Research has shown that customers want smooth tech experiences, and the market for those experiences is growing. Whether that’s online banking, contactless payments or a wellbeing app, the user experience is now more intuitive and seamless than ever.
The move to digitisation has needed to be quick over the past few years and is now essential to a lender’s business. There are, however, some areas where growth has been a lot slower than it could be, especially in areas of banking formerly overlooked, such as savings.
What challenges do providers face?
The challenges for savings providers largely centre around the flexibility of their platforms. Ideally, a savings platform has the potential to offer a range of products for every customer, so platforms need to have the capability to offer this diversity. Customers need options, especially amidst fluctuating interest rates, and providing only a limited number of options can hinder users with specific needs.
What we do know is that usability is crucial to the success of a digital platform, and in a competitive market, this needs to live up to the higher demand for a seamless experience for the customer.
So, what defines a brilliant savings platform?
A savings platform needs to be able to offer a diverse range of products and be able to keep up with a fluctuating market preferences. Importantly, it has to be accessible and intuitive for the customer at the point where they commence their savings journey, either through aggregator sites, your own website or mobile app.
This brings us back to the technology. The winning platforms will invest in the user journey and focus on what makes that customer experience stand out. Research carried out by user experience teams will ascertain customer preferences and build a product from that starting point, whether customers prefer to use their mobile app more than a desktop, for example. In addition, a focus on CRM and the type and time of response will underpin the platform’s success.
Finally, and crucially, the platform needs to perform at a high level, be able to offer the necessary regulatory checks and be operationally efficient. For example, using Open Banking to deposit funds and allowing that process to be as seamless as possible. Essentially, it’s pivoting what was once a paper-heavy journey customer journey into a fully integrated online experience where the needs of the customer, lender and market coincide.
The future landscape for savings
The future growth of digital banking platforms is inevitable, the question will be how quickly, confidently and thoughtfully lenders will adopt new ways of thinking about what they can offer their customers. The more intuitive and customer focussed lenders are, the more able they will be to stay ahead in a fast moving and changing industry. Agility and convenience will be the core principles behind a successful digital platform.
