One old-school banking concept that I've always loved is the Personal Banker. The idea has great appeal: as a customer, you have a specific person that knows you, has responsibility for your relationship, and is available to you when you need something. It's a great idea, and one that some banks still use--although usually only for the bank's best customers.
And therein lies the rub: it's fiscally impossible for a bank (or credit union) to give every customer their own personal banker. The numbers just don't add up--it's too expensive.
In the online world, it's this ideal--the personal banker ideal--that web-based retailers have been working to transform with their virtual services. Let's call it personalized rather than personal. Zappos and Amazon are the two highest-profile examples, but there are certainly others. The delivery of this kind of service springs from a powerful mix of user-driven content/interactions, relational customer databases, and highly-selective human interaction (to hold down costs).
None of this is particularly novel--we all know these companies very well, and many of us use their services regularly. So the real question is this: what relevance does this idea of personalized service have for banks, particularly online banking?
Based on the current state of online banking, I would say "not much." Online banking is not a personalized experience for most customers--it's a fixed set of screens and services that looks very similar to the screens/services all other banks provide.
The lack of a personalized online experience is the biggest hurdle for banks and credit unions to overcome--even bigger than security and fraud issues. Customers are becoming accustomed to personalized experiences in the online world, so it's only a matter of time before they expect that same type of experience from their online banking experience. Old modes of doing online banking won't cut it.
Here a just a few examples of the kinds of personalization that are available and technically feasible (there are many, many more):
Customers controlling their screen views (dashboards, data sorting, graphing).
Customers using smart tools to understand their own situation and do analytics in areas like budgeting, planning, and risk management.
Customers saying when--and how--they want to receive communications.
This isn't the future--it's the present (hell, it's the past for many online retailers). Financial institutions (and their online vendors) have to step up and meet this personalization challenge head-on, sooner rather than later. The ability to compete online is at stake.
And being competitive online matters for all banks and CU's, even for the ones that it doesn't seem to right now. Within the next decade, for all but the most niche banks and CU's, it will be practically impossible to be financially successful without being successful online.
It's time for all of us to roll up our sleeves and get to work.
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