Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Maximizing
Digital Banking
Engagement
AUGUST 2022

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

The battle for customer loyalty will be won and lost by financial
institutions based on the strength of their ability to deliver
personalized and contextualized customer experiences through
higher levels of engagement.

— Jim Marous
Owner and CEO
Digital Banking Report
Host, Banking Transformed Podcast

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Preface

Customer Engagement is Now Crucial

Attracting the customer, continual customer engagement and
relationship loyalty is the ultimate challenge for today’s financial
institutions. Relevance is now the key word.
Customer expectations are becoming increasingly high. They expect
financial institutions to know them. What are their spending habits? What
products do they need? How do customers want to interact with their
financial institutions... And so on.
Furthermore, competition is coming from all sides. It is coming from start-ups
and from big tech who are much more natively capable to use data and
provide contextual interactions with their clients.
The 2022 Digital Banking Report on digital engagement is aimed at digging
into this. It shows how customer engagement is getting crucial and how data
Roberto Ferrari and smart value exchanges are reshaping the foundations of the relationship
between banks and customers.
Are banks truly aware of the key challenges? Are they ready to change? How quickly are they
moving? What are customer expectations? How much have expectations changed since the
pandemic?
The 2022 Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement report helps to get a global view on these
questions, providing you (without any doubt) a significant roadmap with plenty of insights.
There’s not much time left, as customers are changing fast, adapting to new digital opportunities —
much faster than incumbent banks themselves. It is clear from the research that personalized and
contextual offerings and interactions are what customers are looking for.

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

As time goes on, it will become more and more important for financial institutions to stay relevant and
maintain “customers’ top of mind” preferences.
The truth being revealed is that traditional and historical customer inertia is no longer assured —
as new data-driven competition enters the market. Competitive and regulatory barriers may be
eliminated, with the rise of open banking and its technological foundations. The cloud, APIs, and
software as a service (SAS) may fuel new solutions which are more capable to match new customer
expectations.
This is a new paradigm. It is based on data, seamless multichannel orchestration, openness, cloud-
based infrastructure, and above all, a new customer-centric culture that gets to the best ARPU (average
revenue per user) as a result of the highest NPS and engagement levels.
The question is … Will banks reinvent themselves in time?

— Roberto Ferrari
Digital Reinvention Community Leader
Qorus

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Contents

Preface |3|

Letter from Jim Marous  | 6 |

Message from Infosys Finacle  | 9 |

Key Research Questions and Takeaways  | 12 |

Executive Summary:
The Ultimate Digital Banking Customer Engagement Playbook  | 13 |

Section 1: Understanding Customer Expectations  | 21 |

Section 2: Core Capabilities to Succeed in Digital Engagement —

People, Process and Tech  | 30 |

Section 3: Customer Engagement Across Lifecycle  | 38 |

Section 4: Use of Data and Analytics to Achieve Results  | 45 |

Section 5: Superior Channel Engagement  | 52 |

Section 6: Measuring Success  | 59 |

Final Thoughts:
Moving Towards a Holistic Model of Engagement  | 63 |

About the Research  | 66 |

About Us  | 69 |

About the Author  | 70 |

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Letter from the Author

For financial institutions, the accumulation of customer data empowers

them to improve both the personalization and contextualization of
content, creative, offers and overall experiences delivered. Done
well, this higher level of personalization can improve satisfaction and
engagement, providing a stronger value proposition that can positively
impact loyalty and financial results.
According to Merkle’s most recent Customer Engagement Report, 86
percent of consumers prefer to receive offers that are personalized to
their interests and browsing history. That said, only slightly more than
half of consumers are willing to accept cookies as a matter of course,
emphasizing the importance of developing a strategy to earn the trust of
customers regarding the use of data and insights.
Jim Marous
Our research shows that leading financial institutions are moving quickly
to build a competitive advantage around the collection and use of data
for delivering stronger value exchanges across the customer lifecycle. This includes real-time alerts,
customized offers, relevant content, and a customer-centric approach that de-emphasizes traditional
product sales models.
The process of customer engagement begins before the first sale is made and extends across the life
of a relationship. Therefore, a financial institution must immediately illustrate a commitment to use
collected data responsibly and for the ultimate financial wellness of the consumer. Each opportunity
for a smart value exchange increases the willingness of the customer to share more data, providing the
potential for a stronger relationship for both the financial institution and the customer.
Building a foundation for stronger customer engagement requires the development of goals and
strategies around what data will be collected, what the consumer will receive in exchange for sharing
their data, and how the value exchange will be delivered, Banks and credit unions should also build
early use cases that allow for incremental wins that provide learnings to grow on.

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Finally, there will need to be an investment in a modern data platform that will
serve as the organization’s central data repository where all consumer, marketing
and intelligence data is unified. This will often be built on a cloud-based
architecture that enables speed, scalability and uniform deployment.
The Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement report is published in association
with Infosys Finacle and Qorus. This is an expansion on the Innovation in Retail
Banking report published last fall that provided a springboard for this research.
As financial institutions begin to realize that simply providing a good experience
is not enough, the learnings from this report will become instrumental in building a
better opportunity for customer engagement required for the future.

— Jim Marous
Owner and CEO
Digital Banking Report
Host, Banking Transformed Podcast

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 Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Message from Infosys Finacle

It gives me great pleasure to present the ‘Maximizing Digital Banking

Engagement - 2022’ study.
More than two years ago, when the pandemic plunged the world into
turmoil, among other measures, we turned to digital technology for ways to
cope. Enterprises, including banks, accelerated their digital transformation
plans, while consumers took to digital channels to keep both professional
and personal life going. As bank customers flocked to online channels, they
came with expectations of frictionless service and experience, similar to
what was offered by new-age providers, such as tech giants, e-commerce
Sanat Rao platforms, and upstart fintech rivals. For incumbent financial institutions,
digital engagement became an urgent priority overnight.
As Infosys Finacle worked with banking clients to improve digital engagement, the value of under-
standing and tracking the developments in this area became abundantly clear. In Spring of 2022, we
commissioned a study with the Digital Banking Report and Qorus to explore key opportunities and
benefits in maximizing digital engagements across the customer lifecycle journey. The findings of the
inaugural edition, with responses from banking executives across the globe, are captured in this report.
Digital engagement requires a holistic approach to experience management that puts the customer at
the center of every interaction, anticipates customer needs, and fulfils them equally well on all channels
and devices. From an operational standpoint, the approach requires banks to orchestrate the right mix
of core elements, namely, people, process and technology, across the customer engagement lifecycle.
For example, in order to provide a one-stop digital service experience, banks need to equip front-line
staff to handle a variety of situations. About half the banks surveyed say they are building broader
skill sets, and empowering employees with real-time insights so they can take informed decisions and
engage better with customers. An overwhelming majority of respondents are of the view that technol-
ogies, such as Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotic Process Automation, Chatbots
etc., would be crucial to enabling employee-customer interactions for years to come.
Importantly, the study reveals that banks realize the need for enhancing digital engagement across

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

the customer lifecycle. As they strive to onboard, converse, serve and sell better on digital channels,
(59 percent) banks believe that the ease of opening an account, taking a loan, or using a service, will
matter utmost to customers. 90 percent of respondents feel digital marketing will be the most important
customer acquisition channel over the next three years. 71 percent have plans of “smart selling”—
deploying personalized campaigns on digital channels.
Omnichannel, which is about making the same services available consistently and seamlessly on all
channels, both bank-owned and third-party, is the heart of strong digital engagement. Hence building
a robust omnichannel banking platform is the next logical step. While banks have strong contemporary
channels, such as online and mobile banking, their emerging and transformative channels, such as
chatbots or social, are a work in progress. These need to be ramped up in the near future to compete
effectively against new-age digital players.
An interesting finding is that the trend of digital engagement is throwing up new satisfaction metrics,
such as products per customer (named by 70 percent of respondents), active customer volumes by
channel (67 percent), app ratings and user comments (64 percent), and social listening (61 percent).
In addition to insights like these, the report features the “Golden Engagement Circle”, a holistic model
of customer engagement encompassing the different layers of organizational maturity. The model
envisages putting people, processes and technology at the center to improve banks’ ability to sell,
onboard, converse and serve. Seamless integration across channels and platforms further enhances
engagement.
Readers of this Digital Engagement report may find the survey results and the Golden Engagement
Circle framework useful to benchmark their progress versus peers and take corrective measures where
necessary. As always, we look forward to your feedback on this latest initiative from Infosys Finacle.
Happy reading.

— Sanat Rao
Chief Business Officer
Global Head – Infosys Finacle

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Key Research Questions and Takeaways

Questions:
• What is the difference between customer experience and customer engagement?
• What are the benefits of customer engagement?
• How does a financial institution build greater engagement?
• What is the current level of digital engagement maturity in banking?
• What are the biggest digital engagement challenges?
• What channels are best for driving digital customer engagement?
• What are customer expectations around digital engagement in banking?
• How important is speed to market with a digital engagement strategy?

Takeaways:
• Creating greater levels of customer engagement goes beyond feeling good about a brand to interacting
with a brand regularly.
• Customers who regularly interact with a brand have higher levels of product ownership, revenues, & loyalty.
• Higher levels of engagement are directly tied to the ability of an institution to use data & insights to drive
personalized & contextual interactions at scale in real time.
• Digital engagement maturity remains low in the banking industry at a time when customer expectations are
increasing exponentially.
• The biggest challenge for firms undertaking a digital engagement strategy is the delivery of contextual
interactions at scale using data and analytics.
• The combination of email, texts, web design and content marketing have the greatest impact on digital
engagement.
• Customers expect their financial institution to know them, understand them, and reward them with real-time
offers and recommendations that will improve their financial wellness.
• One of the biggest threats to financial institutions is that consumers are expanding their financial
relationships across more non-traditional financial institutions … Reducing their loyalty without closing
accounts.

