Banks should be 'everyday' services, expert says
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As the financial sector evolves, banks have to change as well and become all-encompassing services that can meet a wide range of needs, said an industry executive.
Piercarlo Gera, senior managing director of Accenture Strategy, describes this new version of an age-old service institution as an “everyday bank”, one that is “central to the everyday life of a customer”.
“It is a player that the customer should and could access more than once a day, which addresses his real-life needs.”
He said banks could do this through an ecosystem of partners to address typical needs such as housing and saving money. It could start from helping to search for a home to getting the mortgage and maybe even providing a discount on furniture.
Milan-based Gera, whose firm provides technology-enabled strategy services, added: “On the different purchases a customer makes daily, here is where the bank can provide a discount leveraging the network of merchants that are in the ecosystem of the bank.”
He cited a bank in Poland that has been successful in offering what he calls merchant-funded discounts. “Now, customers are joining the bank because they have access to these discounts. The advantage is that the bank can provide a more personalised proposition, because banks have a wealth of data they can work on.”
Customers can always look for discounts on other platforms, but Gera said the consultancy’s surveys showed that “in the end, customers have a more trust-based relationship with banks than any other intermediaries”.
The bank’s changing role has also led to an evolution of jobs and skills that banks across the world need to work on.
“We were discussing that digital marketing skills are becoming very relevant. Customers form an opinion online, so you need to communicate online how you want to be perceived.”
Managing customer experience has created roles such as chief customer officer in recent years, said Gera, who has more than 25 years of experience in the consulting field. “You need people who are able to architect the customer journey, and how they should be treated across various channels.”
Banks need to catch up in these areas, he said, and added that attracting talent was the biggest challenge banks would face.
“When you define an everyday banking strategy and you want to implement it, talent is the most limiting factor.
“Technologies are now manageable at reasonable costs. What is important is to have the customer mindset and ability to architect the business model to develop the network of alliances, to shape the ecosystem that is needed.”
