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Consumers are now more digitally savvy and connected than ever before. Across industries, they are driving demand for digital products and services that offer not only convenience and simplicity, but also added value to their daily lives.

Traditional banking used to be a necessity, but digitalisation and regulatory change have opened up the market and consumers now have far more choice about how, where and with whom they conduct their financial transactions. This is causing a role reversal in the industry, with financial institutions no longer able to stick to their traditional product line-up and compete purely on elements such as interest rates and basic reward schemes. Consumers are now entirely in charge of driving change and their expectations are being strongly influenced by businesses outside of banking and financial services.

The customer experiences they receive from the retail and digital goods sectors in particular are becoming slicker, quicker and more personalised – and they’re looking for that same experience from their financial services providers.

The popularity of product aggregators in the ecommerce space and comparison sites in the utilities and insurance markets show that consumers often don’t feel strongly about who the back-end provider of a product or service is. What goes on behind the scenes is largely irrelevant as long as they get what they want, in the way they want it and when they need it: the so-called “Amazon effect.”

To cement customer relationships and avoid losing out to the incoming wave of innovative, agile competitors, it is vital for financial institutions to maintain customer loyalty and confidence. According to Edelman’s latest Trust Barometer1, there are a number of factors that are key to consumers when selecting organisations to deal with. Top of the list is a great user experience, with 83% of consumers citing this as a ‘must-have’. It is also clear that delivering this user experience involves a delicate and complex balancing act, with 81% of consumers looking for their financial services provider to make it easy to work with real people and 79% expecting those same companies to use the latest technology. This highlights the growing importance of the right physical and digital mix.

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