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How EY can Help
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Our Corporate, Commercial and SME (CCSB) Banking services team can help your business navigate through rising market expectation. Learn more.
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Evolving regulations
In addition to evolving expectations around the customer experience, banks need to align customer-centric transformation with changing regulatory requirements. Under the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s Consumer Duty, for example, banks must offer products and services that are fit for purpose and represent fair value. The European Accessibility Act, meanwhile, requires all member states to ensure banking services can be accessed by disabled and elderly individuals. Other initiatives that impact banks and its customers include the EU’s new Sustainable Finance Strategy, which seeks to give small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and consumers the right tools and incentives to access transition finance.
Six ways to embed and scale customer centricity
Once banks achieve this level of customer understanding, they then face the challenge of adopting and activating customer centricity at scale across divisions.
Many clients we have worked with have often limited their focus to the development of new customer-facing products and point solutions rather than the end-to-end journeys and processes that are vital to boosting the overall customer experience in banking.
We have thus identified six key steps that can enable banks to scale their customer-centric approach and place customer-focused design at the core of their operations:
- Design leadership and positioning: Secure appropriate sponsorship at the top levels of management and raise broader design awareness among senior executives.
- Engagement model and funding: Incorporate design activities as a mandatory step in the internal resource allocation process, with dedicated budget allocation for user research.
- Global framework and local delivery: Establish a global, customer-centric framework for a consistent customer experience in the banking sector while identifying and leveraging synergies between global and local design teams.
- Design and data integration: Schedule regular meetings between the design and data teams to promote an informed and joined-up approach, with input from the Customer Analytics team.
- Culture and values: Promote induction sessions, bootcamps and innovation labs to foster a mindset shift. Reinforce the benefits with a business case and success stories.
- Performance management: Define and adopt customer-centric metrics in employee appraisals.
Case study: Journey to customer centricity
How EY helped one large bank transform its customer experience:
- Commissioned a specialist design company to conduct Customer Experience Analysis and identify key areas for improvement from the customer’s perspective.
- Established direct connections with existing and potential customers to gather insights on how they view its products and services.
- Used focus groups, ideation sessions, mystery shopping and surveys to understand the customer lifecycle and identify opportunities for impactful changes.
- Reviewed existing customer satisfaction tools, metrics and quality assurance programs in customer care centers.