union is planning to revamp its current customer outreach, a customer centric approach could be exactly what you need to re-energize your institution, identify and address weaknesses, and positively impact customer loyalty.

But before you can begin making changes, you need to know what your customers currently think and where your pain points lie. Why do people choose a competitor over your institution? Why do they choose you over your competitors? Here are some of the most valuable customer experience statistics that banks should measure when reevaluating their customer experience framework.

Trustworthiness

You don’t need us to tell you that people are concerned about the safety of their money. More than that, they’re concerned with finding a bank that isn’t “greedy” and is instead dedicated to their best interests. That concern makes trustworthiness one of the most basic factors in creating a loyal banking customer.

The key to building trust? Consistency. Every communication that stems from your financial institution – whether it’s an email, an app alert, or an interaction with a staff member – should feel cohesive, deliver the same level of service, and reassure customers that they’re dealing with a familiar entity capable of keeping their funds secure. At the same time, that entity should be delivering a convenient and “fair” experience, protecting customers from fraud, and continually identifying ways to reduce costs or make their banking experience easier. It’s a tall order, but one that many banks seek to fulfill by analyzing current customer responses.

Reliability

Our research indicates that reliability is strongly linked to the absence of problems. Customers often source their loyalty back to the idea that “I’ve been with them for years and never had any problems.” If and when those problems do come up, a strong problem resolution process will serve to increase the perception of reliability. At that point, things boil down to whether or not your customers feel like you’re there for them when they’re in a bind.

Of course, it’s impossible to plan for every potential scenario. Smaller financial institutions, for example, might be unable to staff a live representative or employ the more expensive technology that larger banks may have at their disposal. This could very well lead to a negative customer response if he or she expects immediate help and doesn’t get it!

Professionalism

Don’t equate this one to stuffiness. If you want to give off a cool, edgy vibe for some targeted generation Z marketing campaigns, go for it – “hip” and “professional” can absolutely mix. This experience measurement is more concerned with the perception of demeanor and knowledge. A friendly greeting, undivided attention, and quick and efficient action all serve to boost customer perception of professionalism.

A poor result here could indicate an underlying issue with your tellers or even your internal support staff. To improve this score, you might also examine recent customer complaints: what was the response time, and was the client’s issue actually resolved? Truly responsive, proactive financial institutions will come out on top here. In fact, we’ve found that banks can actually gain loyalty through problem resolution – if they do it right.

Ease of Doing Business

Investigating the general opinion of your financial institution’s ease of use and overall accessibility will go a long way in revealing pain points that are driving customers away. What do your customers think of your banking process? How simple and straightforward are basic transactions? And what about more complex ones?

In our experience, ease of doing business boils down to the accessibility of technology a financial institution offers, knowledgeable employees, and the ability to avoid fees. For the most part, less is more, and the simple solution is likely the most effective one. If the idea of applying for a new account or a mortgage fills customers with dread and confusion, your process might need some smoothing out.

Likelihood to Refer a Friend

Word of mouth isn’t quite so literal anymore – in fact, a post on a social networking site like Facebook or Twitter has five times the impact of traditional word of mouth! It stands to reason that financial institutions want to do everything in their power to appeal to customers on a more personal level, in a way that encourages them to share their positive experiences online and seek a dialogue rather than air complaints on social media.

Learning how likely a customer is to recommend you to friends and family can help to pinpoint practices that are positively or negatively affecting the experience of all of your customers. And with more and more routine transactions being completed online, complex transactions like applying for a loan become increasingly important to this element of customer satisfaction.

See Results with Avannis

So, now you know what kind of data to seek out. How do you get it? With the help of business banking surveys and other customized surveys that include carefully crafted questionnaires and live interviewers targeting key elements of the customer experience. But measuring these and other statistics is only part of the journey towards increased customer loyalty and a more effective overall experience for your customers.

At Avannis, we’ve been working with banks big and small to collect crucial customer experience data for over 20 years. Whether you’re working on client retention or the user experience, we’ll cut through the jargon and help you coax the relevant details from the numbers. Contact us today to learn more about how our banking surveys and expertise in customer loyalty can help your financial institution update or build a customer experience from scratch.