Customers Want Good Service, and Are Willing to Share Personal Information to Get It

Nearly 70% of customers are willing to disclose personal information in order to receive personalized service from their financial institutions, according to results from the Cisco Customer Experience Report.

The report, published today, is based on responses from more than 1,500 consumers and 400 bank professionals across 10 countries.

Only 46% of customers in the study felt their banks had enough information about them to deliver personalized service. Meanwhile, 58% of the bankers surveyed felt that they had enough customer information already to provide personalized service. Does this 12% difference mean that banks have more information about customers than customers are aware of, or that bankers don’t realize how much more information customers are willing to disclose?

“The future of banking is about access and personalization,”  Al Slamecka, business development manager at Cisco Systems told Bank Innovation. “Banks should work to provide pervasive connectivity to customers. Banks need to work to make sure high tech doesn’t drive out high touch.”

Some key data points from the report:

• 60% of customers would provide more information in order to simplify management of finances;
• 34% of customers would like advice in real time; and
• 50% of customers would like location-based advice.

According to the report, 53% of customers would give fingerprints or other biometric info to improve security. This number was as high as 80% in developing countries.

However, Cisco found just 30% of customers use mobile apps for banking. This is much higher in other surveys – for example, 58% in a recent IAB study. Cisco officials could not explain the difference in usage data.

Bankers believe 38% of customers use banking apps to check their pensions or retirement savings. The figure found by the study was just 7%.

Meanwhile, 57% would like their financial information in a vault, which means it would be kept from other companies. Slamecka said this implied greater trust in banks versus other vendors, but it could also mean that customers simply want to control where and to whom they share information. Does this lockbox mentality have implication for Big Data-driven personalization down the line?

Customers were lukewarm about originating accounts online. 48% felt comfortable closing loans virtually, while just 46% said they would be comfortable opening an online bank account.

Video banking is an up-and-coming technology. The promise of video banking is that customers at enhanced ATMs could speak to experts in remote locations about more complicated transactions or products. 34% of survey respondents said they would like video chat. Of those 79% would like it on a personal computer, that is, at home rather than at an ATM machine.

Among bankers, though, 80% think customers want video chat.

Customers show a willingness to exchange personal information for better service, but in some key areas, bankers and customers don’t see eye to eye. Bankers believe customers are more fond of video banking and looking over retirement info on mobile than seems to be the case. Bankers believe they have enough of customer info already to deliver personalized service, and customers want it — so let’s get to it.