The best way financial institutions can deliver a fully customized and personalized experience to customers is from the very beginning, starting with the onboarding process. After all, there’s never a second opportunity to make a great first impression. But whether it’s a new checking account, credit card or mortgage, every customer journey and account onboarding is different.
There is a clear correlation between onboarding and revenue generation. Customers who are onboarded successfully are more likely to come back to the bank for other products, stay with the bank longer, and bring more deposits with them.
Regardless of customer type, needs, credit history or other factors, an onboarding journey needs to balance two critical elements: speed and relevance.
When a new customer joins a bank, there’s a series of essential messaging that needs to take place. During this window, customers are orienting themselves to the bank overall and to the product(s) they’ve purchased, meaning there are a wide variety of topics they may want to engage with – from needs assessments to relevant products, specific digital features and servicing.
The first two or three onboarding steps are pretty easy. Clearly, all new customers should be welcomed to the bank with secondary messaging serving as a reminder to fund their account. If immediate funding does not take place, however, there is risk in overbearing reminders to do so that could create a potential negative experience.
Following the initial onboarding touchpoints, the order in which a customer engages is entirely random and personal: the customer may use her debit card online to make a purchase or withdraw cash from an ATM. They may sign up for online banking or download the mobile app. Perhaps a customer wants advice on funding a retirement account. Any of these things can happen in any order.
A marketer mired in a rules-based approach who attempts to define all of these permutations would quickly exhaust themselves, Instead, why not let the customer weave her own way through the journey?
A personalization platform provides the ability to develop reporting on unique customer segments, constantly learning and creating. This will yield endless insights and allow the bank to respond to customers on an ongoing basis and not just a single point of time.
Customers want and expect guidance on what products and services are best suited to their needs and goals. They are also willing to switch if they don’t receive it. A lack of focus and investment during the onboarding process leads to confused, dissatisfied customers who abandon the onboarding journey.
Financial institutions can leverage personalization to offer guidance, products, services, features and tailored content during the onboarding process. This can improve onboarding, and help establish long-lasting relationships, making new clients feel their bank cares and values their business, as well as their financial performance and financial health.
That’s personalization you can take to the bank.
