The Relevance Challenge
Though banks are still an important part of people's lives as primary financial services provider, their relevance in the market is decreasing because new specialized players (e.g.: FinTechs) are taking some of their market share. Even if this market share is temporarily limited, banks should look for improvement in the areas where they lack the quality and simplicity offered by these new competitors. So they should focus on simple and transparent policies, processes, products and prices, and should also change their structure and culture, in order to deliver against customers' expectations.
The main goal here is to be the central piece in peoples' lives, when they think about financial services. To achieve this, people must trust banks as the best place for their money, not only to store it securely, but also to have access to the best advice based on each ones personal objectives.
To get there, banks must build customers' trust by enforcing operational excellence and a customercentric culture, ensuring complete transparency on products and services pricing and proactively protecting their data.
This can be obtained through a better understanding of who the customers are, what are their individual needs and expectations and what products and services, even non-financial services, are the best for them.
To better understand them, the customers should be in the heart of an "omni-channel" organization, strategically designed to allow customers to comfortably move from one channel to another of their preference, without the constraints imposed by banks today.
Taking FinTechs as a great example of simplicity and excellence in customer experience is one way to better understand where are the gaps and where to start the changes. Banks should not only do the same things that FinTechs do, they should also work with FinTechs, as partners or even acquiring them, as they are being perceived as the innovation engine for the industry. This is the path for a bright future for banks.
Nobiletec is a multi-national consultancy firm specializes in B2B, B2C and P2P FinTech solutions.
