Finance Monthly August 2019 Edition

22 www.finance-monthly.com FINANCE & BUSINESS - HOW CAN BANKS KEEP CUSTOMER LOYALTY? hrough a digital-only approach, challenger banks have made the concept of queueing in a bank branch to transfer money or waiting on hold on the telephone for customer support seem bizarre and almost prehistoric. In fact, new research from data firm Caci has found that the proportion of customers using banking apps is expected to rise over the coming years to 71% by 2024. At the same time, the proportion of branch users is set to decline to 55% by the same year. In the faceof simple, low-fee,mobile-first products and services from Monzo and others, traditional banks have so far been slow to respond and have risked losing customers whose loyalty they have historically taken for granted. Fundamentally, these new digital banks have proven themselves to be far more customer- centric than traditional banks by addressing pain points, fulfilling desires and engaging with users as individuals through the use of new banking apps and services. However, there is a contrary point of view that argues that traditional banks should dismiss digital banks as trendy and inexperienced Big banks might be too big to fail, but they’re not too big to be disrupted. Over the past four years, challenger banks such as Monzo, Starling Bank and Revolut have upended the idea of a bank and have challenged long- standing customer loyalties. T HOW CAN BANKS KEEP CUSTOMER LOYALTY? David Murphy EMEA & APAC Banking & Insurance Lead at digital consultancy Publicis Sapient

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