Are you an essential to your customers?
McKinsey’s Global Banking Review asks the question this way:
Do we have highly differentiated customer relationships? In which cross-industry journey can we claim true customer ownership? A successful digital strategy is no longer just a matter of migrating sales and servicing from branches to an app. As customers move toward life goals such as:
- buying a home
- planning for retirement
- opening a new business
Banks need to move from a product-centric perspective to an end-to-end view of customer journeys, both within and outside of banking (say, housing or SME short-term financing). This broader view can build deep relationships and unique access to target segments.
Apply this to the five major consumer financial areas:
- Spending
- Saving
- Investing
- Borrowing
- Protecting
You may not provide all these yourself, but are you serving as a trusted source of advice?
Are you the first place your customers turn to? For a qualified referral? Advice on how to evaluate their situation?
Forget whether you have a business relationship or referral program. Are you the first place your customer go to for help because they know you will put their interests first?
If the answer isn’t an unqualified yes, you’ll see it in your CSAT/NPS scores. That points to where you can build up your reputation and earn the place of trusted advisor in your customers’ lives.