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Executive
Summary

13
Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

The Ultimate Digital Customer Engagement Playbook

Consumers are increasingly abandoning banking brands that

don’t understand their needs and fail to provide personalized
recommendations in real-time. Creating engaging banking
experiences across the entire customer journey — leveraging every
channel — is now an imperative.
Moving from a transactional mindset to an engagement mindset has become a crucial capability in
banking. It doesn’t matter if the customer is a digital native, branch-based customer or a combination,
the ability to provide contextual products, services, and recommendations is the foundation of devel-
oping a stronger relationship and greater revenues.
Building active engagement on a frequent basis beyond rudimentary transactions requires more than
traditional personalization. In fact, our research found that financial institutions that excel at building
interactions beyond daily transactions generate more revenue from those activities than average
players. This is accomplished by creating offerings, content, and communications to the right customer
at the right time with the right interaction.
The urgency to create increased customer engagement has never been greater. According to
McKinsey, “The surge in digital interactions since the onset of the pandemic escalated expectations —
giving consumers more exposure to the personalization practices of e-commerce leaders and raising
the bar for everyone else.” Organizations like Amazon, Netflix, Apple, and a multitude of other firms
have made personalized engagement the default standard for relationship growth.

“Too many banks are still heavily focusing on their core offerings — accounts and card-based payment
services, while digital engagement maturity remains low. As customers´ expectations are increasing
exponentially, moving to an engagement mindset has become a critical capability in the banking industry.
Higher levels of engagement are directly tied to their ability to collect and analyze data, identify what
customers want, and use these insights to automate interactions and create personalized omnichannel
banking experiences.”

— John Berry, CEO of Qorus.

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Chart 1:
Most Banks Not Ready for New Digital Banking Realities

Multiple Not Ready Data and

Channel Closed IT Low
Technology for Cloud Analytical
Silos Systems Automation
Stacks Adoption Friction

Inconsistent High total cost Hindering Hindering Higher Inability to

customer of ownership open banking speed of cost of anticipate cus-
journeys and shifts innovation and operations tomer needs
maintenance increase TCO

Source: Finacle © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

The Benefits of Banking Customer Engagement

Many financial institutions confuse customer experience with customer engagement. Customer
experience is the perception that your customers have based on everything they see, hear, or learn
about your company. Alternatively, customer engagement is the process of interacting with your
customers across all channels to strengthen the overall relationship. Both the customer experience
and the engagement process begins before an account is opened and continues through the entire
customer journey.
To build a more positive experience, banks and credit unions can engage with customers on a per-
sonalized basis via direct mail, email, social media, mobile banking platforms, websites, or any other

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

channel where contextual interactions occur. The power of new technologies and digital tools assists in
the most important component of customer engagement — listening. From monitoring transactions and
customer inquiries, to asking for insights into financial goals, listening builds rapport and enables an
organization to provide a personalized solution.

Chart 2:
The Benefits of Personalized and Proactive Engagement are Understood by Bankers

Customer acquisition 68%

Customer retention 66%

New revenue channels 61%

Enhance emotional
connection 59%

Expand revenue in
traditional channels 58%

Increase profit margins 53%

Expand customer
wallet share 35%

Source: NTT Data © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

The goal of customer engagement is to offer customers something of value beyond your products and
services. While products may attract customers initially, a differentiated contextual engagement is what
keeps them around. A study by Gallup discovered that when companies successfully engaged customers,
they reported 63% lower customer attrition, 55% higher wallet share, and overall performed 23%
better than their competitors.
The relevancy of the engagement process is what makes customers engage with your brand. The
level of engagement results in an improved customer experience. According to NTT Data, improved
engagement and enhanced experiences provide acquisition and retention benefits as well as uncover
cross-sell and up-sell opportunities at a rate that is at least 3x to 10x greater than pure prospecting.
And, instead of building a product-based marketing cycle, the customer is being served at the time
of need.

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Using Technology to Drive Banking Customer Engagement

Technology is the engine that makes customer engagement possible. Customer data is the fuel for that
engine. Modern engagement platforms use AI-driven tools as well as internal and external data to
automate interactions ... Creating a personalized experience that encourages a prospect to open an
account and a customer to expand a relationship.
The beauty of combining data, advanced analytics and modern communication platforms is that you
can anticipate needs, create custom responses to inquiries at scale, build new products and services
for micro segments, and re-target potential customers in real-time. By building a seamless, streamlined
communications cycle, teams can focus on innovation, custom outreach, and learning from previous
communication efforts.

Chart 3:
Bankers Understand the Power of AI for Customer Engagement

What bankers AI is creating new ways to differentiate offerings and

83% win customers, driven by access to uniques data sets.
think about
Artificial
Intelligence:
AI is a critical part of our strategy to attract and
82% retain customers.

AI is a driving shift in how financial institutions

81% should retain and attract customers.

Source: NTT Data © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

A data-driven approach to engagement goes beyond the power of simple incentives and special
offers to provide relevant content that customers value. As customers become more familiar with your
highly personalized communication process, they will often go to your brand before others for future
needs. If your content provides value (from the customer’s perspective), there is a much higher toler-
ance for increased quantities of communication. This equates to more opportunities.

Strategies for Successful Banking Customer Engagement

Customer engagement strategies in banking will work if they involve all areas of the organization (as
opposed to just marketing). Creating an exceptional customer experience using powerful engagement
strategies expands across the entire customer journey, using all channels and every department of
your organization.

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

The insights from our research show that many banks are not prepared to create effective customer
engagement. Most react to evolving customer expectations with ad-hoc fixes focused on customer
experience.
Such peripheral tactics are expedient, but do not deliver the full impact of digital transformation. In
fact, they often end up creating problems such as:
• Channel silos leading to fragmented, inconsistent customer journeys
• Closed systems that are not open banking friendly
• Analytical friction preventing banks from anticipating and serving customer needs
• Application silos that duplicate both technology stacks and costs
Banks need to break these silos with a holistic approach to customer engagement and experience
management that puts customers at the center of every interaction, anticipates customer needs, and
fulfils needs equally well on all channels and devices.
The key strategies and tactics to include in your digital banking engagement play-book include:
• Know your destination. As with any initiative, you can’t reach your goal if you haven’t defined
your destination. What will customer engagement look and feel like in your organization? What
components can be implemented today, and which may have to wait? Will your engagement
strategy include proactive recommendations based on data and AI? Will your organization build
content that is accessible on demand? How will your employees be involved?
• Engage your employees. Identify who in your organization will have a role in engaging custom-
ers and get their collaborative buy-in. This will help avoid any reservations around the process and
help build a comprehensive strategy that engages the customer across channels and throughout
the customer journey.

• Identify your target audiences. Identify who you will be targeting for communication. Will you
focus on only a single segment of customers, or your entire base? Once your target audience is
selected, you need to understand the preferred engagement styles of sub-segments. For instance,
who has shown a preference towards digital communication as opposed to in-branch engage-
ment? Also, identify the financial needs of your target customer and what motivates their decisions.

• Build content. Create content and a communication flow that is customer-driven. Make the con-
tent personal to the target audience and reflective of the insights you know about them. Provide
solutions to the specific target audience’s pain points and measure the impact of your communi-
cation. Make recommendations based on past purchases or search history. Don’t be afraid to ask
for customer insights at the beginning of the experience, using this insight to delight the customer as
soon as possible.

• Utilize modern technology. As soon as possible, leverage the most appropriate automation and
communication tools that can allow you to simplify an increasingly complex engagement process
and track results.

• Measure results on a macro and micro basis. Monitor the success of your activities against

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

the original goals and on a campaign basis. Gather feedback from internal teams as well as any
third-party providers you have engaged in the process. Also gather feedback from the customers
you targeted to determine what worked and what didn’t. Just monitoring sales results is not enough
given the longer-term nature of engagement communication.

• Modify tactics and strategies in real-time. The technology and tools available for a customer
engagement process can provide immediate feedback on results. Leverage this feedback as it
becomes available as opposed to waiting a month, a quarter, or a year in the future.

The Future of Digital Banking Customer Engagement

To acquire, convert and retain customers — and turn them into advocates — you need to engage them
across channels and over time at every opportunity that creates value for your customers. The objective
is to connect with your target audience in an appropriate, effective and meaningful way.

Successful banking customer engagement doesn’t eliminate the need for strong branding — it relies on it.
While new technology and marketing communication tools can make the customer engagement process
easier and scalable, it is also important to create a brand personality that customers will love getting to
know and want to engage with. This brand personality must be evident in each communication.

Chart 4:
Consumers Want Intelligent Engagement from their Bank

• PROACTIVELY send me reminders on upcoming major payments — tuition, mortgage, auto

loans, etc.
53%

• ANTICIPATE products and services that I might need and be interested in.
49%

• CONNECT the dots between my income, expenses, and savings — providing proactive
guidance to help me reach my financial goals.
47%

• ACT as a conscientious advisor (voice of reason) on major overall spending decisions.

46%

• INTERVENE AND PREVENT purchases to help me stay on budget

and reach my financial goals.
39%

Source: NTT Data © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Engaging with customers effectively sometimes means sending timely push notifications that require
action and provide value. This very powerful communication tactic requires customers to subscribe for
these notifications. By opting-in to receive these messages, they are already choosing to engage with
your brand.
There are more ways than ever to engage with customers today. This means lots of opportunities for
your financial institution to capture your customers’ attention and get them engaged. It also means that
your competitors have the same opportunities. Whatever engagement strategies you employ, you must
be consistent and ongoing through the brand journey.

