Sixty one per cent of UK consumers go straight to the internet for money management advice, bypassing their bank’s own websites. According to a recent survey from Avanade, offline methods of money management ranked low on the list of preferences with only 16 per cent of customers going into the branch itself and eight per cent using the phone service.

“While the move towards online advice may not be much of a surprise, the gap between the use of third party sites and their own websites should be flagged as a concern to banks. As we move towards a digital society, banks need to continue to provide services that enable customers to manage their financial situation more effectively, crucially not just offering in-house advice but also utilising the third party content that consumers clearly value,” says Nic Merriman, Avanade, CTO of financial services, UK.

When asked about the money management services provided by banks over a third of customers were unable to think of a single offering. Twenty eight per cent of banks offered online applications such as money manager and only four per cent housed peer generated content on their websites. One consumer commented that their bank was very self-serving and wished it would offer more independent advice. In terms of improvements to help with money management, fewer fees and charges topped the list of desires, with longer opening hours, more account alerts and a more personalised service all scoring highly.

“It’s no secret that UK banks have had a tough time in recent years, facing issues of trust and reliability,” says Merriman. “The competition is increasing all the time and the move to enable customers to switch more easily will only increase churn. By focusing on customer service, personalisation and the offering of services that can help a customer manage their money better, banks should be able to increase customer advocacy in a positive way. To help do this and based on Avanade’s experience delivering banking solutions over the past decade, we have seen that banks are increasingly adopting customer-focused relationship management solutions to provide targeted and relevant services across a variety of channels. By looking at innovative ways to deliver products banks can offer the services customers increasingly expect and need.”

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