Webinar: The surprising opportunities to gain trust in our post-loyalty economic downturn

Earning trust is crucial for financial institutions (FIs). And it goes beyond simply keeping customers’ money safe. Dependability is essential for banking, especially in our current macroeconomic environment. Customers need to feel that they’re being taken care of. And the banks that can get closer to their customers today will be the ones best positioned to benefit in the future during the eventual upswing.

Modern consumers want their bank to understand their financial needs. They want their bank to care about them. To establish strong relationships and earn loyalty from their customers, FIs need to demonstrate care and transparency. This means going beyond traditional banking services and providing personalized experiences that cater to customers’ unique needs and preferences.

In this on-demand webinar, “The surprising opportunities to gain trust in our post-loyalty economic downturn,” Blend’s Product Marketing Manager Darrell Noble and our featured guest Alyson Clarke, principal analyst at Forrester, discuss these important topics and more.

Click play to hear new insights on customer loyalty and discover how financial institutions can unlock modern pathways to PFI status through engagement and empathy.

It’s obvious that we’re going through big changes in economic conditions: inflation, cost of living crisis, interest rates, etc. As part of that, we’re witnessing changes in consumer behaviors and financial needs.

Meanwhile, there’s pressure on financial institutions to continue to grow revenue while containing costs. And competition is escalating. In today’s market, the best way to grow revenue and contain costs is to win PFI status with your customers.

As detailed in Blend’s eBook Seize the opportunity to gain PFI status with modern consumers, the average banked U.S. consumer has 14 accounts held across 4.4 financial service providers. To gain PFI status with today’s modern consumers, banks need to get closer to their customers, understand their needs and financial goals, and service them across the channels they choose to engage through. But making that connection can be challenging. And it requires empathy.

Banks that can engage and support their customers during the downturn will win in the upturn. Helping customers to navigate the cost of living crisis, offering proactive engagement, and delivering hybrid experiences — a mix of digital and human interaction — can help financial institutions differentiate themselves and build trust. A hybrid customer experience can deliver positive emotions and add value for the customer. Adding value drives loyalty. And loyalty helps drive PFI status.

PFI status is the pinnacle of customer relationship: to become your customers’ trusted financial partner, the one they want to reach out to talk to first when they have a financial need or are ready to buy a new financial product. PFI status is built on trust and engagement.

But deepening engagement and building loyalty requires data, rich data FIs can only acquire if they have a customer’s primary checking account. With customer data, financial institutions can ​​frame, guide, extend, and enhance interactions based on that person’s history, preferences, context, and intent. And that’s when customers feel seen and taken care of.

Two of the most important factors in earning trust are dependability — which most FIs do well — and empathy — which they often don’t. Because of that, empathy is a big differentiator. When driving loyalty, it’s emotion that matters most.

Emotion and empathy can build trust and earn loyalty and ultimately unlock PFI status. And for the FIs who can make that connection with their customers and achieve PFI status — those are the ones who will win in the economic upturn. But it starts now, in the downturn.

In today’s economic downturn, FIs need to focus on building strong customer relationships and establishing themselves as trusted partners for their customers’ financial needs. This requires an elevated customer experience, built on deep engagement and empathy.