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1
Understanding
Customer
Expectations

21
Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Understanding Customer Expectations

Having a friendly staff, convenient locations, and an easy to

navigate digital app is no longer enough to satisfy banking
customers. Today’s consumers want their bank and credit union to
personalize communication and recommendations that can help
them save time and money and provide guidance for improved
financial wellness.
Consumers are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the level of support they are receiving from their
financial institution around achieving financial wellness on a personalized level, according to the J.D.
Power 2022 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study. Beyond helping save time and money, consumers
expect their financial institution to provide personalized advice, hands-on help with problem resolu-
tion, and guidance on how to grow their money, states the report.
The challenge in meeting customer expectations was found to be even more acute with digital-centric
customers. These customers represent 48% of the total retail banking customer base and have a
significantly lower satisfaction score than branch-dependent customers. According to J.D. Power,
digital-centric customers are significantly less likely to feel that they have a ‘personal relationship’ with
their bank and are less likely to reuse their bank for additional products.
“A customer’s definition of what support from their retail bank looks like is changing rapidly as we enter
a new economic cycle and move further along the digital adoption curve.”
— Jennifer White, J.D. Power
As shown on the next page, it’s no longer predominately about being fast, efficient, or convenient.
The pre-eminent performance metric with the biggest influence on customer satisfaction is ‘supporting

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22
Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

customer during challenging times,’ and that means customers are expecting a personalized mix of
financial advice, hands-on help with problem resolution and guidance on how to grow their money.
Failing to provide the level of engagement desired (the industry ‘meet rate’) will have a negative
impact on trust and retention at a time when the competition for retail banking relationships has never
been more intense.

Chart 5:
Significant Gap Exists in Banking Performance vs Satisfaction KPIs

Key Performance Indicators Industry

KPI Impact
Overall Satisfaction MeetRate
Completely supports me in challenging times +155 *44%

Extremely easy to get the phone help I wanted +54 *19%

Extremely easy to review recent banking transactions +54 50%

I have never had a problem +49 *43%

Extremely easy to deposit a check +44 51%

Strongly agree bank enables me to make purchases/move

+43 *28%
money safely

Strongly agree debit card is safe and secure to use +42 *37%

Information provided is specifically tailored to meet

+38 70%
my needs
Strongly agree the bank helps me to manage my spending or
+38 *10%
budget

Strongly agree the bank enables me to grow my money +35 *12%

Phone rep genuinely thanked me for my business +34 61%

Branch rep genuinely thanked me for my business +33 60%

Most recent problem was resolved +31 82%

*Opportunity - Seven of the KPI’s have a “meet rate” less than 50%.

Source: J.D. Power © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

Consumers Want Personalized Help Reaching Goals

Across the seven factors that drive overall satisfaction, J.D. Power found that ‘helping save time or
money’ received the lowest score (582 out of 1,000). Even though this component of satisfaction is
a lower-weighted factor, when combined with other factors, such as resolving problems and offering

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 23

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

personalized solutions, there is an opportunity for banks to differentiate themselves by focusing on

consumer needs as opposed to simply selling services.

Chart 6:
Consumers Least Satisfied with Banks Helping Them Reach Goals
Banking Industry Satisfaction Overview
1,000 - point scale

People 18% Weight 668

Digital channels 13% Weight 666

Level of trust 21% Weight 664

Banking how and when I want 14% Weight 658

Account offerings meet needs 13% Weight 631

Resolving problems 8% Weight 599

Helping save time and money 13% Weight 582

Overall satisfaction 18% Weight 647

Source: J.D. Power © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

When consumers were asked how they would like

their bank to personalize their banking engagement,
the top responses were related to ‘advice’ and
‘alerts,’ including alerts that could help avoid fees.
Customer data-driven digital engagement (SMS
texts, mobile banking messages and online banking
warnings) provides the most common ways to
achieve this level of targeted messaging.
As shown below J.D. Power found that different
customer segments desire different types of
personalized messages, ranging from ways to save
money, to contextual offers, to just knowing the
customer’s name.

Chart 7:
Consumers Want Personalized Solutions

Pre-boomers/ Gen X Gen Y Gen Z

Boomers

Help you avoid fees 40% 46% *50% *50%

Send you account alerts 34% 37% 39% *45%

Inform you when a different

31% *36% 34% 30%
offering would be a better fit
Only send offers/promotions
31% 32% *37% 30%
that are relevant to you
Offer ways to save money,
17% 26% *38% 43%
based on your habits
Branch tellers who know
*16% 14% 12% 12%
your name
Periodically call to review
10% 12% 14% 14%
your accounts/needs

*Significant business opportunity

Source: J.D. Power © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Financial Institutions Understand the Need for Customer Engagement

It is clear that customers expect more from their financial institutions. They want their banks and credit
unions to go beyond knowing their name and account number, to actually helping them along their
financial wellness journey.
We asked financial institutions globally what they believed the customer desires and the benefits
they expect from delivering an improved engagement experience. As can be seen, there is alignment
between what customers desire and what financial institutions believe should be delivered.

Chart 8:
Benefits Financial Institution Executives Believe Customers Want
Please rank the key benefits you believe are sought by customers.

Ease & simplicity of opening accounts,

applying for loans and using services 59% 33% 8%

Low fees and charges 46% 38% 16%

24/7 digital access contemporary

and emerging channels 46% 36% 18%

Ease and simplicity of opening /

competitive interest rates 41% 42% 17%

Data security, privacy and

fraud protection 30% 52% 18%

Personalized/predictive advice and

recommendations 22% 47% 31%

Broad range of products

and services 20% 54% 26%

Physical branch accessibility 15% 35% 50%

Financial wellness tools 11% 39% 50%

Embedded banking 10% 27% 63%

■  Top 3 ranking  ■  Middle ranking  ■  Bottom 3 ranking

Source: Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 26

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Chart 9:
Increasing Customer Satisfaction and Improving Efficiency are Top 2 Customer
Objectives
Please rank your customer-facing objectives for new and existing customers from 1-5.

Increase customer satisfaction

46% 23% 31%
Increase efficiency of serving customer
45% 16% 39%
Increase cross-sales effectiveness
39% 20% 41%
Provide proactive advice and recommendations based on data and insight
39% 23% 38%
Increase number of customer interactions and engagements
30% 19% 51%

■  Top 2 ranking  ■  Middle ranking  ■  Bottom 2 ranking

Source: Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 27

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

7 Ways to Create Customer Engagement at Speed and Scale

To deliver the experiences customers expect, financial institutions must do more than just invest in
technology upgrades. Increasingly, organizations must improve back-office execution that allows for
business efficiency, customer experience improvement, and value creation. In other words, the focus on
the customer requires starting from within the organization as opposed to simply providing a sleek app.
When deployed in conjunction with improved back-office automation, the combination of customer
data and artificial intelligence (AI) can create new opportunities for personalization at scale. Unfortu-
nately, as financial marketers and customer service teams turn to data-driven systems to gain deeper
insights, automate decision-making and personalize brand experiences, there’s often a disconnect
between the technology’s potential and what it delivers. This speed to market must improve.

Here are 7 proven ways to improve customer engagement at speed and scale:
1. Start Small.
The best approach to delivering personalized experiences is to start small and stay focused with your
data and AI implementation. Collecting and analyzing customer data is only a starting point. You also
need to develop content and strategies that match the customer at the key point of their journey in a
personal and contextually relevant way.

2. Believe in Bots.
Compared to the chatbots of yesterday, today’s bots use natural
language processing to translate requests to intent and AI-enabled
knowledge to converse more naturally. This creates better conversations
and more powerful conversational intelligence.

3. Move from Transaction to Engagement.

To understand the solution that should be offered is not enough. You need
to understand how, when and where a customer prefers to engage. You
need to leverage the desired mix of digital and physical channels that the customer prefers and the
communication channels that will reach customers to drive engagement (web, email, mobile, social
media, SMS text, etc.).

4. Understand the Customer’s Destination.

To provide the tools needed to help your customer meet their financial goals, you need to understand
their desired destination and the path they prefer to take to get there. Similar to a GPS system, you
need to help the customer reach their destination with the least amount of detours and friction along the
journey.

5. Deploy Insights Across the Organization.

The potential of data and AI is reached when organizations move beyond creating great reports to
delivering exceptional experiences. This can only be achieved when the data and insights are shared
across the entire organization, assisting all departments with enhanced customer engagement and
improved innovation.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 28

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

6. Deliver Instant Gratification.

More than ever, financial institutions must leverage technology, data and analytics, and cloud solutions
to deliver insights with speed and accuracy. This requires the real-time processing of data to deliver
instant engagement using the right channel(s) — seamlessly.

7. Illustrate Empathy.
Customers want you to know them, understand them and reward them with solutions that meet their
unique needs. This requires that the design and implementation of AI consider empathy across all
channels. While some of the listening and understanding skills can be automated, organizations must
help agents create empathetic engagements that lead to brand loyalty and share of wallet.

Adding Value Across the Entire Customer Journey

Differentiating based on technological capabilities is becoming more difficult as digital tools increasingly
look the same. The key is to find a way to create a unique identity and brand value on the internet.
As shown in the J.D. Power research, financial institutions must go beyond the basics of digital
convenience to create increasingly better engagement opportunities. Banks and credit unions must
predict customer needs, deliver proactive and personalized solutions, and add value at each step
of the customer journey. All this must be achieved with hyper-personalized products and seamless
interactions that are supported by a streamlined back-office.
Digital-centric customers should not be ranking financial institutions lower than branch-dependent
customers. As stated in an article in the MIT Sloan Management Review, “By mining every touch point;
aggregating structured data from customer profiles along with unstructured data from phone and chat
logs, emails, and snail mail; and analyzing larger-scale patterns of customer behavior, it’s possible to
create a level of personalization that would have been impossible to achieve in the offline world.”

The power of data and insight for delivering personalized engagement has increased exponentially,
changing the dynamics of brand advocacy forever.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 29

2
Core
Capabilities
to Succeed
in Digital
Engagement

30
Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Core Capabilities to Succeed in Digital Engagement —

People, Process and Tech

It is no longer enough to have an easy-to-use mobile banking app

or to have friendly customer care professionals to answer questions
or handle complaints. Today’s consumer expects their bank or
credit union to anticipate their needs, provide intuitive engagement
and improve their financial health.
The positive impact of a good customer experience is undisputed. In fact, companies that invest in im-
proving customer experiences outperform those who don’t across multiple metrics. The challenge is that
the expectations of consumers have increased exponentially in the past several years. Beyond simply
avoiding errors and enabling fast and easy transactions, consumers expect their bank to use data and
insights to help them save time and money and improve their financial well-being.
Unfortunately, financial institutions are not meeting these increased expectations. As the demand for
digital engagement continues to increase, most banks and credit unions are missing opportunities to
build deeper relationships because of slow deployment of automation and modern technology, and
the lack of leveraging customer insights to partner with customers for a better financial future.
Bottom line, customers want financial services that are easy, transparent, intuitive, and empathic to
their personalized needs ... Across the entire customer journey. Missing this opportunity will negatively
impact customer interactions and will open the door to alternative financial providers.

