People often say that the only constant is change. While some embrace change for driving progress and others fear it for the uncertainty it brings, it’s clear that an industry’s ability to evolve has often been the deciding factor in whether it falters, survives, or thrives. The banking industry has been able to get by for millennia on incremental change, using stopgap measures to adapt to shifts. That approach will no longer suffice.
La transparence que la banque a sur ses offres et ses opérations devient un facteur décisif.
Reinventing relevance
Over the past 40 years, digital changes have increased the urgency for transformation. We, as clients, have new standards for our banking partners. Those who do not meet these expectations risk being replaced. Those that embrace opportunities to reinvent their relevance in today’s world stand to succeed.
There are three phenomena that are currently making the shift from a legacy banking partner to a contemporary one increasingly attractive.
- De plus en plus de personnes recherchent des services immédiats et personnalisés.
- La transparence que la banque offre sur ses offres et ses opérations devient un facteur décisif.
- En raison de la diminution des obstacles à la participation au secteur, de nouveaux acteurs plus innovants entrent sur le marché.
Setting new benchmarks
Historically, the standard of excellence for service delivery within the banking industry was assessed in relation to the legacy competitors. Today, that is not the case. The benchmark for success is technology companies.
Technology companies have redefined the way in which a service provider should interact with its clients. By leveraging emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, and application programming interfaces (APIs), technology companies have demonstrated that today’s client interactions can be simpler, more intuitive, and more powerful than those of the past, raising the bar for all other industries.
Most of us are no longer willing to wait several days to open a new bank account. We, from the client’s perspective, want to do it in 10 minutes or less. We want to be able to exchange currency at no cost and immediately. And we want to complete banking services wherever and whenever.
The digital tools that have allowed technology companies to individualize a user’s experience and outcome have not yet been fully realized in the banking industry. There is untapped potential for banks to optimize their user experience, taking less time to provide clients with a better overall output that is more tailored to their preferences.
Les banques doivent écouter activement leurs clients. Une stratégie réussie est une stratégie qui met le client au centre.
Building trust
Banks must also respond to increasing demands for transparency. The banking industry has traditionally been opaque and difficult for the average client to understand. Too often banks have unclear fees and fail to adequately disclose their internal values, vision, and impetus.
Yet in a digital environment where people have easy access to information – where questions can be answered at a click of a button and a competitor’s offerings easily compared – banks cannot afford to let clients remain in the dark. They must be upfront about all costs and open about the handling of the historically veiled inner workings of their operations. In today’s digital environment, increasing transparency is necessary to gaining and keeping the trust that is the foundation of banking. Entrepreneurs across the world have recognized both of these shortcomings, and many have mobilized to fill the gaps by introducing banking offerings of their own.
Rewriting the definition of banking
So, what can banks do to grow?
- Les banques doivent passer de l’idée que la technologie est un centre de coûts à la conviction qu’elle est le facteur de différenciation. La technologie ne peut pas être une seconde pensée sur le marché d’aujourd’hui. La stratégie numérique doit être une composante intégrale et intégrée de la planification prévisionnelle d’une banque.
- Les banques doivent adopter un état d’esprit agile et travailler dans un état constant d’amélioration. Il n’est plus suffisant de planifier une évolution annuelle et incrémentale. Les clients attendent de leurs fournisseurs de services qu’ils soient cohérents dans l’optimisation de leurs services. Cela signifie qu’il faut adopter une approche flexible des changements technologiques qui permettent aux banques d’anticiper et de réagir à l’évolution des préférences. Au lieu de planifier des sorties technologiques en l’espace de quelques mois ou années, les banques doivent s’efforcer d’adopter un modèle d’innovation et de mise en œuvre continu, tout au long de l’année.
- Plus important encore, les banques doivent écouter activement leurs clients. Une stratégie réussie est une stratégie qui met le client au centre. La confiance fondamentale que les clients attendent de leurs partenaires bancaires restera importante, mais les banques doivent aussi s’efforcer de faire en sorte que les clients croient que leurs banques s’élèveront pour répondre aux nouvelles attentes en matière de service et de transparence.
Today, there is clearly an effort to rewrite the definition of banking.
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