According to a study by JD Power, bank-provided financial advice and guidance results in increased satisfaction, engagement, and brand advocacy. As reported by CU Today, some of the key data points from the study include: 1️⃣ Only 42% of consumers recall their bank providing guidance, but of those who do receive guidance, 76% act on it. 2️⃣ Most frequent actions taken in response to advice include updating account settings (25%), shifting money between accounts (22%) and downloading the bank’s mobile app (22%). 3️⃣ Of the 42% who recalled getting advice/guidance, 63% said it was "personalized," and that segment had an average satisfaction score 195 points higher than the group who said they didn't receive personalized advice/guidance. My thoughts/reactions: 1️⃣ What kind of advice/guidance are banks providing where the resulting action is "updating account settings" or "downloading the mobile app"? 2️⃣ CU Today quotes the JDP report as saying that, when it comes to providing personalized advice/guidance, "banks are moderately successful at achieving this goal with 63% receiving personalized content.” But is "personalized content" really the same thing as "personalized advice/guidance"? 3️⃣ How (or where) are consumers getting all of this advice/guidance (personalized or not)? Is there a difference in overall satisfaction between branch-provided advice/guidance and digitally-provided advice/guidance? And is the digitally-provided a/g coming from PFM tools or from some other part of the app or site? 4️⃣ My contention is that consumers get more (and perhaps better) banking-related advice and guidance from the fintech apps they use than from their banks (I may even have some data to prove that contention). Thoughts on this? 💯 Jim Marous Bryan Clagett Mary Wisniewski Karen McDermott Alex Jimenez Efi Pylarinou Marcel van Oost Paolo Sironi
J.D Power doesn’t mean much to me. I’ve always viewed them as biased. To your point, in this case specifically, they surveyed customers of the “top banks.” No community banks. No credit unions. No fintechs. So I don’t assume “big bank” customers speak for everyone.
Chris C.
3w
Honestly, I don't know anyone the age of 40 who has ever looked at a J.D Power award/survey to make a decision on a bank/car/etc. I recall working with an IT Executive at a global automotive company who was very keen to point out their J.D Power awards and that they don't need to improve their CX. When asked if their kids had ever looked at a J.D Power award or survey to make a decision, their face turned red and the meeting ended 5 minutes later abruptly. There might be an opening in the market to actually measure client satisfaction that isn't based on NPS scores or what J.D Power says. But that's just my 2 cents. What will be the guidelines we measure satisfaction 5-10 years from now? Ron Shevlin
So.. define ‘advice’. 👀 To Jim’s point, very low bar… I’d also conjecture fintechs lead in this space in actual relatable comms to thier customers. Credit Unions, and community banks, are striving to do this in a much more meaningful way than big banks. They are better positioned from a member engagement POV and exist as a core value to deliver this type of interaction model.
all said and done, isn't it pretty interesting that in the best case scenario you are only satisfied 63% of the time? (ps... not sure how they compute averages either, unless it's weighted by respondent count). pps... "oh, canada!"
💯 Jim Marous
3w
I think this is a great example of consumers setting the expectation bar super low for ‘advice’ from most retail bankers. ‘Answering questions’ is not providing advice.
Brian Koenig
3w
I would be very interested to see what kind of questions were asked of the participants. Seems like a poorly designed study if downloading the mobile app is listed as an outcome of receiving financial advice. Plus, this seems to fly in the face of everything else I’ve read about consumer adoption of PFM tools and bank-provided financial advice.
Thanks for sharing, Ron. I agree that personalized content is not at all the same as personalized advice/guidance. Also agree that fintechs generally get this right more than banks, mainly because many of us are targeting a specific niche(s) and can be hyperfocused in our approach. Stats 1 and 3 are glaring to me, though. Less than half of these consumers recall their banks providing any guidance, but of that number, over three quarters of them utilized the guidance?! Seems like a great opportunity there for banks to better engage with their customers. Also, continuing to partner with fintech brands that are dominating their niches.
Ya didn’t ask but that never stopped me before. IMO personalized “content” vs. personalized “guidance/advice” are marterially different with the latter being substantial and even legally oriented while the former might be presenting me cotent in my native language.
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3wLarge retail banks have been grappling with their customer delivery models since non-bank disrupters and advances in consumer technology have become more prevalent. Retail banking tends to be, regardless of what leadership strategy desires, transactionally focused. That said, over the counter (OTC) transactions have been on a downward trajectory for some time now. Emphasis has been placed on retail bankers to promote their mobile apps so that customers can self-serve for less complex transactional needs, with the thought being that customers can be directed into their bank branch to receive financial advice and long-term guidance. Good in theory but reality is a barrier. There are a few barriers that I could get into, but I believe this one is paramount because it is at the top of the rollercoaster: Retail branches struggle with staffing. Delivering customer service is paramount. That means if a branch is short on staff, transactions take precedence over providing advice and guidance which requires time. Unfortunately, time is not a luxury for large retail banks these days when they cannot staff to what they desire to provide. Proof? Go on any job board and see how many postings there are for retail bankers at any given time.