Banking is still very much a human business. Customers need services to manage their lives, acquire the things they need and want, and secure their futures. Conveniences added over the years have disconnected beneficial personal relationships, so need to have new tools to humanize the banking relationship on the customer’s terms. It starts with integrated data across the entire organization data that can give a true 360-degree view of the customer. Understanding customers’ demographic and behavioral data is one component. To take it one step further, the voice of the customer functionality built into a customer relationship management and marketing automation platform can give you essential insight into individual feedback through engaging surveys. With access to this zero-party data, it can leverage the insight to guide personalized marketing journeys bringing a human connection to digital interactions. This may be your key to getting back to the best parts of the in-branch experience: elevating human relationships to meet consumers where they are in their financial journeys.
In the expedition to reawaken the personal relationships that banks and lenders were known for in the past, financial institutions are using data to deliver relevant offers to customers. The old ways of segmentation and personalization, however, are no longer sufficient. Expectations are rising while customers are becoming increasingly distant from direct contact with their financial institutions. The Omni channel experience has multiplied options for financial transactions while making it increasingly difficult to maintain a human connection. Data-driven personas and customer journeys that give individuals a voice help to humanize financial services marketing and build authentic, long-term relationships.
Caring banking: Banks owned the customer’s first experience long before other industries even started talking about personalization and customer journeys. Branch employees, personal bankers, and loan officers knew the people in their community on a first-name basis and were often in the know for detailed knowledge of their plans and aspirations. This made it quite natural to recommend a product that would suit the customer’s immediate need. The rise of digital banking has added significant convenience, to the point where it doesn’t make sense to travel to a branch for routine transactions. Financial institutions are going to have missed opportunities for face-to-face interaction, and today’s customers have happily adopted Omni channel banking habits that suit their needs just fine. While customers are going about their day making deposits at the kitchen table, transferring money while shopping, or applying for a loan as they are eyeing a shiny new car, branch personnel waits to greet the few visitors who still have a branching habit. Added convenience hasn’t translated into greater personalization. It is observed that most of consumers regard their relationship with financial institutions as purely transactional. In fact, customers may not be thinking about their financial institution at all as they use their phones for payments or buy online with one click. Many financial products are simply regarded as commodities. On the other hand, customers say they would be more likely to stay with their financial services provider if it offered more personalized service. Customers are still open to offers and recommendations tailored to their needs from a financial institution that cares about their overall experience. But first, it needs to track them down. And then need to make sure the offering is relevant to what they’re thinking today. Put another way, before able to meet customers where they’re at, need to know, where they are at.
Personalization & Evolution: Marketing automation allows to create of customer journeys based on what know statistically about customers. For example, data analytics may show that within a month or so of closing a mortgage, many new homeowners get a car loan. Since already looked deep into the borrower’s credit, a timely offer with an attractive rate could net some easy business. Data-driven customer journeys rely on probabilities to focus on the marketing lens. Data is telling that a well-timed offer will result in tangible ROI. If move the needle on results, it can claim success, but a percentage of those who receive offers could still be left wondering whether truly know them. What’s missing in this interaction is the voice of the customers themselves. The availability and accessibility of customer data have changed financial services marketing. At the same time, however, customers are becoming more sensitive to companies that overstep the bounds of appropriate data use. And the line is different for each customer. Some may be perfectly fine to receive a coordinated offer by email and in their mobile app, while others will find it as too much. When customers have control over sharing information, they’re much more open to how it’s used. That’s why marketers are talking about zero-party data information the customer shares willingly. Now let’s look back on those times when employees were interacting with customers in-branch on a weekly or daily basis. They knew a customer’s account details and handled their everyday transactions. It was natural even neighborly to ask about the family and recommend services that fit the customer’s needs. And customers were happy to share because they knew it was for their benefit. Branch employees weren’t addressing data profiles, they were helping individuals as part of an ongoing relationship. This information now gets captured via digital channels, which makes it feel less personal and more intrusive. However, with the right mix of human and digital connections, it can start to feel like it did when consumers interacted with employees in the branch.
