Financial institutions are at a crossroad. There is a financial crisis and it is the customer who is suffering, causing a break of loyalty and trust and therefore a loss of business. How to address this? Financial institutions can continue to focus on re-engineering products, systems and policies, or they can turn their focus towards the customer and customer experience. What is missing from all the "customer experience" banking programs today?

1. Egyii
Singapore
www.egyii.com
An Egyii White Paper
Improving the Customer Experience in Banking
By James Irvine, Director

2. and how well it delivers on their
Introduction wants and needs.quot;
Financial institutions are at a This white paper will focus on the
crossroad. There is a financial interaction that the customer has
crisis and it is the customer with the customer-facing staff they
who is suffering, causing a deal with.
break of loyalty and trust and
therefore a loss of business. How do customers feel when they
leave the bank after dealing with a
How to address this? member of staff? By delivering the
right experience, financial institutions
Financial institutions can have the opportunity to win back
continue to focus on re- their customers’ trust, loyalty and
engineering products, systems business.
and policies, or they can turn
their focus towards the
customer and customer The Challenge Financial institutions
experience. Face
David Amano, Senior Partner at
What is “customer Dachis Corp, reports walking by a
experience?” Bank of America branch in the USA
and instead of seeing a bank full of
According to Peter Merholz, ATMs and promotional materials, he
“Customer experience refers looked through the window at what
to the totality of experience a he calls an ‘oasis’. Right at the front
customer has with a business, of the branch was a lounge with a
across all channels and flat screen TV, designer lighting,
touchpoints”. leather chairs and gourmet coffee.
All interactions with the The Problem
customer should culminate in
a positive customer This is all nice on the surface, but
experience if customers go here’s the problem. Financial
away feeling that their institutions are creating “pleasant
personal needs were met and environments” in physical space and
they were treated properly. through technology solutions (such
as CRM systems). But will this cut the
On top of that, quot;Loyalty and
cake?
trust,quot; says Jessica Debor in her
article ‘CRM Gets Serious’ in
Do all these “positive” feelings
CRM Magazine, quot;is now driven
remain once the banker starts
primarily by a company's
personally interacting with the
interaction with its customers
customer? Or do these feelings

3. dissipate immediately when banker, then everything else will be
the banker doesn’t interact overshadowed.
the way the customer wants
to be interacted with? It is the customer’s experience of the
banker that is the critical decision
factor.
What do Customers Really
Want?
The Opportunity
On a personal experience However, this is where the greatest
level, what do customers want opportunity lies for financial
from their banker? institutions to differentiate
themselves.
They want patience. They
•
Banking doesn’t have to be a
don’t want to get the
commodity business. While it’s
feeling that they are being
relatively straightforward to copy
rushed so that their banker
another bank’s products, systems,
can move on to another
environment and policies, every
customer.
interaction with a customer is
They want to feel special,
•
unique.
like a five-star hotel guest.
They don’t want to feel
But financial institutions have even
that they are being given
tried to commoditize this aspect of
exactly the same speech
their business by instituting step-by-
and responses as every
step processes for conducting a
other customer.
customer meeting, and by
They want to feel taken
•
implementing rules and policies for
care of. They don’t want ensuring that their customer-facing
to feel that their banker people are honest and open.
has his mind on his sales
targets or anywhere else While these initiatives help to support
other than on them and the customer interaction, the secret
their individual situation. of differentiation lies in the banker’s
ability to flexibly manage the minute-
by-minute experience the customer
It’s all very well to claim that a is getting with him. When the banker
customer trusts his/her banker is right there, in the customer’s world
if he is honest, open and with her, acknowledging and
reliable. But this is not enough. responding directly to what the
If the customer does not get a customer is thinking and feeling in
positive feeling during and the moment – then the customer
after a meeting with her experience takes on a new meaning

4. or a ‘sales person’, he can reframe
and true liking and trust begin
to develop. his situation and see himself as a
guest relations officer and his
customer as a guest.
How Can This be Achieved?
So what needs to happen for With this metaphor from the hotel
a bank to create such a industry in his mind, the banker’s
customer experience? Bankers whole demeanour with his customer
who interact with customers changes. Everything he does – his
will benefit by developing two words, the sound of his voice, and his
key drivers of their
body language will take on a new
interpersonal performance:
dimension.
Their mindsets, especially
•
This new perception alone can
their perceptions of
transform a customer’s experience
themselves, their roles and
from one where she feels
their customers
disconnected from the banker, to
Their communication,
•
one where she feels honoured and
especially the way they
respected.
connect with customers
minute-by-minute
Reframing is a powerful tool which
can be used to change the way a
Neither one of these drivers of member of staff feels about himself,
performance can stand alone. his responsibilities and his customers,
It is essential to have the right thus changing his behaviour and the
mindset in order to results he gets.
communicate the right signals
to the customer. 2. Strive for personal congruence.
When our words, voice and body
Developing the right mindset language are in alignment and are
To adopt the right perceptions
all sending the same message, we
and create authenticity
are congruent. Too often in
requires a two-step initiative:
customer meetings a banker’s words
say one thing but his voice and/or
1. Reframe the situation. How a
body language say another. The
banker sees his situation
result is mistrust on the part of the
controls the experience the
customer.
customer has with him.
To achieve personal congruence,
Rather than see himself as a the banker must take a hard look
‘banker’, a ‘financial expert’ at his sense of who he is, what he

