Financial services institutions need to abandon the traditional, evolutionary approach towards IT if they are to rebuild damaged consumer trust. The recent Ovum Industry Congress 2013 highlighted that a revolution is necessary in business culture, structure, and platforms in order to successfully transition to a customer-centric model.

A renewed focus on the customer has been a consistent theme across the financial services sector since the 2007 financial crisis. Initially, institutions attempted to do this by reassuring customers that they would act in their interest, but they have since spearheaded their efforts with a focus on improving customer satisfaction, to demonstrate that they genuinely have changed.

This shift has coincided with wider technology and social changes, catalysed by the rapid growth of mobile apps, digital commerce, and social media. Ovum’s research shows consumers now demand far more immediacy, usability, and consistency in their business interactions – 52 per cent of consumers now use three or four different communications channels on a regular basis. With channel diversity increasing, enterprises that can provide the “wow” factor in their customer experience have a major advantage when it comes to customer loyalty and advocacy. Importantly, these customer demands are presented throughout the customer lifecycle, including during the sales, origination/fulfilment, and customer servicing stages, and they also apply across channels.

“There are still huge challenges for financial services institutions to overcome in order to turn this change in strategy into an operational reality,” comments Daniel Mayo, practice leader, financial services technology at Ovum. “Complex infrastructures and cost pressures mean investment currently tends to focus on a specific business process or problem area. For example, email management is a major focus area for many institutions, particularly on the wealth management side, but implementing a specific solution here can paradoxically result in lower customer satisfaction if higher responsiveness is not seen equally in other channels.”

The executive level has slowly become aware of this new, digital-led marketplace, and this awareness is translating into a focus on customer experience and, importantly, investment. Ovum’s recent Business Trends study of 100 banks in Europe (Business Trends: European Retail Banking Technology Investment Strategies) found that customer satisfaction and investment in digital banking (particularly mobile) are top executive investment priorities for 2013.

However, if the customer experience is to be improved to meet raised expectations, institutions must consider the wider picture. An improved experience will ultimately require the transformation of current business culture, structure, and platforms in order to succeed. Staff who are incentivised, empowered, and focused on driving a strong customer experience must be combined with an examination of existing IT platforms. These IT platforms need to be able to support a customer-centric organisation, allowing staff to understand the customer rather than the product and be responsive in supporting customer demands. Importantly, achieving these goals purely through incremental change – a staple of banking culture – will be a challenge. Financial Institutions that embrace a revolution policy will find themselves able to deliver on customer expectations much faster than their traditionally-minded counterparts.

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