Banks have room for improvement to achieve the exceptional customer experience required to compete in today’s evolving business environment, reveals consumer banking survey

MONEY20/20 LAS VEGAS AND MENLO PARK, Calif. - Oct. 24, 2015 – According to Protiviti’s second annual Consumer Banking Survey, banks have ample room for improvement in managing the customer experience and, perhaps more importantly, in convincing consumers that they care about them. Specifically, the survey finds that 93 percent of banking customers believe that banks at least meet their expectations; however, if exceeding expectations and providing superior customer service is the goal, there is significant progress to be made because only 36 percent of consumers say their banks exceed expectations.

Protiviti surveyed more than 2,000 consumers in the United States, across a broad spectrum of age and income groups, about a range of customer experience issues, including preferred methods for interacting with banks, as well as perceptions about how financial institutions are meeting customer expectations and handling complaints.

The Banking Customer’s Experience – Do You Really Care Enough about Me?

Creating convenient, boundary-less banking capabilities for customers is increasingly important, but banks must not lose sight of what consumers also care about greatly: customer service. In today’s challenging environment, when it comes to addressing customer complaints, the issue is not whether or not banks care, but whether their customers perceive them to care enough about their problems and issues. Ultimately, such sentiments will drive customer and brand loyalty as emerging entrants continue to disrupt financial services.

One key finding of the Protiviti survey is that the prized segment of banking customers whose annual incomes top $200,000 are less likely to report that financial services companies exceed their expectations (30 percent) compared to all respondents (36 percent).

According to the survey, only one in three consumers thinks that their financial services company “absolutely cares” about their problem when they share a complaint; what may be even more telling is that nearly as many say their banks either do not care or are unsure if they care about the complaint. Only 36 percent of customers report that their bank responds every time with a resolution when they share a problem.

When it comes to making complaints, the survey results found that customers lean on tried-and-true methods to express them to their banks – consumers are most likely to log a complaint in the following manner:

• Via phone (63 percent) 
• By visiting a branch (40 percent) 
• Using email (18 percent) 

While customer complaints represent a fact of life in the financial services industry, these problems also present prime opportunities to delight the customer. We’re finding that regulators increasingly review and act upon customer complaints, which means compliance executives should be as concerned as their marketing counterparts about the speed and compassion with which issues are resolved. Even though innovation in the banking experience is a key consideration for financial services organizations, customer service remains a fundamental tenet of the business and we don’t expect that to change.

Multi-channel Banking: Popularity of Online and Mobile

Protiviti’s report also finds that, overall, 68 percent of consumers say self-service online and mobile channels make it easier for them to do business with their banks. Demographically, customers in the 21-29 and 30-39 age groups are far more likely to use mobile applications (66 percent and 60 percent, respectively), mobile web (33 percent and 32 percent) and online chat (15 percent and 11 percent) compared to customers aged 40 and higher.

Survey Report Available

​A complimentary copy of Protiviti’s report, Getting to the Heart of Customer Experience – Insights from Protiviti’s Annual Consumer Banking Survey, is available for download at www.protiviti.com/consumerbanking along with an infographic. 

Money20/20 Conference, The Venetian, Las Vegas

​Protiviti exhibited at the Money20/20 conference at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas through October 26. On Monday, October 24 at 4:00 p.m. PDT, Protiviti moderated a panel of banking and technology experts on the topic “Curating World-Class Customer Experience in Financial Services.”