People: Augmenting the Workforce for Better Engagements

Talent is among a bank’s strongest competitive advantages. Banks need to continually refresh the skills
of their workforce to maintain the talent pipeline and differentiate their organization in the market. A
contemporary skillset can be built by developing multidisciplinary skills, providing on-demand contex-
tual learning and creating an agile workforce model.

The first calls for setting up a strong multidisciplinary skilling program, mapping competency across
functions to identify skill gaps, and closing those gaps with the help of tools, technological enablers
and learning platforms. On-demand contextual learning will keep the workforce up to date with new
knowledge. Along with enabling the workforce with multidisciplinary skills and providing contextual
on-demand learning platforms, banks must also pursue an agile workforce model to address both
under-staffing and over-staffing challenges, and restrict the use of expensive temporary workers to
cases of genuine need.

Technology for a Blended Workforce

The future of banking operations envisages technology as a major component of the workforce. So
far, most banks have augmented their human capital with technology enablers in piecemeal fashion.
To capitalize on the new opportunities of human-technology coexistence and amplify the outcomes,
banks should prioritize workplace and work digitization at scale, empowerment of employees with
insights, and creation of business process synergies between humans and machines.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 31

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

The disruptive technologies will drive multiple use cases — improve the workforce productivity, foster
human creativity, amplify human expertise, aid problem solving & logical reasoning, reduce the human
biases, create self-help avenues for both business users as well as customers, draw insights into key busi-
ness processes and customer behavior, drive agility into business processes with real-time information.
As operations staff, client relationship managers move away from “non-core” administrative, repetitive,
and automatable tasks, they will don a more modern role — one of a specialist and sometimes that of
a strategic advisor. Analytics and insights will equip them to derive better insights about clients, and
predict their unique needs and desires, preferred engagement channels, affinity to specific services. It
will help redefine operations, and better serve the client needs. Analytics will also enable operations
managers to know more about the processes, its performance, and redefine the KPIs of staff who
execute them.
Business processes will need to be calibrated for the new order, where humans and machines will
co-exist ... Where a symbiotic relationship is established between the two. Goals and purposes will
define the right interfacing between the humans and machines, and jobs and roles will need to be
re-examined. The digital maturity path of the organization will determine the right balance between
customer experiences, and workforce needs. And as regulatory frameworks continually evolve ... It will
reinforce the ‘responsible use of technology’ and banks will need to respond appropriately.

Culture Reset for New Propositions

Unless banks have a culture that supports their new business models, they will likely produce
disappointing results. What’s more, cultural change should be continuous and ongoing. This reset will
become central to banking operations when the banks’ top managements lead with purpose and
vision and there is a strong focus on open, collaborative innovation.
Leaders should be proactive in shaping and measuring culture, approaching it with the same rigor and
discipline with which they tackle business transformations. Their vision must include both inside-out and
outside-in views to identify the key themes in the culture transformation matrix and maintain focus on
both external and internal stakeholders.
Knowing that a culture reset entails risks, leaders must encourage experimentation and clarify how
much deviation in outcomes is acceptable. They should also set up a governance framework to monitor
and control the situation. Leaders must lead by example, encourage the sharing of best practices for
making cultural change a matter of identity and participation, and inspire adoption.

Successful culture change programs put people at the center. When the reset aims at creating an
innovation-focused culture, the participation, commitment and understanding of all stakeholders
becomes paramount. As job roles change, and shared services models emerge, the culture must
become more open, collaborative, and cross-functional to be truly effective. This requires creating the
flexibility within functional units to drive sustainability and cross-pollination of cultural tenets.

Here, the banks’ innovation leaders should focus on making collaboration central to team effort
and on driving home the message that when small efforts are pooled together, they can produce
big outcomes. They must also ensure there is a common access platform for all the stakeholders to
understand the new code of conduct, and the behavioral shifts required for adhering to common
minimum standards amid new cultural alignments. Last but not least, they should institute a review and

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 32

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

feedback mechanism as well as a system to recognize employees who embrace and advocate the
culture change.

Building Brand Advocacy

The power of personalization and contextual engagement creates relationship and referral value over
time. If a financial institution creates alerts, recommendations, and content that the customer finds valu-
able in improving their financial wellness, the overall relationship will be enhanced.
In addition, the more customers that consume (or potentially subscribe to) an organization’s content,
the more likely the content will be shared with others. This not only creates the potential for new referral
business, but current customers will be less likely to switch to a competitor’s platform, where they will
need to rebuild relationship influence.
The goal of personalized engagement (vs. a transactional relationship) is to create a process where
a financial institution uses empathetic communication to increase influence over customers as they
increase interactions.

Relationships Beyond Transactions

Over the past several years, competition has emerged from fintech firms to big tech organizations,
as well as non-financial institutions that offer financial services. Consumers have many more choices
of financial institution partners than ever and have become more likely to diversify their relationships
across a wide variety of providers.
To build stronger relationships beyond the transaction, financial institutions must ensure that customers
have a reason to keep engaging repeatedly over extended periods of time. In a digital world this can
be achieved by adding higher levels of personalization, contextualization, and proactive recommen-
dations on top of the traditional transaction and product-focused model.

Process: Moving Towards a Holistic Model of Engagement

Similar to digital banking transformation, the foundation of a holistic model of engagement involves
people, processes, and technology. More importantly, top management must embrace the changes in
legacy business models that are necessary to achieve success.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 33

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Beyond investing in modern technology, financial institutions must provide the back-office automation
and organization-wide deployment of insights to move from a product-focus to customer-focus
mindset. Sharing insights across the organization can help provide employees the ability to recognize
customers and cater to their interactions based on preference and prior behavior.
With people, processes, and technology at the center of the engagement model, the ability to sell, on-
board, converse, and serve will be greatly enhanced. This is because of the shift from a product-push
to a solution-pull communications plan. This plan leverages real-time insights and recommendations as
well as easily accessible content to drive interactions.
Finally, to support the improvement of interactions across all current and future product lines,
there needs to be the seamless integration of engagement across all channels and platforms. As
competition increases, the financial institutions that focus on more than transactions and active usage –
strengthening the impact of engagement – will win.

Chart 10: Improved Customer Engagement Requires a Holistic Model

Sav The Golden

eB
•
• ett
er Engagement Circle
• Tra d iti onal

■  Enhancing core capabilities

Onboard

■  Empowering deeper

People engagements across customer

Conte
Open B nking

Pay Better

life cycle
Insure Better

Converse
Self

Engage
a

mporar y

Better ■  Engagement across channels

Proce
ch

s
■  Alignment of customer
s

Te
well-being

Serve
Source: Developed by Finacle

Emerging nv © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys

I

Finacle

er es
et t tB
ette
wB r
Borro

Elevating Customer Engagement — At Each Step of the Journey

A seamless onboarding process that is in sync with customer comfort and convenience (in terms of
pace, channel, and device) is key for a happy customer.
Since each customer comes with their own expectations and understanding, the process of account
origination must be as flexible and adaptive as possible. In addition to being highly customer centric it
must be digital-first with self-service options, it must facilitate the end-customer understanding of prod-
ucts, and it must offer genuine assistance when required.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 34

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

There are three key aspects to ensuring a flawless onboarding process, according to Finacle.
1. Empower customers to choose wisely with an extensive set of financial tools.
2. Simplify customer-led product design combined with user-centric journeys.
3. Provide frictionless digital customer onboarding process.

The ability to converse effectively is defined by the contextual and personalized interactions
across the entire customer relationship lifecycle right from marketing to customer acquisition, to ser-
vicing to up-selling. So — banks need to learn deeply from all the unique customer attributes across
touch-points.
Advanced technologies like deep analytics and machine learning can enable banks to know custom-
ers intimately, understand their priorities, ascertain their preferences, and achieve customization at
scale. Adaptive solutions can help learn from subsequent customer actions and transactions and ease
the banking process for customers to manage their finances better.
According to Finacle, the journey to ‘Converse better at population scale’ involves three steps.
1. Genuinely knowing your customer, including demographics and relationships to life-stage events
and preferences.
2. Analyze the customer in real-time, to effectively create personalized and human-centric
interactions.
3. Map customer intent to recommended products and provide smart educational nudges.
Customers expect banking services to be available at their fingertips at any time of the day or night,
on a channel of their choice. Superior service is ensuring a comprehensive range of consistent and
personalized banking experiences which are delivered at speed across digital and physical channels.
Customers seek a large bouquet of services whether delivered through in-house or through ecosystem
partners. Given the rapidly changing nature of customer channel preferences, banks need to constant-
ly assess the various ways customers interact with a bank to create a cost-effective combination that is
adapted to the bank’s customer base and market strategies.
According to Finacle, there are three steps to ensure banks can drive meaningful empowerment of
banking services across channels with convenience, access, and speed.
1. Convenient, anytime, anywhere, any channel banking availability.
2. Continuous non-stop access to bank account for better engagement.
3. Delivery of contextual engagement at speed.
Leveraging the existing relationship to send relevant offers at the right time and through the right
channel is key to strengthening the customer relationship and drive greater sales. At the same time,
badly timed or irrelevant offers, result in alienated customers and poor conversion.
Therefore, the ability to sell smartly is of utmost importance. The role of technology at the interface
between the bank and its customers has emerged as being even more important today... With
the sales and marketing engine playing a key role in cross-sell and up-sell with remote banking.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 35

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Customers want to be treated as unique individuals, expecting banks to know their context,
preferences, and purchase history.
The information data overload in the outside world, demands that every communication be
personalized and contextualized for the segment of one. Using various decision points and creating
the right journey, automated nudges through a good marketing automation system can prompt
customers to take the right actions at the right time, for their financial well-being.

