When it comes to choosing a bank, customers care about many factors, from branch locations and services to fees to even the bank's brand image or commitment to social responsibility. But at the end of the day, none of that matters if the bank can't provide one foundational element: trust. After all, if you can't be sure you can access your money when you need it, then what's the point of a bank?
That makes the importance of trust in banking paramount to almost every employee at the bank. Marketers, IT, security, app developers, tellers and the C-suite all know that ensuring customer confidence must come first before they do anything else.
Trust and customer experience in banking: Building customer loyalty in retail banking
Customer trust is intrinsic to generating the customer loyalty in retail banking that's necessary to stay competitive. Not only do you have to worry about traditional brick and mortar rivals like national and local banks and credit unions but also an entirely new generation of fast-moving online competitors. Meanwhile, other financial services providers like investment brokers are beginning to offer banking services to build out their businesses and increase their own customer loyalty.
Loyalty is a critical driver in banking. Because it can be such a hassle to close an account, move money elsewhere or juggle multiple accounts, banking customers are far less likely to suddenly switch banks in the way they would try a new pizza place, airline or beer.
Once a bank has a customer, it can cross-sell and upsell products and services to them that might have gone to a competitor. At the same time, if the bank offers a poor customer experience and the customer leaves the bank, they're unlikely to come back.
The importance of trust in banking has only continued to grow as bank services are delivered more and more digitally. Cyber attacks, digital banking outages and online fraud mean that customers feel more at risk than the "good old days" when physical currency was locked inside a vault. Customers have to trust that their bank will protect their money as they enter information into apps, transfer funds, interact with customer service reps and perform countless other banking interactions—or else they'll choose another bank that can.
Customer experience in banking: The role of technology in customer trust
The importance of trust in banking is unchanged, but strategies are evolving. As banks continue to go digital, the opportunity to lose a customer's trust has never been greater. The other side of the coin is that banks can leverage technology to establish and maintain customer trust while also improving the customer experience in banking.
Because of the importance of trust in banking, it's no wonder that many retail banking technology initiatives are focused on security. According to Verizon’s 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report, the banking sector is one of the most targeted for attacks. As attackers access valuable customer data like Social Security numbers, credit card information and other personal information that they can then resell.
To help ensure customer loyalty in retail banking, banks must focus on protecting the network perimeter through the use of secure cloud gateways and DNS safeguards. They must also create an adaptive, enterprise-grade secure access service edge environment to ensure all end users and devices are securely connected. At the same time, technology like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) inbound anti-fraud and authentication can reduce the risk of fraud by analyzing a caller's voice, device and behavior to determine if the caller is genuine or a fraudster. And advanced network services like a software-defined wide-area network (SD WAN) not only protect data but also provide the reliability and availability required to be there when customers need you.
Technology can also build customer loyalty in retail banking by using data to improve the customer experience. For example, mobile apps can put the power of a bank branch in the customer's pocket. These apps give customers 24/7 access to banking services while freeing physical branches to focus on more complicated customer interactions instead of just making deposits. Banks can also use data to create a richer picture of a customer's financial life to more accurately identify cross-sell opportunities, helping the customer get the most out of their banking relationship.
To stay nimble and maintain a positive customer experience in banking as customers' needs evolve, organizations should look to integrate new technology using a managed services model. This allows IT teams to scale their technology needs up or down as needed while ensuring they work with technology experts for critical elements like security and customer experience in banking. By optimizing resources, increasing performance and simplifying operations, companies are then able to focus on providing the trustworthy customer experience in banking required to compete.
For institutions looking to capitalize on the importance of trust in banking, Verizon provides managed services for networking, mobility, security and the Internet of Things. By taking on all your most pressing technology challenges, you can focus on delivering the innovation required to keep customers safe and satisfied.
Learn more about how Verizon solutions for financial services can help support customer loyalty in retail banking.