Menu
Technology has irrevocably changed customer expectations and how their needs are met. Traditionally, services have solved specific functional needs; food for example, was a process of purchase and preparation at the very least, or going out to eat, involving distance, time, travel and expense. Food delivery services however, transformed both solutions and behavior with their horizontal approach – meeting the functional need of food delivery, and meeting multiple emotional needs including matching meal to mood, convenience and more free time.
Alibaba and Amazon use the same horizontal approach in the B2B space, where curated ecosystems from different organizations, with different offerings, meet multiple client needs and offer them more than a channel to sell their products.
In both cases, customers have become accustomed and are increasingly loyal to service providers who solve their broader spectrum of needs. Therefore, services today, including banks need to make a choice; solving functional needs by utilizing vertical expertise, or transforming to adopt a more platform-based approach which makes them customer owners, able to solve broader lifecycle needs. This choice will determine whether banks become utilities or evolve to the ‘everyday bank and customer owner’ by collaborating with a host of partners and creating broader ecosystems.
True customer-centricity dictates that banks adapt to changed and changing customer expectations both retail and corporate. Customers have become accustomed to receiving multiple services through one window. While there are numerous challenges in the form of changing competition and technology, studies show that banks have retained the most important asset of all – customer trust. The opportunities for banks lie in the fact that customers still turn to or consider them to solve some of their most important lifecycle needs – big purchases, education, savings planning in the personal space, and similarly for corporate customers, to start a new business, expand or manage global operations.
Banks are increasingly realizing that the future lies in being customer owners and have started building ecosystems or engaging in ecosystems necessary to provide holistic value to the customer. While the customer is firmly in the center, collaboration with other partners within such ecosystems is crucial to ensure agility and sustained growth. Be it banks, fintechs or big techs, the future clearly lies in systems of collaboration since each has its own strengths and weaknesses. The benefits of such partnerships are in the endless potential to co-innovate and create solutions which solve specific customer lifecycle needs.
Use easy-to-use drag and drop capabilities to rapidly create hyper personalized offerings, which include partner products and services
