5 Goals for Digital Banking Success in 2016

It is old news that banks have a tendency to innovate and change at a much slower pace than other industries due to slow compliance and regulatory processes and reluctance to change.

This being said, the world is advancing digitally at a remarkable pace and financial institutions are at risk of being left behind if they don't keep up with this digital evolution. We have compiled a list of 5 goals for financial institutions seeking digital banking success in 2016.

1) Omnichannel Experience

Ultimately, each one of your customers should be able to do pretty much any task on any device, within reason. For example, the bank that allows a user to create an account in store or on their desktop or on their mobile device is thinking in the right direction to becoming an omnichannel financial institution. Customers expect the same experience across devices and become frustrated when they cannot complete a task when and where they want to.

2) Customer first not product first

Banks need to meet the customer when they need it and where they need it and the bank that choose to put the customer experience before profit making products will see success in 2016. Banks need to be considering how their customer interact with their brand and what pain points they have with their current banking experience. From this they will need to develop products that redefine the experience their customers have with their bank, whether that is through an online customer service platform or virtual support team.

3) Improvements to the Mobile Experience

Some mobile banking experiences are good. Most need some significant updates to keep up with the changing digital landscape. With more and more customers using their phones to complete financial errands, it is increasingly more imperative to have a strong mobile-first experience for your customers especially with competitive start-ups developing disruptive technologies and taking a portion of the market share. The idea here is to fully understand your buyer's journey and meet them at every step of the way, whether that is through programmatic ads, retargeting, a helpful blog or online virtual assistant. Meet your consumer where they are, not where you think they are.

4) Engaging through Social

Most brands have succumbed to the idea that they need to have some sort of a social presence on at two, or maybe three platforms. Many financial institutions only use this space to share news and updates from the company, and this is a missed opportunity. Social is a fantastic space to engage your consumer and offer a customer service off your website in a more social space. Social platforms have a bunch of wonderful tools to enable your brand to host opinion polls and surveys in a more relaxed space that an email marketing effort. There is one downside to social, and that is the negative feedback and trolls that can haunt your posts. Ensuring you have a dedicated social team, prepped on the best way to deal with negative comments online is the best way to handle social.

5) Data

Data has baffled many an institution in the last year because it is simply difficult to decide what to do with it. Chances are, internal teams have chosen a select few nuggets of data to focus on and the rest has been left by the wayside. 2016 is the year to take this big data and fully understand its potential in terms of understanding your customer personas. Basic customer personas are no longer going to fulfill the needs of a marketing team looking to reach new and old customers using a personalized approach. Data analysts are going to need to extract the right type of data to help marketers reach this audience effectively using detailed insights.

What are your digital banking goals for 2016? Talk to a digital transformation consulting company today.