Banking survey: Driving customer value through digital

The new digital tipping point

Banks are constantly adapting to satisfy the needs of their stakeholders. In addition, the number of customers who use the internet has exploded.

PwC surveyed approximately 3000 banking customers in nine different markets to understand customers' needs, attitudes and behaviours to digital media.

Our insights from this research can help banks harness the power of the new and improved digital market, not just by saving costs, but by deepening customer relationships. The new digital tipping point explores these insights and the opportunities that exist for banks.

 
 
Roy Crociani, General Manager, ANZ Digital

"Digital and analytics are the new battlegrounds. To incumbent banks they represent a tremendous opportunity to lower costs, attract and retain customers and deepen relationships. They also present an opportunity to create and explore new customer value propositions and business models at relatively low cost/risk, which on the one hand can lead to exciting growth potential. They also create threats to traditional markets by lowering the barriers to entry for new entrants."

Key findings

Customer relationship primacy is the new source of value in banking

Banks need to focus their strategies on a customer relationship primacy model, by regaining trust and building engagement with the customer. In the ‘new reality’ of banking, financial engineering is no longer sufficient to create value and banks need to look at demonstrating customer value to remain relevant in the market.

Digital is crucial in addressing changing customer behaviour

Today, a successful digital offering in banking implies the provision of high quality online and mobile banking access. The new 'digital feature set', which includes improvements in user experience design, advances in mobile devices and networks, social media and collaboration tools, digital analytics and channel integration, can be used to meet the increasing demands of the customer.

Customers value new digital offerings

Not only does digital media deepen levels of customer engagement, it also opens up avenues for the monetization of new services. In our research, we tested the level of interest in a number of theoretical digital capabilities and found that there is a real opportunity to enhance customer engagement for banks by investing in digital capabilities that drive additional value and better service for customers.

New digital entrants are disrupting the banking eco-system

There are several new entrants competing for inclusion in the banking value chain and we believe that a number of these will be successful in securing their position as part of the banking ecosystem. Our research suggests, however, that these are unlikely to displace banks as the primary provider of financial services, especially in markets where banking is widely accessible.

The battle for customer relationship primacy among banks has begun

With the battle lines being redrawn amongst banks, the winning bank should focus on taking steps to develop deeper relationships with their customers. Focusing on gaining trust, building engagement and creating value for the consumer should be the guiding principles for doing this.