The materials available in this article are for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your own advisors with questions regarding the customer engagement in banking content herein. The opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the individual authors and may not reflect the opinions of MeridianLink, Inc.
With approximately one in four consumers likely to leave their primary financial institution, taking steps to boost retention is vital to ensuring lasting relationships and continuous growth.
Consumers will no longer settle for complicated, slow application experiences. They also won’t respond to generic, irrelevant offers. This is reflected in the 44% of new checking accounts opened through digital-only banks last year. Among a growing pool of modern banking options, why would consumers compromise on features that have become the standard?
That’s why the credit unions and banks that prioritize convenient, fast, and personalized service achieve higher retention rates. So, why wait? Now is the time to strengthen your retention strategy and build relationships that last a lifetime. Here are some steps you can take to get started:
Get the Stepping Up Consumer Loyalty infographic: your handy reference to enhancing customer engagement in banking.
1. Personalize Experiences
You already hold a powerful key to more successful outreach that converts to additional business: data.
Your data, when assessed holistically by behavioral analytics and real-time reports, reveals so much. It unlocks deeper insights, identifies individual needs, and better segments consumers to deliver powerful personalization. When you further support these efforts with AI-powered recommendation engines and bundled promotions, you can add to the effectiveness with efficiency and convenience.
Few things boost trust and share-of-wallet like personalized service. Show your consumers that you understand and can deliver on their needs with relevant, targeted offers.
2. Drive Multi-Product Engagement
Offering tailored products and incentives that meet the needs of your existing customers is a powerful way to deepen their relationship with your institution.
Analyze current product usage to uncover cross-sell opportunities and identify where customers could benefit from complementary offerings. Reward consumers for enrolling in additional products and provide bundled benefits for those who consolidate multiple services with you.
It boils down to creating an environment of excellent service that just keeps building on itself with every additional product selected through your institution. When you reward your consumers, they reward you in kind with increasing loyalty.
3. Drive Re-Engagement Through Data
Advanced analytics and reporting can also reveal key metrics like inactive or low-activity depositors, consumers seeking loans through other institutions, and additional indications of a tenuous relationship. Monitoring and addressing these early warning signs with tailored outreach can make a big difference.
Consider deploying targeted, personalized offers, such as refinancing options, to recoup more of those accounts. This proactive approach helps retain business by increasing product awareness and trust in your institution’s ability to meet individual needs.
4. Empower Self-Service
Beyond data-driven personalization strategies, be sure to consider user experience, as well.
Digital has become the preferred banking method among consumers of all ages, largely due to the convenience and speed these channels deliver.
Equip consumers with digital tools that let them manage deposit account openings and lending interactions on their own terms. Enhance workflows with streamlined ID verification, funding, and onboarding, and offer self-guided loan applications with pre-filled fields, document uploads, and real-time status updates.
Support should also always be within reach. Optional assistance from a live representative, complemented by 24/7 chatbot and virtual assistant guidance, is a great way to deliver seamless self-service experiences while ensuring help is available whenever they need it.
5. Provide a Consistent Omnichannel Experience
Another facet of convenient, fast service includes seamless interactions across all channels, creating a smooth, unified feel.
Applications that can be started on one channel and then saved and resumed on another channel are just the tip of the iceberg here. There are also the backend enhancements connected channels provide—enhancements that consumers don’t notice until they don’t have them.
For example, a connected ecosystem lets institutions send offers through consumers’ most-used channels, increasing the likelihood of seeing and engaging with outreach. Then there’s the transaction speed and simplicity itself, made possible through the real-time updates and synchronized consumer data the ecosystem lends itself to.
The common thread through all these experiences is uninterrupted cross-channel service made possible by a unified system.
Schedule a demo with MeridianLink® to see how our technology can support higher customer engagement in banking with fast, personalized end-to-end experiences every step of the way.
