The greatest digital banking customer complaints and how to fix them

In a recent report, ⅔ of British banking customers stated that they plan to convert fully to a digital bank in the future. In the meantime, 2021 also recorded 27% of British adults opening an account with a digital-only bank. While the growing tendency towards online shopping and the long-lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are certainly big contributing factors, there is more to be considered when looking at the numbers.

What can we learn from the numbers?

In a previous article, we saw how by 2020, mobile banking was already the second most important factor in bank selection:

More importantly, recent numbers also tell us what is directly hurting customer experiences. These numbers suggest that “the App” and “the website” are two of the greatest complaints customers have when they use online banking services, even more so than “loans” or “security”:

For traditional banking services, some numbers can be even more alarming. In 2021 and in the UK alone, the sheer number of customers who prefer app-based challengers is quite telling:

Taking all these facts into consideration, we can conclude that:

1. Customers are moving towards online solutions faster than ever
2. Some customers prefer app-based solutions over the traditional alternative
3. Those dissatisfied with the traditional services, are mostly unhappy with the online user journey

The good news is that bad user experiences can be easily fixed - granted the right tools are at hand.

Fixing the user experience problem: Seamless journeys

Already in 2017, Deloitte claimed that “The digital revolution is disrupting the relationship between banks and their clients and new features continuously appear to enhance customer experience”. The sentiment was shared by the World Economic Forum, which while commenting on the issue of online user journeys also added “New technologies will drive banking transformation over the next 5 years.”

The obvious question to ask here is “Which new technologies?” And depending on who you may ask, the answers can be slightly different. However most answers attempt to target a couple of key shared issues:

• Quick journeys with minimal loading times
• Omnichannel presence - with the same degree of quality across all channels

Going back to the question, the World Economic Forum also suggests a possible answer. According to the WEF, “New SaaS (software as a service) and cloud-based technologies” will shape the future of digitized banking - through offering better and seamless experiences.

There is a reason behind this suggestion: When it comes to managing online experiences, SaaS solutions were made specifically with the omnichannel issue in mind, and with an emphasis on shorter load times across the board.

Managing digital experiences with a SaaS solution

There are a lot of moving parts in digital experience management, however the absolute center of it all is your CMS (content management system). We have already written extensively on the issue before, specifically talking about banking experiences (read more). As a short reminder:

In the world of content management, modern SaaS solutions are also known as “headless” and “API-first”. Being “headless” points to the fact that these systems function by separating the front-end from the back-end, while being “API-first” means taking advantage of APIs to deliver content anywhere quickly. In contrast to their older “monolithic” counterparts, these systems are capable of simultaneously publishing content on any number of channels by storing all data in a single content hub (as opposed to multiple content silos).

Additionally, modern SaaS solutions advocate a best-of-breed approach to building a technology stack, which gives you the freedom to build your technology stack in any way you see fit. This is in stark contrast to the all-in-one approach advocated by many older “monolithic” solutions.

Looking back at the 2 key issues mentioned before, a SaaS CMS solution can directly make a clear difference:

• Quick journeys with minimal loading times: Due to the headless nature, any heavy traffic on the front-end side would not affect the back-end (and vice versa). For example, Storyblok has helped the major telecom company UPC decrease their website’s loading time by 81% by switching to a headless system (read more).
• Omnichannel presence: The headless approach’s greatest strength is its platform independence. By separating the front- and the back-end, omnichannel publishing becomes extremely simple and quick. In a monolithic approach, your team has to copy the same content into different systems for a website, an app, and all the other platforms you wish to be present on. However, the API-first approach means your content only has to be contained in a single hub, while APIs deliver it to different platforms.

A final word

As stated in an earlier article, many established banks have not yet made the change to a modern SaaS CMS solution that pushes for a best-of-breed architecture, priotizes omnichannel journeys across platforms, and strives for shorter loading times. Fortunately migration to a headless CMS is surprisingly quick and light, especially when compared to monolithic systems.

If you are interested in learning more about API-first headless systems, download our free whitepaper Headless CMS - How Does it Solve the Content Problem? - you can find all of our free resources here. If you have any questions, or are wondering if an API-first solution is the right choice for you, feel free to contact us here.