This post is the first in a three-part series where we’ll discuss how a high-performance low-code development platform can help banks stay competitive and differentiate themselves in today’s modern digital world.
Table of contents:
- The Rise of the Customer Experience in Banking
- The Challenge of Transforming the Customer Experience in Banking
- Accelerating the Transformation of the Digital Customer Experience
- Staying Compliant and Secure
Today we’re going to kick things off by looking at why customer experiences are crucial for setting your bank apart in one of the most competitive markets: the financial sector. We’ll also talk about how banks can leverage low-code to accelerate the transformation of those journeys, without sacrificing compliance or increasing risk.
The Rise of the Customer Experience in Banking
Consider this: 84% of customers say the experience a company provides is just as important as the products and services themselves, and 70% of millennials expect an integrated cross-channel experience.
The customer journey in banking has changed as well. Consumers don’t have to only go to a branch to open an account. Instead, they can do so by choosing from 4 different paths:
- 1. Completely online
- 2. Start online and finish in a branch
- 3. Start in a branch and finish online
- 4. Take place entirely in a branch
However, banks are faced with the challenge of seamlessly integrating their branches, mobile apps, and call center systems and creating true omnichannel experiences. Many times banks will have different technology, different developer groups, the lack of API interfaces, and the inability to track customer behavior across the different lines of business.
Yet, the pressure and economics to create a unified account opening process is compelling:
- Customer journeys that started with an online or digital interaction led to more customer satisfaction than those that started in a branch.
- Journeys that were digitized across the most interactions, if not all interactions, resulted in the highest customer satisfaction rates.
- 40% of consumers will abandon the banking onboarding process if it takes too long or requires too much information.
It only goes to show that banks can no longer compete on products and services alone. How they’re delivered is just as important as what they deliver.
Thus, it’s imperative that banks get every experience right throughout the life of the customer journey and to continually refine them over time. Not only will it ensure frictionless experiences, it can lead to 10-20% more customer satisfaction (and, one can assume, improve loyalty and trust), and save 50% on overall acquisition costs.
How banks deliver their products and services is just as important as what they deliver.
The Challenge of Transforming the Customer Experience in Banking
On one hand, it’s easy to see why every bank should prioritize elevating the customer experience. However, it’s not as simple as making a few updates.
If only it were that simple.
For starters, banks must adhere to stringent regulations set forth by the government. Then, there are the security checks, where everything is monitored. And if a mistake is made the bank and/or its employees can face hefty fines, prison time, a wave of negative PR and consumer backlash, or termination.
It’s no wonder why banks want to take their time before rolling out updates. Slow and steady is better than the alternatives. However, it’s a double edged sword, because it impedes innovation.
Even though these checks and balances are in place for everyone’s benefit, they can leave banks feeling like they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to accelerating the transformation of the customer experience.
Accelerating the Transformation of the Digital Customer Experience
Low-code platforms like OutSystems can help relieve the pressure from some of these burdens and frustrations. By placing a visual coding environment at your developers’ fingertips, they can easily create and update the account opening and approval process and make updates to accommodate new payment methods or as regulations demand changes and disclosures.
Two OutSystems clients illustrate the benefits of a low-code platform:
Increased Onboarding Conversions by 30%
Thinkmoney had been using an off-the-shelf digital banking solution, which made it difficult to customize and improve their digital services in a timely manner. The most minor of changes held up innovation and cost a small fortune in fees.
The OutSystems low-code platform helped speed up development significantly while saving them more than $350,000 USD. They replaced three customer-facing services in six months and increased customer onboarding conversions by 30%.
Customer-Centric Systems Approach
Like many banks, Banco BPI’s development resources were fractured along multiple channel silos. New products, or even a minor regulatory change, would cause a significant amount of duplicative efforts, as different systems that serve mobile, web, brand, and contact centers required updating.
As a result, product update releases took considerable effort, and each stage of the process had to be carefully synchronized across different teams working at different speeds on different platforms. This led them to OutSystems, who was able to help them move from their monolithic core to an agile system in only six months. By following the customer journey across all channels, Banco BPI achieved 100% engagement.
Banco BPI also established the necessary governance and architecture needed to reuse virtually all OutSystems development assets, such as data models, logic, processes, APIs, and UI components.
Staying Compliant and Secure
While low-code helps speed up processes and application development, it should never come at the expense of security. That’s why OutSystems was designed for enterprise-level security that’s scalable, reliable, and can handle the most complex of applications.
Staying compliant and secure while keeping pace with the innovation consumers demand is a challenge all banks face. But the OutSystems platform can ease those burdens while increasing productivity and saving you time and money.
To learn what OutSystems can do for your bank check out our Low-Code for Financial Services page. Or book a demo.
