While personalization is a successful tactic used in industries like streaming services and retail, financial institutions have been slower to adapt. However, with the increased demand for digital financial services in the past few years, personalized experiences are now a necessity. In fact, according to a study we commissioned with Forrester consisting of 324 decision-makers of North American lending institutions, banks with mature personalization were three times more likely to outperform their goals than were low-maturity banks.
In this on-demand webinar, “The Personalization Imperative in the Current Market, ” Forrester’s Principal Analyst Alyson Clarke discusses this and more with Blend’s Product Marketing Manager Cassandra Stumer. With 19 years of professional experience in the financial services industry, Clarke works with financial service executives to help develop their business strategies. Learn how financial institutions can leverage personalization strategies to acquire and retain customers — even in a down market.
We partnered with Clarke to analyze consumer expectations about their experiences with personalization and where financial institutions are in developing their digital strategies. There are a number of key takeaways from our study that financial institutions should keep in mind as banking leaders continue to increase their investments in personalization strategies.
Short and long-term growth
It’s no surprise that consumers find more value in experiences that are relevant and valuable to their own personal needs and goals. In fact, 72% of surveyed banking customers said product recommendations are more valuable when they’re personalized. While this helps increase customer acquisition, personalization is also a driver of more profitable long-lasting customer relationships that deliver value to financial institutions even in years to come.
It’s also valuable to mention that none of our respondents thought there would be no benefit to delivering personalized experiences.
Effective personalization takes investment and focus
While 71% of respondents believe that personalization drives better customer acquisition, understanding the importance of personalization is only the first step in curating customer experiences that make a difference.
It’s imperative to take the extra time and effort to deliver effective personalization in order to see results both in the short and long term. Three out of four financial institution leaders say they plan to increase personalization investment this year for better customer acquisition, customer outcomes, and competitive leverage.
Some key categories to focus on include applying personalization across the full scope of products, delivering high-impact advice and recommendations to customers, allowing all employees to deliver personalized experiences, and leveraging customer understanding to anticipate and meet their needs.
Mature personalization outperforms
Mature personalization refers to capabilities that are implemented at every step of the customer lifecycle, understanding their specific needs to help them reach their goals, and predicting what advice and recommendations are valuable to them before they even ask. Financial institutions with more mature personalization programs were 26% more likely to beat their revenue goals last year.
Financial institutions with mature personalization saw 170% in overperformance in some of their top key business priorities, including improving cross-sell and upsell, improving customer acquisition, better understanding and responding to customer needs, and accelerating digital transformation.
The platform transforming personalization for financial institutions
As financial institutions seek out strategies to upgrade their digital personalization needs, one thing is for certain — leaning into advanced technologies is essential. In fact, decision-makers predict there will be a 45% increase in the adoption of machine-learning-based personalization within two years.
Blend’s intuitive cloud-based platform leverages consumer data to help provide tailored customer experiences that are remembered even in a downturn. More importantly, we ensure our strategies grow with our customers’ needs and changing goals to help them stay ahead of the game.
In a competitive industry, it’s necessary to be attentive and innovative.