To build customer personas using data: Today, a well-integrated database and omnichannel services have replaced many human connections, and in some ways this benefits customers immensely. Regardless of where they are or the time of day, customers can learn about and act on information that will enhance their financial lives. In fact, most of banking customers prefer to manage their finances digitally rather than in person. Consumers have fully embraced omnichannel services. Now the challenge is to increase the relevance of those interactions so the customer stays connected. This is where persona-based marketing journeys are changing the dynamic. Personalized marketing inserting a customer’s name and a data point or two is no longer sufficient to build authentic relationships. Now it has the means to predict customer behavior based on multiple dimensions, using the full power of your accumulated data including the digital collection of zero-party data. Personas are modernizing financial services marketing. The next level is to humanize your engagement across all channels for authentic, individual connections that benefit the customers and expand your relationships. To be able to feel the same connection brand when using digital devices as they would face-to-face in a branch.
Humanizing the marketing journey: How personas shape customer journeys, and what can do to add that human element. It can use three scenarios probably already familiar with the mortgage borrower, the loan-only customer, and the credit card prospect. This information combined with an understanding of past customer behavior enables you to define logical segments. As test initial marketing journeys, Humanizing the marketing journey MORTGAGE BORROWER LOAN-ONLY CREDIT CARD PROSPECT can calibrate them to produce marginally better results. Still dealing with the reality that the only forms of feedback getting are response, no response, or purchase. Start with a single data point, then can assign each of these segments to a simple marketing journey.
More authentic connections and personas: Really digging into your integrated database will help divide each segment further so can develop personas that will guide more informed marketing journeys. Here are examples of a more finely–tuned, data-driven persona in each segment. With these personas, it can adjust the customer journeys and ensure that you’re delivering compelling information and offers where customers see a benefit. Automating your journeys allows you to address more personas and increase ROI with each of them.
Customers’ journey and creating personas: Persona-based marketing is more than personalization. It’s connecting data to better understand your multidimensional customer. Still going to have to fill in the blanks with institutional knowledge. That’s why it’s important to invite open-minded colleagues from relevant departments like branch management, sales, customer experience, lending, data analytics, and finance to the table in order to validate the persona’s development. Be sure to remind all participants in the persona development exercise that personas need to be based on data, not personal experience. It’s easy to be distracted by a colleague who can’t conceive of a new homeowner turning around and applying for a car loan a month after closing on a home mortgage, but the data may be telling otherwise. With personas in hand, design customer journeys that respond to the data points identified. Like any good marketer, want to test a few variations to see which one returns the best results. But it’s advisable to keep them simple at first: focus on one offer per journey so know what levers to pull. It can always add more complexity once perfected journeys. Even with multidimensional personas, still might be bothered by a nagging thought that it’s all just data. How do replicate that branch experience of knowing just what your customer needs today?
Take time to listen and let the customer speak: Persona-based automated marketing journeys allow us to get closer to the in-branch experience of neighbors talking to neighbors. It’s a very good approach, but there’s a way to make it better. A truly human interaction is a conversation, and in a conversation, natural curiosity guides the discussion. Imagine doing the same with marketing automation by adding individualized feedback to guide the customer’s journey. Many marketers rely on consumer data they have access to today to inform personas, like transaction and behavioral data across all channels. With this, it can make assumptions about what the customer is doing. However, since zero-party data comes directly from the customer, and if ask the right questions, they’ll tell about their plans. It has seen how the use of data-driven personas fine-tunes marketing journeys, making them more relevant to the customer and increasing ROI. When the journey includes a place for individual customer feedback with a simple survey tool, that’s where the humanization starts to happen. No need to guess what a customer will respond to because giving them an opportunity to tell, so it can assess their true intent.
Concluding thoughts: In general we can say that the main benefits of using customer journey maps-
ping and analysis with personas are better customer experience and greater efficiency. These tools can help the analyst/designer to see everything from the customers’ point of view and identify their “pain points.” By identifying the main stages and touchpoints, organizations may offer information, messages and services when customers really need them. The unmet needs of customers may lead to innovative new products or services of the organization. All of these may generate more satisfied customers, lower costs and increase revenues. It has been found that all these benefits are easier to realize with human personas, and much harder with companies. The proper usage of personas and customer journey mapping and analysis may be a fruitful avenue for the future.
