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Study: Customer service supplants sales as job No. 1 in retail banking

February 24, 2017

Boosting sales results is no longer job one for North American banks. These financial institutions now believe  cultivating customer relationships is their top retail banking priority, according to a newly published study.

The results of a biannual survey by research and advisory firm Celent indicate a sea change in the thinking of retail banking executives, according to a press release.

Celent polled the top 112 financial institutions in North America for the report, "A Survey of Retail Banking Channel Systems in North America: Omnichannel Emerges."

The majority of survey participants identified mobile as their highest channel priority, and said improving platform capabilities is the most important technology initiative.

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As digital becomes a primary engagement mechanism for self-service and assisted- or full-service interactions in, institutions will invest in channel platform consolidation, beginning with the digital channel, the release said.

"Mobile banking platform competitiveness is now most every institution's top technology priority — and rightly so," said Bob Meara, a senior analyst with the banking practice at Celent, in the release. "This is evident in the pace of new mobile banking capabilities being introduced."

But despite their belief in the importance of omnichannel delivery (4.1 on a 5.0 importance scale), fully half of surveyed institutions have not begun substantive efforts, the release said. Roughly half of these institutions have a person or team charged with its realization, but only 1 in 10 is executing a strategy.

"Most every institution's No. 2 technology priority, omnichannel delivery, has not yet been met with the activity it merits," Meara said. "Fully half of surveyed institutions don't have an individual or group tasked with omnichannel delivery and have no strategy yet in place to bring it about."