There are more than 5,000 banks and savings institutions to choose from in the United States, nearly 1,500 banks in Germany, more than 400 in Ireland, and 53 in Australia. Simply put, there’s a lot of competition.

Naturally, financial institutions across the globe are looking for ways to better nurture relationships with their consumers. Today’s digital banking customer expects personalised, seamless, and relevant experiences each time they interact with a company. To meet these evolving expectations, those in the financial services industry need to take a digital-first approach. For the best results, it’s important to look at multiple areas of banking operations and how they interact to create every customer experience.

In order to create exceptional interactions for all banking clients, financial services leaders should look at opportunities where they can optimise self-service functions, improve the client journey, and empower their banking employees. Let’s go over three different ways that financial services providers can address these areas and improve customer service experiences to generate revenue, build loyal clients, and create a positive working environment.

1. Provide Self Service Options

Today’s customers want to independently find the content, information, and solutions they need to complete everyday banking tasks. Most banks already know that self-service is the answer to these expectations - but to provide truly excellent customer experiences, self-service solutions must fulfil both simple and complex user needs.

That means going beyond basic functionality like updating personal information and accessing information. Customers should also be able to:

• Open new accounts on their own
• Request loans digitally
• Ask common questions through AI chatbots in their banking portal

Self-service isn’t just beneficial for customers. It also helps banks save money, increase agent productivity, and reduce the volume of calls taken in the contact centre. Digital-first customer service is the way forward in the financial industry, allowing customers to work independently and giving customer service representatives more time to tackle more complex issues.

2. Focus on Omnichannel Experiences

The COVID-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst for many in the banking industry to focus on and invest more into digital-first services and solutions. Banks realised that the more agile their platforms, the easier it would be for them to respond quickly to ongoing changes in both customer behaviour and customer demand. Now more than ever, clients want to interact with their banks across multiple devices, receive multichannel support, and receive a cohesive digital customer experience.

Banking Across All Devices

Omnichannel solutions offer a more engaging and seamless customer service experience for clients, agents, and advisors. With digital channels in place, customers are able to perform transactions through mobile banking apps, on web applications, or from personal computers or tablets. This includes sending money, managing credit cards, applying for loans, or updating personal information anytime and on any device they choose. 

Accessible Customer Service

When a platform enables the delivery of omnichannel experiences, it also creates more opportunities for customer satisfaction. That’s because omnichannel solutions let customers interact with their bank across multiple touchpoints, both online and in-person. For example, if a user begins a loan request online, they should be able to walk into a branch and talk to someone who can immediately see and complete this request.

Omnichannel solutions also allow users to interact with customer service teams more easily. With integrated customer support platforms like mobile messaging, live chatting, or video tellers, customer representatives have the power to provide excellent experiences that span different touchpoints. 

Digital Synchronisation

Effective omnichannel solutions ensure accurate, real-time data synchronisation that makes customer service smooth and efficient. For example, if a banking client begins a transaction with a credit union on one device, they should be able to switch to another channel and easily pick up where they left off. The user won’t have to start over, re-enter information, or be unable to perform the same functions on a different platform. This also means that agents will have better visibility into their account if the client decides to contact support for further help. 

3. Consider the Banking Industry Employee

While it may seem that improving customer engagement and customer service is all about benefiting the banking client, it’s equally important to equip agents for success in their work. There’s actually a significant connection between employee experience and customer experience; a survey by IDC found that 85% of respondents believe an improved employee experience and higher employee engagement lead to better customer experiences and higher revenues.

To leverage this connection, agent portals can be pre-built with capabilities and tools that employees need to serve customers better. With a digital workplace, they can collaborate with other teams, have easy access to client banking information, and perform their jobs more effectively. This helps improve employee engagement and job satisfaction, which directly helps improve the customer service received by clients.

Because the finance and banking sector often involves multiple stakeholders and partners, a digital workplace is important for ensuring agent success. When agents are able to easily communicate and share data with their clients or outside brokers, the bank can increase operational efficiency and provide exceptional customer service.

Build Customer Loyalty with Liferay

No matter what stage of digital transformation a bank is in, it’s both important and possible to improve the areas of self-service, omnichannel, and employee experience. Whether your bank is at the very early stages of digitalisation or further along the digital journey, Liferay’s digital experience platform (Liferay DXP) can help ensure a financial institution is working toward a more customer-centric way of banking. From implementing self-service client portals to creating unified workspaces, Liferay makes improving banking service through digital transformation simpler.

Download our whitepaper, Customer Experience — A Key Differentiator for Financial Organisations, to learn more about how a digital transformation with Liferay can help you focus on key priorities when developing your next customer experience strategy.