The three steps to enable banks to help customers discover products and offers include:
1. Target customers better, at the right time, per their buyer-persona and behavior to create a
‘segment of one’.
2. Personalize products, services, content, and engagement across the customer journey.
3. Allow customers to discover, sign-up and consume products and offers across the channels of
their choice.

Technology: Automation and Modern Technology Required

More than ever, automation and the use of modern technology will differentiate the winners from the
also rans. Automation and modern technologies can improve both the speed and accuracy of back-
office processes and transactions as well as provide the easy and transparent digital experiences that
customers want. The focus should be on the customer experience (as opposed to simply cost-reduction
efficiencies) and should be approached from an incremental basis.
With automation, financial institutions can also benefit from the ability to create reports that can drive
data-driven decisions to avoid inefficiencies in the customer experience.

The Power of Partnerships

The cross-generational shift to digital has reset expectations around the type and depth of engagement
that financial institutions must provide to customers. This highlights the importance of collecting the
right data, at the right moments — to gain insights into customers across the entire customer journey.
The move to digital also has greatly increased the amount and type of data available to address these

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 36

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

enhanced expectations and the ability to deliver services more efficiently.

Organizations must be able to pinpoint when a customer is satisfied or disappointed ... When they
move part of their relationship to an alternative provider, and when a customer has challenges with
a process they want to perform. This requires tracking of all types of interactions, including logins,
website engagement, human and chatbot sessions, content views, and competitive engagements.
This goes beyond the transactional and relationship tracking that is the foundational component of
personalized engagement.
To achieve this level of data collection, analysis, and engagement enhancement at speed and scale
requires partnerships with third-party solution providers. These outside partners can assist with the
organization of data, the democratization of insights across an organization, the building of an effec-
tive customer engagement process, and leveraging previous partner engagements for generating ROI
faster than if an organization was to ‘go it alone’.
Likewise, creating contextual engagements and continuously fine-tuning the priorities and processes
usually requires partnering with specialized third-party providers. This is especially required during a
time of economic uncertainty, when the allocation of resources must focus on opportunities with the
greatest chances of success.
Banks need a strong holistic foundation underpinning their digital engagement strategy. One that will
allow for a seamless alignment of people, process, and technology to maximize digital engagements
across the customer relationship lifecycle to ... Onboard, converse, serve and sell better, driving pur-
poseful growth.
Aligning people, process and technology will enable banks to drive financial well-being and empow-
er customers to save, borrow, pay, insure, and invest better. Your customers today expect the very best
from you and better engagement is at the very heart of a superior and differentiated experience.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 37

3
Customer
Engagement
Across Lifecycle

38
Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Customer Engagement Across Lifecycle

The relationship between you and your customers extends beyond

the point of purchase. Your customers expect you to keep them
engaged consistently and contextually. They want a ‘GPS of
financial services’ that will help them reach their financial goals as
easily as possible.
More than ever, financial institutions must use data, AI, machine learning, and every communication
channel available to find, listen to, and interact with customers. This must be done from the beginning
of the shopping experience throughout the entire customer journey. The goal is to provide value
beyond just products and services, displaying empathy for their needs that will strengthen the overall
relationship.
More than a good customer experience, digital banking engagement involves personalized two-way
interactions, using data, analytics, and real-time communication at scale. To build and grow loyalty,
banks and credit unions must do much more than process transactions … Keeping customers engaged
with the brand regularly.
According to Gallup, retail banking customers who are fully engaged bring 37% more annual
revenue to their primary bank than do customers who are actively disengaged. Fully engaged banking
customers also have more products with their bank, from checking and savings accounts to mortgages
and auto loans. Finally, they also have higher deposit balances in their accounts than less engaged
customers with the same products.
According to one research study, using data and analytics to understand customer needs and
expectations is a tactic that 81% of executives say is critical for growing profits — but fewer than 25%
believe their company uses it effectively.

“To retain the business of customers who are increasingly flocking to alternative players, banks must
digitally engage them in ways that fulfill their purpose of leading a better financial life.
The spirit of contextual engagement and personalized services must span across the entire lifecycle of
the customer – across onboarding, converse, sales, and service .”
— Sanat Rao, CEO, Infosys Finacle:

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 39

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

In addition, according to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2020, 70% of businesses
are not meeting customer expectations — and over 80% of customers will churn after a bad customer
experience — so there is a ton of pressure to succeed … And right away. To succeed, customer
engagement must be focused on value for the customer first and the business second. This can be
achieved with the following strategies:

• Listen to your customers. More than ever, there is a need to not only listen, but to provide solu-
tions that bring value that is timely, relevant, and easy to act on.
• Use your customers’ channel(s) of choice. You must provide the opportunity for your customer
to have a seamless conversation with you on the channel(s) they are most comfortable with. That
may go beyond channels like email, phone, chat, and text, to include social media.
• Empower customers to self-serve. Customers often prefer to help themselves with digital assis-
tance. This is both faster for your customers and more efficient for your service agents.
• Leverage AI integration. Engagement, supplemented by AI, allows financial institutions to
automate some interactions, augment others with a human, and leverage insights to contextualize
communication.
• Be authentic and empathetic. How does your organization avoid sounding inauthentic? Out-
standing service and engagement must be centered on the customers’ need for financial wellness
as opposed to a bank’s or credit union’s desire for product sales.
• Create a cadence of consistency. Keep the dialogue with your customers ongoing and the mes-
sage consistent ... Inspiring customers to be evangelists of your brand.
• Build on small victories ... Now. It is often better to create small, repeatable wins for the cus-
tomer today, than to spend years developing much larger initiatives that may miss the mark. Take
action now and build on early wins.
• Seek scalability. Personalization can only work if it is scalable. Consider customer engagement
software that can manage, analyze, and optimize the customer journey across multiple devices
and platforms.
According to Zendesk, “Customers want to be treated as individuals, meaning they expect companies
to know their preferences and purchase history. To do that, companies need to be able to harness
their customer interactions across platforms and turn that data into actionable insights. Better digital
customer engagement leads to more customer data and better customer experiences, which can lead
to higher profits.”

Current State of Customer Engagement in Banking

Most financial institutions are playing a game of catch up, trying to meet current and future customer
needs using yesterday’s technology. As customers have changed their expectation of service and
engagement, banks and credit unions must find ways to deliver unique, personalized, and contextual
journeys.
This requires a shift from a traditional product-centric approach to a customer-centric approach that
focuses on intelligent customer engagement. Done well, the result will be the ability to capture new
growth opportunities by delivering greater value for customers now and in the future.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 40

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Despite good intentions, however, most financial institutions fall short of engagement success beyond
the basic customer service interaction level. Key areas of concern include easy relationship opening
and onboarding, the offering of financial wellness tools, proactively providing advice and offers, and
the empowerment of employees with analytics to help customers.

Chart 11:
Engagement Success Across Customer Journey
How would you rate the success of your bank in engaging across the entire customer journey?

SERVICE - We offer access to digital self-service and human customer service options.
48% 33% 10% 5% 3%

ONBOARD - We simplify product selection, application completion and origination.

26% 38% 20% 10% 5%

PARTNER - We offer an array of value-added financial wellness tools, content and solutions.
21% 29% 25% 10% 9% 6%

ACQUIRE - We maximize digital outreach and sales, with limited new account abandonment.
15% 38% 25% 11% 8% 3%

ENGAGE - We proactively provide advice and recommendations based on data and customer insight.
14% 26% 30% 16% 11% 3%

EXPAND - We empower our employees with real-time insights to expand customer relationships.
13% 26% 30% 16% 11% 4%

■  Successfully deployed at scale  ■  Partially deployed    ■  Limited deployment

■  To be deployed in 6-8 months  ■  On roadmap to consider in next 18 months  ■  No plans at this time

Source: Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

These challenges are reflected in the self-reported ratings financial institutions provided relative to
their customer engagement maturity. Except for offering some level of personal financial management
(PFM) tools, and account aggregation capabilities, the engagement maturity level of financial
institutions across all asset sizes and regions is extraordinarily low.
In fact, less than 10% of all organizations can provide personalized financial recommendations,
automated actions based on transactions, or lifestyle-related offerings using open API technology.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 41

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Chart 12:
Customer Engagement Maturity Remains Low at Most Financial Institutions
What is your organization’s status in deploying below use cases to have deeper engagements
with customers?
Personal Financial Management (PFM) or budgeting tools

20% 23% 16% 15% 16% 10%

Account aggregation, including third-party accounts

17% 24% 18% 11% 13% 17%

Integration with accounting or other third-party applications

13% 22% 21% 10% 12% 22%

Personal relationship-based pricing

10% 18% 21% 11% 15% 25%

Personalized recommendations for better financial management

9% 22% 22% 22% 15% 10%

Automated actions based on transaction patterns

8% 15% 19% 21% 19% 18%

Lifestyle offerings through ecosystem partners

7% 13% 23% 12% 13% 32%

■ Successfully deployed at scale  ■ Partially deployed  ■ Limited deployment  

■ Deploy in 6-18 months  ■ On roadmap to consider in next 18 months
■ No plans at this time
Source: Maximizing Digital Engagement © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

Banking Must Increase use of Engagement Strategies

Despite the self-reported lack of maturity around customer engagement, financial institutions of all
sizes are testing all forms of customer interactions. The challenge for most organizations is doing the
type of engagement required at scale. To deliver this level of engagement, most financial institutions
need to invest in updating existing technology and architecture.
In other research conducted by the Digital Banking Report, we find that when personalization,

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 42

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

multichannel communication, and marketing automation are done, it is often rudimentary at best. More
advanced applications (proactive recommendations and human augmented engagement) are often
impossible to deploy.

Chart 13:
Engagement Strategies used by Financial Institutions
Which of the below does your company use to ensure smart cross-sell or up-sell to its customers digitally?
Indicate all that apply.

