NEW YORK — Nearly 70% of Wells Fargo’s interactions with its customers are digital as it continues to invest and improve its digital banking channels, Jazz Samra, head of partnerships at the $1.9 trillion bank, said at Finovate Fall 2023.
Wells Fargo is pivoting its digital strategy away from cross-selling to prioritizing customer experience, Samra said.
“We have been shifting in the last several years [toward] customer experience and what the customer needs,” Samra said. “We are trying to understand what are the problems that the customer is trying to solve, and how can we deliver that in a digital way.”
For example, the bank launched Fargo, its virtual assistant in partnership with Google, earlier this year to help “serve up information to the customers versus them having to find it,” Samra said. Fargo allows bank clients 24/7 access to their accounts, controls over debit cards, search functionality and spending insight.
The chatbot has helped Wells Fargo “understand what the customer needs are” and provide additional features that target those needs through its digital offerings, she said.
Wells Fargo’s tech spend jumped by 19% year over year to $947 million in the second quarter, according to its earnings report.
The San Francisco-based bank is taking a mixed approach to developing its digital banking channels by building the technology in-house, partnering with fintechs or acquiring service providers, Samra said.
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