Banking survey: Driving customer value through digital

Banks are facing the 'perfect storm' as increasing regulations and cost pressures  are compounded by the global economic crisis. Emerging banking technology is giving new competitors entry into the traditional banking revenue pools and driving a change in customer expectations and behaviour.

Digital technologies offer banks the opportunity to save costs and deepen customer relationships. We surveyed approximately 3000 banking customers in nine different markets to understand customers' needs, attitudes and behaviours to digital media. Key findings include:

• 75% of UK banking customers said that their phones had access to the internet and 56% say that they use social media at least once per day
• Emerging markets and Generation Y customers are leapfrogging online banking and going straight to mobile, and developed countries are likely to follow suit.
• 53% of UK banking customers say that if they were going to buy a new banking product they would buy it from their current provider - this was the lowest of the 9 countries surveyed, indicating that the UK is a highly competitive banking market
• Emerging markets score more highly on overall banking customer engagement, in areas such as 'My bank knows me well' and 'My bank makes me feel like they value me'
• Online capability, security and simplicity of use were ranked as the 3 most important attributes UK customers want of their banks
• In the UK 65% of banking customers would be willing to pay an optimal price of £4.20 per month for loyalty card services. A further 66% would be willing to pay for a Twitter/Facebook notification of a transaction.

The victors in this tricky market will be those that recognise the changing ecosystem and set out a clear digital vision for securing customer relationship primacy.