5. believes, what skills he is listening and responding to her, his
using, and the kind of mind is actually elsewhere. When
behaviour he one is responsible for hitting monthly
demonstrates. These four targets and promoting the latest
aspects of himself need to financial products, these things sit
be in alignment to create just behind the front of one’s mind,
personal congruence and affecting one’s behaviour. The
be perceived by the customer can see that her banker is
customer as authentic and being driven by an agenda, not the
sincere. real-time information being passed
between them. Consequently she
For example, if a banker feels devalued.
sees himself as a trusting,
caring person but believes ‘Presencing’ is a way to manage
that customers will switch and direct our attention. It means to
between financial be 100% ‘present’, in the moment,
institutions for even a small whenever one is with a customer.
improvement in return on
investment, then this inner To achieve this requires making an
conflict will reveal itself in effort in three respects:
mixed signals being sent to
Eliminate all thoughts about the
the customer. On the one •
hand everything he says to past (e.g. previous customer
the customer might show experiences) and the future (e.g.
an interest in their situation, what your planned outcome
while nonverbally he might from the meeting is) and focus
communicate impatience. your attention on the present.
Take notice of your customer.
•
Such mixed signals can Notice as many aspects of their
spell the death of a dress, face, posture, gestures,
business relationship
tone of voice, key words and
because they undermine
phrases used, and overall
the development of trust.
demeanor as you can. This act of
observation is enough to fully
Developing the right
occupy one’s attention.
communication
Respond directly to the whole
•
The right communication for
message your customer is
an improved customer
sending you, not just her words.
experience is ‘presencing’.
This means you don’t respond
with a pre-prepared message,
Too often, when a customer is
but you enter her world and
interacting with her banker she
can see that although he is

6. connect with the generate great buzz about the
organization.
information and sentiment
she is communicating.
The second benefit is that bankers
will perhaps for the first time get to
This method of really know and understand their
communicating sounds customers as unique individuals. This
obvious. Of course we should will lead to customers being offered
all be totally present when solutions which really fit their needs,
interacting with customers! The thus creating commitment and long
truth is that we’re not there term loyalty.
with them most of the time.
Today’s work demands ensure Finally, the bank will stand out in the
that half of our attention is marketplace. The creation of its own
directed somewhere else. brand of unique experiences for the
customer every time she interacts
Be under no illusion, with a banker will set the bank apart
‘presencing’ takes effort and from all others. These experiences
determined concentration. cannot be copied, and the bank will
But when done effectively, it build its own ‘aura’ around these
transforms the customer experiences which will drive its
experience – and thus creates competitiveness.
the liking and trust that helps
the banker to achieve those
Overall Business Results
challenging targets.
The overall business impact of
How Will Financial Institutions improving the customer experience
Benefit? in this way cannot be over-
The first and most important emphasised.
benefit of this new approach
to the customer experience is If a customer feels good when
that the pervasive negative interacting with a banker then she
customer word-of-mouth will both give the bank more of her
about the financial institution business and tell everyone else
will cease, and will be about it. The result will be more
replaced with something customers coming to the bank and
much more positive. It is the a higher share of wallet per
human experiences in the customer.
bank that customers are
Summary
driven to talk about. Improving
the feelings they get when If a bank wants to reap the rewards
they are doing business with of an improved customer
the bank is a sure way to experience, it needs to go beyond

7. environment, systems and
policies and ‘get down and
dirty’ with the minute-by-
minute human
communication going on.
The rewards in terms of the
hundreds of thousands of
positive conversations taking
place about the bank can
only be of the highest value at
this time.
About Egyii
Egyii is a learning and
development consultancy
that helps financial institutions
get better results through their
people's relationship skills.
At Egyii, we have developed a
set of simple, new tools that
leads to higher performance
for better results.
http://www.egyii.com/The_Eg
yii_Toolkit.pdf
Are you ready for something
new?
James Irvine:
james.irvine@egyii.com
Trip Allen:
trip.allen@egyii.com
www.egyii.com
http://twitter.com/egyii