Dive Brief:
- Customers are most satisfied with retail banking advice at Citi, followed by Bank of America and Chase, according to J.D. Power’s survey of nearly 8,000 retail bank customers in the United States, released last week. J.D. Power examined customer satisfaction based on quality of advice, concern for needs, relevancy, clarity and frequency.
- Personalized financial advice makes for a meaningful bank customer experience, but only 2 in 5 customers recall their banks offering advice of any kind, J.D. Power found.
- Citi, Bank of America and Chase have found a way to get through to their customers with personalization, according to Jennifer White, senior director for banking and payments intelligence at J.D. Power. “They're doing a good job at getting that optimal mix of the right topic in the right channel and at the right frequency to capture the customer's attention,” she said. “They are doing an exceptional job at matching up what customers need in that personalized way.”
Dive Insight:
Financial advice and guidance is a key component of bank customer experience, but banks have room to improve, particularly with better personalized guidance.
“For many consumers, the current financial circumstances are unlike anything that they've seen in their lifetime, and they, frankly, just need some help,” White told CX Dive.
Banks garner a lot of trust among consumers in part because of the guidance they offer consumers, White said. On average, more than 70% of consumers say that they find advice from their bank to be trustworthy.
The better banks know their customers, the better they can serve them.
“The primary reason why it's critical that content be personalized is that the consumer base does not come to the bank with equal financial health status,” White said. “A customer who has strong financial health status has different advice needs than the customer that's struggling day to day. All of those variances and financial health status provides a lens through which the customer views their bank interactions.”
Yet only a quarter of customers recall receiving a truly personalized advice experience at their bank.
Personalizing advice also grows satisfaction. When customers say they “received personalized banking advice/guidance,” overall satisfaction increases 195 points on a 1,000 point scale, J.D. Power found.
But advice is useless unless customers take action to improve their financial health. When banks did get through to customers and offered memorable financial advice, three-quarters of customers took action.
When customers act on such advice, they report being more satisfied with their banks and it results in stronger engagement and brand advocacy.
White encourages banks to focus on resonance of their advice as well as in-person branch expertise and coaching.
“One in 5 customers tell us that they walked through a financial wellness review with their bank, either digitally or in person. Most of those are occurring in person,” White said. “So to what degree are frontline staff really equipped to do those well, and how is the branch itself making that experience feel?”