Personalized campaigns
and communications 71%

Offer delivery across

traditional, contemporary 59%
and emerging channels

Marketing automation 54%

Enterprise customer
data management 41%

Proactive advice and

recommendations 39%

Data-driven
micro-segmentation 34%

Human augmented sales

leveraging AI and machine 18%
learning recommendations

Source: Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

Building a Future-Ready Engagement Strategy

To move beyond delivering positive experiences, to engaging with customers in
real-time on a value-added basis, will require an investment in modern technology, a
data-driven analytical culture, and a focus on serving customer needs with proactive
solutions.
Personalization and contextual engagement are the starting points. Viewing customer
relationships in an empathetic way with a focus on financial wellness must be the
ultimate mission. Done well, loyalty will increase and relationships will expand.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 43

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Chart 14:
Digital Account Opening and Onboarding Maturity
What stage is your organization at with the following components of new customer account opening
and onboarding?

Digital signature and document capture

34% 33% 15% 10% 8%

Real-time customer ID creation

25% 18% 20% 12% 12% 13%

End-to-end digital account opening within 3 minutes

18% 26% 18% 20% 14% 4%

Automated decisioning

16% 25% 22% 14% 13% 10%

Voice or digital assistant support

15% 20% 11% 14% 18% 22%

Instant relationship expansion recommendations

11% 16% 23% 19% 18% 13%

Pre-purchase product comparison and simulation tools

9% 17% 20% 11% 16% 27%

Product personalization across customer journey

8% 19% 20% 23% 19% 11%

■  Successfully deployed at scale  ■  Partially deployed  ■  Limited deployment

■  Deployed in 6-8 months  ■  On roadmap to consider in next 18 months
■  No plans at this time
Source: Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 44

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

4
Use of Data
and Analytics
to Achieve
Results

45
Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Use of Data and Analytics to Achieve Results

At a time when consumers expect more personalized engagement,

the banking industry is failing to leverage data-driven analytics
to attract customers, support engagement, and build loyalty.
To become future-ready, financial institutions must move from a
transactional focus to creating contextual engagement across the
entire customer journey.
Massive changes in consumer behavior occurred during the pandemic and we are not likely to revert
to the old ‘normal’. This includes a major reduction in branch visits and a greater reliance on digital
interactions across the entire customer journey. In response to these changes, financial institutions must
move beyond making banking faster and easier, to building new ways to engage with customers
experientially.
Humanizing the digital experience requires the combination of data, analytics, and modern
technologies to offer a level of personalized engagement that can exceed what was previously
possible in a branch.
From real-time customer support to proactive recommendations that enhance the potential for financial
wellness, this level of engagement will separate the winning financial institutions from those who are
simply meeting basic transactional needs.

Banks must combine data, analytics and modern technologies to understand the customer journey and
achieve optimal engagement.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 46

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Chart 15:
Most Banks Not Ready for New Digital Banking Realities

Multiple Not Ready Data and

Channel Closed IT Low
Technology for Cloud Analytical
Silos Systems Automation
Stacks Adoption Friction

Inconsistent High total cost Hindering Hindering Higher Inability to

customer of ownership open banking speed of cost of anticipate cus-
journeys and shifts innovation and operations tomer needs
maintenance increase TCO

Source: Finacle © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

At a time when in-person experiences can be inconsistent at best, and disappointing to the customer
far too often, well supported digital engagement can provide a high level of consistency as well as
humanized support.

Customers Demanding Greater Engagement

Financial institutions can no longer depend on traditional customer satisfaction surveys as the way to
gauge whether a customer will remain loyal. Most satisfaction surveys use outdated metrics, giving
banks and credit unions a false sense of success and security. Customers want financial institutions to
invest in their relationship, not just their transactions.
Rather than asking about branch experiences or transactional ease, organizations must ask whether a
customer’s personalized needs are being fulfilled and whether their financial institution has their best
interests in mind. This includes engaging post-purchase and offering personalized content that the cus-
tomer can access at their convenience.
To achieve this level of engagement, financial institutions must combine data, analytics, and technolo-
gies to understand the customer journey and deliver the type of interaction that will drive trust, loyalty,
and growth.
More than ever, consumers don’t just want personalization, they are demanding it.
Customers want their financial institutions to provide personalized experiences that are rewarding,
emotionally connected, and integrated with their lifestyle. Unfortunately, most customers say their
banking relationships are neither emotionally connected nor well-integrated into their lifestyles.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 47

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Many customers complain that they are not receiving seamless experiences across all channels, value
for the money, or innovation that keeps pace with other digital relationships.

Banks Must Leverage Power of Personalization and Engagement

McKinsey found that companies that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue from those
activities than average players — across all industries. Organizations that are leaders in personaliza-
tion differentiate by creating customized recommendations, reaching the right individual at the right
time, with the right engagement communication.
Seventy-two percent of consumers expect the businesses they buy from to recognize them as individu-
als and know their interests. Transactions and ongoing engagement have a significant positive impact.
“Recurring interactions create more data, allowing for even more relevant engagement over time —
creating a flywheel effect that generates strong, long-term customer lifetime value and loyalty,” states
McKinsey.

Personalization Must Extend Beyond Marketing:

Rather than focus solely on short-term marketing wins, financial institutions must look for long-term
drivers of growth and emphasize customer lifetime value. Unfortunately, most financial institutions are
challenged to build a strong engagement model across the entire customer lifecycle.
The overwhelming majority of organizations are negatively impacted by outdated legacy systems
and core banking platforms. Similarly, the lack of data maturity hinders customer lifecycle process
improvements. According to our research, the result is an inability to deploy data insights across the
organization for the benefit of the customer.
Less than 30% of organizations surveyed consider themselves successful in delivering ‘prescriptive’,
‘predictive’, or ‘descriptive’ customer support. Roughly one-third of organizations are working towards
these goals but have not yet determined the success of initiatives undertaken. Roughly a quarter of
institutions globally do not have the delivery of insight-driven personalization and engagement even in
their plans.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 48

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Chart 16:
Application of Data Insights Still Low at Most Financial Institutions
How well does your organization apply data insights?

PRESCRIPTIVE insights that nudge customers along a recommended path of action (balance cash flow,
re-balance portfolio, cut discretionary expenses, move surplus money for better returns, etc.

6% 21% 33% 6% 7% 27%

PREDICTIVE insights that present what is likely to happen, such as cash flow crunch or potential penalty for
tax non-compliance

6% 18% 33% 6% 8% 28%

DESCRIPTIVE insights that inform customers about the happenings in their financial lives

5% 24% 35% 7% 7% 22%

DIAGNOSTIC insights that explain the reasons for the above (for example you saved less because you
spent more on entertainment)

5% 18% 32% 9% 6% 30%

■ Very successful  ■ Somewhat successful  ■ In progress, success not yet determined

■ Somewhat unsuccessful  ■ Very unsuccessful  ■ Not yet in plans
Source: Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

To meet the expectations of customers, financial institutions must leverage data and analytics to iden-
tify, convert and engage the customer. Without application of insights across the customer lifecycle,
financial institutions will be relegated to a secondary position compared to new fintech and emerging
big tech competitors.

Invest in Future-Ready Data Infrastructure

Banks and credit unions have vast amounts of internal and external data at their disposal, from
transaction and demographic data to locational, behavioral, lifestyle and social data. Despite this
abundance, most financial institutions struggle to turn data into useful insights. The good news is that
more organizations are aware of the importance of using data and insights for improving the customer
experience, decision making, personalization and engagement.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 49

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Chart 17:
Focus on Data and Insight Use Shifting to Customer Experience Improvement
Please rank the importance of using data and customer insights at your organization from 1-7.

Improve customer
experience 52% 39% 9%

Improve decision making 41% 43% 16%

Improved personalization 31% 42% 27%

Generate revenues 28% 48% 24%

Reduce risk 18% 36% 46%

Reduce cost of operation 15% 51% 34%

Increase innovation 15% 40% 45%

■ Greatest importance  ■ Moderate importance  ■ Lowest importance

Source: Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

Unfortunately, banks still have concerns around data reliability, and most say they also lack the
resources required to process, analyze and distribute data and insights across the organization. As
incumbent banks race to keep pace with nimble fintech organizations, financial institutions of all
sizes must consider leveraging third-party solution providers to convert
raw data into valuable insights that can support personalization and
engagement initiatives.
Third party partnerships can also help to create new offerings that
combine traditional bank offerings with non-financial lifestyle products
and services. Further, partners can help to create embedded banking
solutions with non-financial third parties. These new platform models go
beyond collecting data for enhanced personalization, by creating new
revenue opportunities outside fees and spread.
3rd Party Partnerships

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 50

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Chart 18:
Majority of Financial Institutions will use 3rd Parties for Data Needs in the Future
How will your organization handle increased data and compute needs for machine learning in the future?
(Note all that apply)

59%
52%

30%
10%
16% 3%
Contract with Invest in Limit AI and No change
Rely on to current
outside internal machine learning Other
public cloud capabilities
provider infrastructure solutions to current
infrastructure

Source: Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

Responsibility for Customer Engagement Goes Beyond Marketing

While research would lend to the belief that marketing is expected to own the customer lifecycle and
manage each facet of customer engagement, the reality is that building an engagement model across
the customer lifecycle requires a cross-organizational commitment. Data and insights must be shared to
empower all employees to assist with the innovation, product development and customer engagement
process. Obviously, this requires the commitment and support from the C-suite.
Businesses that succeed in scaling personalization and engagement must create teams that cut across
marketing, product, analytics, and technology, using a hub-and-spoke approach to reach the customer
at the point of interaction. These teams can run hundreds of tests per year, enabled by advanced data
analytics and test-and-learn techniques.
As can be expected, most financial institutions and, more specifically CMOs, are still not adequately
prepared to move from a product-centric organization to a customer-centric financial institution. There
needs to be a cultural shift at most organizations that will support the customer journey — from the
customer’s perspective — helping the customer improve their financial wellness.
Looking across the customer lifecycle, leaders must build a granular view of where there is the most value.
They must leverage customer segments and micro segments, and factor in behavioral, transactional, and
engagement trends. They must use these insights to define and quantify their personalization and engage-
ment objectives and ground their efforts in customer-centric key performance indicators (KPIs).
Financial institutions that can build a strong personalization and engagement model at scale will be
rewarded with increased sales, improved loyalty, enhanced revenue growth, and a flywheel impact
that will position the organization on an enhanced trajectory.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 51

5
Superior
Channel
Engagement

52
Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Superior Channel Engagement

Should a financial institution transform their current organization

into a more agile, responsive institution with a completely new
digital foundation, or should banks and credit unions build an
entirely new entity outside the parent company? Either option will
require a new perspective on the role of digital as part of superior
customer engagement.
The ability to compete in the future will require new systems, new processes, and a new culture. Banks
and credit unions may determine that transforming the entire existing organization to ‘become digital’
is the way to proceed. Another option is to build a separate organization that would be a network of
only a few branches or a completely branchless offering … Separate from the legacy organization.
Even if a bank or credit union decides to stay the course, the future will require differentiation defined
by customer experience and innovative offerings like what are being provided by fintech and big tech
organizations. The focus can’t be on cost savings alone since digital options have focused on improv-
ing the consumer experience and delivering solutions proactively and in real time.
Whichever structure is decided upon, financial institutions must make it far more efficient to acquire
new customers, leveraging new consumer insights and modern digital technologies. This will result in
an improvement in return on marketing investment, with stronger loyalty based on experience and
improved digital delivery post-sale.
Digital channel bank transformation is necessary regardless of the economic environment. When the
economy is good, banks have more time to make the transition. The current landscape of falling rates,
the threat of recession and customer adoption of digital banking, are forcing banks to address the issue
now.

