As a continuation of a podcast conversation between the two in 2021, Relay’s Chief Strategy Officer, John Thomas, spoke with Jim Marous, banking expert and host of the Banking Transformed Podcast, about customer experience in banking beyond personalization efforts, and more on the opportunity for financial institutions to begin modernizing the interface by which they are engaging with customers to meet them where they are today.

Beginning the conversation around the consumer demand for personalization and how it has evolved over the past decade, John shares that “it’s still pretty early stage for most financial institutions for truly personalizing individual experiences. The reality is that phrase of ‘personalized individual experiences’ is sort of a code for personalized offers in marketing.” So, if personalization has remained relatively stagnant, where is there an opportunity for banks to enhance the customer experience?

John points out that Big Tech, who is always ahead of the game in terms of digitalization and modernization of tools, “has gone beyond websites and transactional apps, and most are now operating in feeds and scrolls,” so why don’t financial institutions follow suit? Of course, it’s important to acknowledge the investments made in these other tools, like apps, portals, and email marketing, are all beneficial in their own ways, but as John says, “why not start playing in the interface that your customers like the most: feeds.”

John makes some convincing points about the effectiveness of the feed interface with compelling data to back it up.

88% of smartphone users use feeds and scrolls
302 million Americans use feeds and scrolls
Ad spending in feeds became larger than ad spending in all paid search marketing combined

Clearly, the use of the feed and scroll is by far the dominant behavioral pattern on smartphones today, especially with the prominence of social feeds and news feeds. So, how often are consumers interacting on this interface, on apps like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or LinkedIn? According to HootSuite, the U.S. consumer spends on average 2 hours and 11 minutes on social feeds per day. Jim even shared that he himself is a victim of Instagram scrolling and targeting and has purchased numerous items after seeing them on his feeds. “I’m not too sure if I want to review my stats and figures on how much I have bought because of an insertion in Instagram. I’m a big Instagram user. I have multiple platforms there for business and personal.”

The truth is, banking customers are living in feeds every day. So rather than seeing feeds as a competitor to existing tools, financial institutions should think about the integration and usage of feeds as a “digital fabric expansion”, where they sit alongside other channels and provide another way to reach, communicate, and engage with customers that is comfortable and familiar.

And, as Jim points out, a key metric that banks are looking at today is “relationship retention as opposed to product retention.” By meeting banking customers in a place where they are comfortable and providing content that is personal and relevant to them, Jim notes, “you’re going to just innately show them empathy and that you are on their side as opposed to just trying to sell the next product.” How’s that for upping the personalization and experience game?

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Listen to the full conversation where Jim and John discuss:

Interface asymmetry between banks and tech companies
Where feeds fit in the engagement ecosystem
How feeds can be utilized for better onboarding and educational engagement
How easy it is to get started using feeds for engagement today

Learn More

To learn more about the Relay Feed and how it can help with customer engagement initiatives, reach us at: sales@relaynetwork.com