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FIs not delivering to customer standards for personalized service, study says

August 15, 2016

FIs might feel like they're intently focused on providing a personalized customer experience, but their customers might be seeing things a little differently, a new study finds.

"The State of Retail Banking 2016: A Survey of C-level Banking Executives" was published by TimeTrade, a provider of appointment-driven personalization.

According to a press release, more than half (52 percent) of 100 bank execs in the survey said they are aware that consumers expect more from their banks, and added that they are looking to roll out new products and services to meet customers' needs.

However, a considerably smaller proportion (40 percent) of 2,000 consumers surveyed said their bank provides an "acceptable level of personalization." More than half said they don't believe that their local branch knows them as a customer.

Other key survey findings include:

• nearly half (44 percent) of bank executives report that providing new products and services are their top in-branch priority;
• at the same time, 69 percent of consumers (69 percent), said the ability to bank outside of typical business hours was the service enhancement they want most;
• half of bank executives see improving their social (51 percent) and mobile (50 percent) channels as the best way to enhance interaction with customers;
• though café-style branches have generated industry buzz for a few years, survey results reveal that less than one-third (29 percent) of bank executives plan on introducing them; and
• more than half of executive respondents (60 percent) provide a customer survey after an in-branch visit.

"[W]hile the vast majority of executives feel their banks provide an acceptable to high level of personalization, their customers feel quite differently," said Gary Ambrosino, CEO of TimeTrade. "It's critical for banks to facilitate the face-to-face experience that customers crave. Banks that deliver the highest level of personalization will earn their customers' trust and will have a distinct advantage over banks that don't."

Complete survey results are available at http://www.timetrade.com/resources/surveys/state-retail-banking-executive-report-2016