CX Network presents its shortlist of 10 CX leaders in financial services as voted by our network of customer experience (CX) professionals.
Customer experience is now considered by many as a key battleground for winning and indeed losing business.
Some players within financial services have been praised for their progressive customer engagement and retention strategies. Last year, banking was voted as one of the top five industries for customer experience, after seeing growth in its number of advocates over the last four years.
In regards to how CX trailblazers in finance are parting themselves from the rest, Steve van den Heever, Group Sales Director of Financial Services, Dimension Data said:“CX can only work if it’s built from the outside in. A good CX strategy needs to be customer-first, organization-wide buy-in second. This approach is proving to be the facilitator for disruptive financial services businesses looking to completely transform customer engagement.
"We have seen this in rising financial challengers like Monzo and Starling who recognized what their customers wanted and put this at the forefront of their work.”
Financial services customer experience
Looking at areas of improvement, internal cultural change is one area that would advance customer experience management in financial services. This is according to insight provided by our research group of 22 senior customer experience professionals within financial services. The group agreed that the toughest CX challenge they face in their own businesses is building a customer-first culture.
In a recent interview with CX Network Fred Reichheld, the creator of the Net Promoter System noted that customer-centric companies are growing at a much faster rate than their competition. In response to why companies should care about customer-centricity in today’s culture, he simply said: “Well if you want to grow your business profitably there is no alternative.”
Steve van den Heever maintains that technological advantage is nothing without the right customer-centric business strategies and attitudes.
He added: "Far too few financial services organizations are engaging directly with their customers or using data analytics to transform customer data into market intelligence. Working to collect this data and use this to build a framework on what that business needs from its CX strategy will see financial institutions have a better chance at having an agile and responsive CX strategy.”
Trends and investments
Our research group, which held 122 years of CX experience collectively, noted that digital customer experience, customer loyalty and retention are the trends with the largest impact on their roles currently.
Research group job titles
Looking at spend, the main 2018 investment priorities for the group were: CRM, data and analytics, customer journey mapping, customer loyalty and client retention. Budget was flagged as a key area that complicated realizing these investments as well as the CX classic of demonstrating ROI. One member also noted that: “Compliance issues usually impede new technology progress and implementation.”
Industry choice: 10 CX Leaders in Financial Services
This industry choice shortlist was created after we invited members of our research group and the CX Network to identify the market leaders in financial services from a CX perspective.
- USAA
- Monzo
- First Direct
- American Express
- Metro Bank
- Navy Federal Credit Union
- Huntington Bank
- Afriland first bank
- NUBANK
- Barclays Bank
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Here are the reasons given for shortlisting the top four companies:
Reactions to the shortlist
Scott Lippert, VP of Bank Member Experience at USAA: “We are honoured that USAA was recognized as one of the 10 CX Leaders in Finance. Our focus on customer service is driven by our mission to help facilitate the financial security of our members and their families, to include active duty military. Understanding members’ unique needs allows us to serve them better whether they are deployed to a remote location or home with their families.”
Metro Bank’s Director of Customer Experience, David Young: “At Metro Bank, creating fans not customers runs through the very heart of the organization. That is why – from the technology we use to the people we hire - we are set-to surprise and delight every customer, every day. And we are making strong progress, recently achieving first place for overall service quality among personal current account customers, and maintaining a second place for business current accounts, in the Competition and Markets Authority’s service quality survey. We are pleased to be recognized by CX Network as a CX Leader in Finance, and look forward to continuing to develop our business centered around our fans.”
Marcia Sanford, Vice President of Member Research Intelligence & Development at Navy Federal Credit Union: "Our commitment to serving members is the foundation for our success. Everything we do – whether introducing a new product or service, building a new branch, or improving processes, is done with the member in mind. We are constantly researching, evaluating and investing in all aspects of our business to find new ways to enhance and improve the member experience."
Dennis Wang, VP of Operations at NUBANK: “We are happy to receive this extraordinary recognition for our CX practices! In our understanding, our clients are the single most important factor in our success. And this honor reflects our company-wide commitment to constantly exceed customer expectations.”
Congratulations to all those shortlisted!
Read: Top experience management trends businesses must know for 2019