Becoming a Digital Bank in an Uneasy Economic Environment

We’re at an inflection point in terms of consumers, where the network scale and network density, which
used to be a competitive advantage for most banks, is becoming a bit of an albatross. The challenge
is that legacy financial institutions are competing against neobanks and other fintech players who are
built and deliver services on digital foundations.
This is pushing financial institutions to make radical decisions about how they think about their highest
cost infrastructure … Which is their distribution networks. It also makes organizations rethink delivery
from a customer engagement perspective.
Structural transformation is going to be needed whether margins improve or whether margins decline.
We’re dealing with essentially a secular change in the industry where the relevance of the core of the
bank depends entirely on an organization’s ability to get customers to want to do business with you.
No matter what happens, the way in which consumers are going to make decisions and how they’re
going to choose their banks is changing dramatically.
The biggest shift for most banks is that the utility play of banking is dying. The model of being ‘all things

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 53

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

to all people’, where you build a branch and whoever happens to live in the area will bank with them
no longer works. As things become digital, knowing who you want to serve, and then determining
what is the right way to serve them — is the right answer for your bank.
There are different models ... If you want to make a challenger bank play because you want to serve
young, affluent customers who don’t care about branches anymore versus if you’re a community bank
with a strong local franchise. If you want to stay local, maybe spending all your money on digital is a
bad idea … Because your most important customers are all near you in your local community footprint
and you need to focus on them.
Banks and credit unions need to know who their customers are and what they’re trying to do for those
customers. Then, based on that, they can then make a whole series of decisions around what sort of
strategy makes the most sense to their organization.

Chart 19:
Digital Transformation Maturity Lacking with Emerging Channels
Please indicate your organizations digital transformation maturity across the below channels.

Contemporary (Online, mobile etc.)

62% 24% 9% 3%

Traditional (Branch, ATM.)

53% 24% 14% 3%4%

Transformative (Open banking, embedded)

9% 12% 10% 16% 24% 29%

Emerging (Chatbots)
9% 24% 19% 19% 18% 11%

Transformative (Voice device)

8% 13% 14% 15% 21% 29%

Futuristic (AR, VR, MR)

3% 6% 7% 9% 21% 54%

■ Successfully deployed at scale  ■ Partially deployed  ■ Limited deployment  

■ Deploy in 6-18 months  ■ On roadmap to consider in next 18 months  ■ No plans at this time
Source: Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 54

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Building a Better Digital Banking Model

The operating model for financial institutions, especially regarding distribution, must change to serve
digitally empowered consumers. Financial institutions must transform their current operating model in
four ways to add significant value for their customers and add significant value for their brands:
1. Create a high-touch, fully integrated consumer experience supporting physical and digital sales
and service. Enable consumers to use whatever physical channel or digital device they prefer to
transact with you whenever and wherever they please is the key to an omnichannel experience.
2. Empower consumers with digital tools and content to make a personalized product and service
selection and sales fulfilment possible … Thus enabling consumers to take control of their financial
decisions.
3. Empower front-line employees with cross-channel, real-time customer insight and intelligence to
support both sales and service needs … Dramatically increasing employees’ productivity.
4. Garner commitment and mandate from upper management and boards in support of the above
changes, both financially and emotionally, which must extend throughout the entire organization.

Creating Engagement Success

Building a digital-first consumer delivery model that establishes an intuitive sales and service
experience map for all core products and services (including well-defined service-level agreements
and performance metrics) is the foundation for tomorrow’s future-ready bank. The process of mapping
out the customer experience will capture the required variations in sales and service delivery by
customer segments and by channel.
Once customers’ qualitative and quantitative intra- and cross-channel experiences are mapped
by segments and needs and validated, then begins the development of a detailed integration and
alignment plan addressing:
• Cross-channel technology platforms
• Sales and service processes
• Employee goal setting and incentives
• Training and education
• Real-time MIS and advanced analytics

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 55

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Chart 20:
Channel Success in Acquiring New Customers
Please indicate the current level of success in using the following channels for acquiring customers.

Direct 1:1 Sales 56% 25% 19%

Branch 52% 30% 18%

Digital Marketing 33% 34% 33%

3rd Party Partnerships 26% 31% 43%

Emails 23% 27% 50%

Phones 20% 34% 46%

Social Media 17% 26% 57%

Direct Mail 17% 29% 54%

Text/SMS 21% 21% 58%

■ Extremely or very successful  ■ Successful  ■ Somewhat or not successful

Source: Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

Empowering Customers and Employees

Consumers, by nature, like to be in control of their financial transactions. Financial institutions can
reinforce consumers’ feeling of control by empowering them through ubiquitous access to multiple
channels and access to an effective set of tools, calculators, and personalized content.
Depending on the complexity and nature of the transaction, sales agents at restructured branches or
call centers can assist in the educating, advising, and supporting of consumers in real time enabling
better financial decisions.
Empowering front-line employees with digital tools will also significantly affect productivity. When
front-line employees are empowered with consumer insight and intelligence through digital devices
in a physical location, they can be incredibly effective and productive in serving customers who often
start, stop, reactivate, and complete sales or service transactions using multiple channels.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 56

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Digital tools and access to insight also allows customer-facing branch employees, regardless of their
physical location, a real-time, ubiquitous access to customers’ sales or service journey across all
channels, helping employees to educate, advice and support customers to a successful, complete
transaction.

Leadership Commitment to Improved Channel Experiences

Transforming the current operating model requires an unequivocal commitment and mandate from key
business leaders throughout the organization. There are two components to this transformation: cultural
and operational. It requires a complete change in employees’ mindset and the way employees interact
with customers, and the way front-line employees interact with other front-line employees across all
channels. It also requires an adjustment in how front-line employees interact with back-end employees
to support the new operating environment.
This is a journey and not a single event. There will be significant ups and downs as front-line and back-
line employees learn how to serve customers through multiple channels in real time. Organizational
agility, adaptability, and speed to change are prerequisite for long-term success.
Changing to an integrated, sales and service model requires significant organizational, operational,
and financial investment. But the ROI can also be significant. The positive impacts include:
• Increase in multi-channel digital sales
• Increase in second product sales
• Increase in sales through real-time smart lead management
• Reduction in call volume to call centers
Consumers are changing their behavior, aggressively adapting digital technology, and making
greater use of multiple channels, which requires a new, integrated way to interact with customers and
employees. Evolving the current branch-focused operating model into a new omnichannel model will
reinvigorate the way financial institutions and their branches serve consumers and grow business.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 57

6
Measuring
Success

58
Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Measuring Success

Measuring customer satisfaction and engagement success is

integral to determining the impact of initiatives undertaken. These
metrics can drive future priorities and create new opportunities.
Customer satisfaction can also result in new leads and stronger
loyalty at a time when many customers are fragmenting their
banking relationships.
The measurement of customer satisfaction and engagement success provides a correlation between
marketing strategies and customer experiences. As referenced throughout this research report, you
need to keep your customers engaged as much as possible, providing a value exchange that is
viewed positively.
Engaged customers are more likely to overlook minor negative experiences as the trust in your
company increases. A customer who believes that you have their best interest in mind is also more
likely to pay for your products and services instead of moving business to a competitor, and are
more open to your recommendations, offers and marketing messages.
According to Gallup, different industries have different ways to determine the success of their
engagement efforts. For a financial institution, it could be new customers acquired or revenue
generated. Gallup found that a highly engaged customer generated as much as 37% more annual
revenue than a disengaged customer.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 59

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Chart 21:
More Revenue from Highly Engaged Customers

Premium
Customer 23% Revenue

Retail
Banking 37% More annual revenue

Consumer
Electronics 44% More visits per year

Restaurants/
Casual Dining 56% More visits per month

Restaurants/
Fast Food 28% More visits per month

Hospitality 46% More visits per month

Insurance 22% More new accounts per year

Source: Gallop © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

Alternative Engagement Metrics

There are many ways to measure customer satisfaction and engagement success. Here is a non-
exhaustive assortment of measurement options that you can use to determine if your engagement
efforts are bringing value. Each organization may use one or a combination of these measurement
tools or use others not referenced.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
NPS is used to measure your customers’ trust in your products/services and their consequent will-
ingness to recommend them to others.
• Churn Rate
The churn rate is the number of customers lost during a given period divided by the number of
customers at the beginning multiplied by 100%. (Caution: More than ever, customers are less likely
to close an account and more likely to open a new account elsewhere. This can provide a false
sense of security around churn rate, even though a customer may have diversified their financial
relationship.)
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
The Customer Satisfaction score is measured based on customer satisfaction and overall
experience. It indicates the potential to retain customers and their probability of repurchasing
products. (Caution: It is important that this measure reflect both digital and in-person satisfaction.
‘Friendliness’ has less of an impact today than in the past.)

