Driving customer value through data insights in banking

Andrew Aho, Regional Director of Data Platforms, InterSystems

The rising cost of living is causing serious concerns for Australian consumers. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 2.1% in the first quarter of 2022, and 5.1% in the 12 months to March 2022.[1]

This, coupled with ongoing economic volatility and rising interest rates, has created a perfect storm for consumers, leading to tightened budgets and looking to save on costs wherever possible. Consequently, it puts increased pressure on Australian banks to find new ways to help their customers improve their financial position.

However, like many other banking and finance leaders, you may be struggling to achieve a 360-degree view of your customers so that you can deliver valued, delightful, and personalised experiences at an individual customer level. New research by InterSystems reveals that 87% of Australian banking leaders experience frustrations and concerns in using their customer and organisational data to drive decision-making, with 24% not confident that their organisation has a 360-degree view of its customers. This is compounded by the fact that 88% of Australian banking leaders are making decisions using data that is more than one day old.[2]

A big problem in Australian banking is that information is segregated into data siloes, which can be slow to adapt, difficult to make sense of, and require significant ongoing investments in both effort and expense.

The good news is there are three simple steps your bank can take to mitigate these challenges and deliver consistent, clear, real-time data insights across the organisation that can quickly result in hyper-personalised experiences for your customers which drives retention, loyalty, revenue, and profit.

1. Define your metrics of success

You must clearly define what success looks like for your organisation and how it will be measured before investing in restructuring the business and its processes so that you can achieve consistent, clear, real-time data insights you need to deliver great customer experiences. The best approach is to determine metrics that align with key elements along the customer journey, rather than solely on outcomes of customer engagements. For example, metrics may include changing trends in new customer inquiries, and the stage/s of the customer journey where customers may become less or more engaged with the bank. This is in addition to customer engagement metrics such as customer satisfaction ratings, referrals, and customer churn.

2. Give your lines of business easy access to organisational data

Your organisation is only as successful as your lines of business, so it’s imperative that your executives can easily access mission-critical data to help them confidently make the right business decisions. This means getting the right data into the hands of the right people when and where they need it. This used to mean centralising all your data before you could make use of it. Today, there are modern data infrastructure and architectural approaches that mean you can unlock the value of your data without waiting months or years long before you see any results.

3. Align your data to achieve better customer experiences

Delivering exceptional customer experiences sets you apart from your competitors, helping you to attract, retain, and grow your customer accounts, even in an unstable market. That’s why banks and other financial service organisations are increasingly focused on demonstrating a customer-first approach in consumer advertising. To help your organisation more easily and effectively deliver on your customer promise, take the opportunity to harness and harmonise your customer and business information across all lines of business so that you gain a 360-degree view of your customers and their needs.

One way to achieve this is through a simple and cost-effective next-generational architecture that lets you create an enterprise-level data fabric. This approach helps your bank speed up access to accurate, reliable data across the organisation, which in turn lets you drive more actionable insights and achieve tangible results for your customers. The right data platform lets you quickly create a data fabric by aligning with your existing processes, without the need to rip and replace your current technology investments.

No matter what happens in the local or global economy, one fact stands true. Banks and fintechs that can effectively curate their data throughout the organisation will remain one step ahead when it comes to delivering unparalleled customer experiences and clearly demonstrating a customer-first approach. By breaking down your data siloes using cost-effective and secure cloud-based data management technologies, you can make better business decisions based on accurate, live data insights and analysis that puts your organisation on a solid path to more profitable growth and a greater market share.

[1] https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/consumer-price-index-australia/latest-release

[2] https://intersystems-finance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/6th-version-APAC_LoB_eBook_2022.pdf