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 60

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

• Customer Effort Score (CES).

With this measure, customers rate your ability to support a transaction easily and your ability to
resolve issues that may occur.
• Engagement Frequency
This metric measures how often your customer interacts with your channels (website, mobile device,
call center, SMS text, social media, etc.). How many customers engage with your channels helps
you understand the kind of engagement you are receiving beyond transactions.
• Engagement Duration
Engagement duration measures the amount of time customers spend engaging with content. The
better your content is and the more your customers consume content, the greater the engagement
and your chances of referral business.
• Customer Journey Mapping
This measures users’ actions on your website and when interacting with content. This includes the
amount of time your customers spend on a particular site, clicking and viewing links. (Note: This
measure is especially important when measuring prospect researching, new account opening and
loan application processes.)
• Voice of Customer
Organizations should get regular feedback regarding products, services, brand positioning, etc.
Most customers do not complain before they leave or institution of move to a competitor.
• Conversion Rate
This measures the percentage of customers involved in completing some actions tied to your
company.
• Abandonment Rate
The abandonment rate is the percentage of visitors to your website who exit your site after viewing
only one page or without completing an action. (Note: This is a very important measure to deter-
mine the success of new account opening and loan application processes.)

Use of Engagement Measurement Tools in Banking

The metrics mentioned can assist in measuring customer engagement. Involving your customers and
front-facing employees, asking for their reviews, and addressing their concerns are essential steps to
building engagement.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 61

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Chart 22:
Top Metrics Used by Financial Institutions
Please select the key customer centric metrics you are using at your organization.

Products per customer

70% 24% 6%
Active customer volumes by channel
67% 21% 12%
App ratings and user comments (Bank site)
64% 26% 10%
Social Listening (Social Media - user comments, peer recommendations)
61% 27% 12%
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
61% 26% 13%
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
59% 19% 22%
Customer engagement site*
55% 35% 10%
Customer retention and switch/churn rates
55% 33% 12%
Average Handling Time (AHT) / Average Time Resolution (ATR)
54% 26% 20%
Customer acquisition cost (cost of getting new customer)
45% 37% 18%
Customer loyalty (measuring regular purchase)
43% 40% 17%
First Response Time (FRT) / First Contact Resolution (FCR)
36% 38% 26%
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
27% 48% 25%
•Measuring communication with brand, time spent on website, # of clicks

■  Currently use this metric  ■  Plan to use this metric  ■  No plans to measure at this time
Source :Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. PAGE 62 62
Final
Thoughts

63
Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Final Thoughts —
Moving Towards a Holistic Model of Engagement

Historically, the financial services industry has been transaction

oriented — placing a premium on cost efficiency and moving
customers towards purchasing more products and services. Today,
this focus on products and transactions is at odds with creating
engagement and loyalty.
As more consumers move to digital channels, the ability to meet face-to-face diminishes. This not only
changes the dynamics of customer experiences and engagement, but also the dependence of alter-
native channels and the ability to create an in-person selling opportunity. In response, more financial
institutions are investing in creating engagement beyond simple transactions.
In a digital world, banks and credit unions can improve engagement and retention by personalizing
the customer experience. Since most customers will only spend a limited time on their mobile banking
app, banking website or other traditional channel, it is more important than ever to deliver personal-
ized and contextual opportunities that will increase the time of engagement across all channels.
Creating engagement based on a customer’s past transactions, current financial relationship, stated
goals, financial wellness, or other behavioral activity will lead to higher levels of interaction, more
purchases, greater loyalty, and enhanced lifetime value. In addition, engagement data as well as
intended purchase data can create additional insights that can enable the customizing of subsequent
interactions based on past engagement

Chart 23: Key Trends Driving Customer Engagement

Demanding Increasing Technological Changing

Customers Competition Changes Regulations

Rising customer
Non-traditional,
expectations, Cloud, Open Open Banking,
Fintech and Tech
Demographic shifts, APIs, AI, RPA, New Licenses,
players with
Accelerated digital Blockchain Capital Adequacy
embedded finance
adoption
Source: Infosys Finacle © August 2022 Qorus Infosys Finacle

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 64

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Building Brand Advocacy

The power of personalization and contextual engagement creates relationship and referral value
over time. If a financial institution creates alerts, recommendations, and content that the customer finds
valuable in improving their financial wellness, the overall relationship will be enhanced.
In addition, the more customers that consume (or potentially subscribe to) an organization’s content,
the more likely the content will be shared with others. This not only creates the potential for new referral
business, but the current customers will be less likely to switch to a competitor’s platform, where they
will need to rebuild relationship influence.
The goal of personalized engagement (vs. a transactional relationship) is to create a process where
a financial institution uses empathetic communication to increase influence over customers as they
increase interactions.

Relationships Beyond Transactions

Over the past several years, competition has emerged from fintech firms to big tech organizations, as
well as non-financial institutions that offer financial services. Consumers have many more choices of
financial institution partners than ever before and have become more likely to diversify their relation-
ships across a wide variety of providers.
To build stronger relationships beyond the transaction, financial institutions must ensure that customers
have a reason to keep engaging repeatedly over extended periods of time. In a digital world this can
be achieved by adding higher levels of personalization, contextualization, and proactive recommen-
dations on top of the traditional transaction and product-focused model.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 65

About the
Research

66
Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

About the Research

The analysis in this report is based on a March 2022 Digital

Banking Report survey of global banks and credit unions.
The survey used the subscriber lists of The Financial Brand and
Digital Banking Report, which includes organizations of all sizes
worldwide. We also included organizations that are members of
Qorus and clients of Infosys Finacle.
No responses from non-financial organizations were included in the results, and only completed
surveys were included. The responders were self-selected after receiving a nominal incentive of raw
survey results.
Among overall survey respondents, 47% are from large national or regional banks, 27% are from
credit unions, and 26% are from community banks. This distribution is a bit more skewed towards larger
financial institutions than previous surveys.

Chart 24:
Type of Financial Institution
What type of financial institution you work for?

27%

47% ■  Large regional or national bank

■  Community bank
■  Credit Union

26%

Source: Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

For this research, 16% of respondents are from FIs with more than US$50 billion in assets, with 12%
having US$10 billion — US$50 billion in assets, and 42% representing firms with US$1 billion —
US$10 billion in assets. The distribution by size of organization is comparable to previous research
done by the Digital Banking Report.

© 2022 Qorus and EdgeVerve Systems Limited. All rights reserved. 67

Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

Chart 25:
Size of Financial Institution
What is the asset size of your institution (in US$)?

16% 16%
■  More than $50 billion
■  $10 billion to $50 billion
12% ■  $1 billion to $10 billion
14%
■  $500 million to $1 billion
■  Less than $500 million

Source :Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

42% © August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

When we looked at the role/department of the respondents, we found 15% were in marketing, 11%
owned the digital/online/mobile channels, with another 20% in charge of the retail banking area.
There were 21% in charge of technology and innovation, with the remaining respondents being from
multiple areas of the organization. We had 13% who were at the top levels of the organization.
Finally, the respondents who participated in our research were globally head-quartered. While there
was an over sampling from North America (56%), 7% were from Europe, 14% were from Asia and 9%
were from Africa.

Chart 26:
Location of Financial Headquarters
Where is your financial institution head-quartered?

1% ■  United States (53%)

3% 3%
3% ■  Asia (14%)
3% ■  Africa (9%)
3% ■  Other (5%)
■  Canada (3%)
5%
■  Middle East (3%)
■  Australia (3%)
5% ■  Western Europe (other than UK) (3%)
53%
9% ■  Eastern Europe (3%)
■  Central/South America or Caribbean (3%)
■  United Kingdom (1%)
14%
Source :Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement
© August 2022 Qorus & Infosys Finacle

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

About Us

A global non-profit organization established in 1971 by banks and insurance companies, Qorus
(formerly known as Efma) helps its members to reinvent themselves to thrive — to go further, be faster
and work together. Our global ecosystem brings valuable insights, inspiring events, rich data, and
active global communities all in one place.
With over 50 years of experience, Qorus provides a neutral space for best-practice sharing and
collaboration, while offering diverse knowledge and a global reach — to more than 1,200 financial
groups in 120+ countries. Head-quartered in Paris, Qorus serves financial institutions on all continents,
with offices in Andorra, Bangkok, Bratislava, Brussels, Dubai, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, London, Milan,
Seoul, and Tokyo.
Learn more at www.qorusglobal.com

Finacle is an industry leader in digital banking solutions. We are a unit of EdgeVerve Systems, a
product subsidiary of Infosys. We partner with emerging and established financial institutions to help
inspire better banking.
Our cloud-native solution suite and SaaS services help banks engage, innovate, operate, and
transform better to scale digital transformation with confidence. Finacle solutions address the core
banking, lending, digital engagement, payments, cash management, wealth management, treasury,
analytics, AI, and blockchain requirements of financial institutions. Banks in over 100 countries rely on
Finacle to help more than a billion people save, pay, borrow, and invest better.

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Maximizing Digital Banking Engagement

About the Author

Named as one of the most influential people in banking
and a ‘Top 5 Fintech Influencer to Follow’, Jim Marous is
an internationally recognized financial industry strategist,
co-publisher of The Financial Brand and owner and
publisher of the Digital Banking Report. The Digital
Banking Report is a subscription-based publication that
provides deep insights into the digitization of banking,
with over 200 reports in its digital archive available to subscribers.

As a sought-after keynote speaker, author and recognized authority on

disruption in the financial services industry, Jim has spoken to audiences
worldwide. He has been featured by CNBC, CNN, Cheddar, the Wall Street
Journal, the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Economist and the
American Banker.

Through his podcast, Banking Transformed, Marous provides listeners with an opportunity to hear
about the organizational impact of digital transformation. With new shows each Tuesday, Jim interviews his
guests with the objective of digging deeper into the opportunities and challenges facing banking and other
industries. You can download Banking Transformed on The Financial Brand podcast page or on your favorite
podcast platform.

You can also follow Jim Marous on Twitter and LinkedIn or visit his professional website.

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