BI2012: The Case Against Channel Migration

SAN FRANCISCO – Don’t pressure customers into cheaper channels or you, dear banker, will get burned.

That was a main takeaway from a panel session focused on discussing channel agnosticism at last week’s Bank Innovation 2012.

Indeed, execs from SunTrust Banks, Wells Fargo & Co. and Fiserv Inc. all said banks should not push their customers into self-serve channels as ways to save money because they will end up ostracizing their customers.

“The challenge is being the right things to the right people with the right channel,” said Geoff Knapp, vice president of online banking and consumer insight at Fiserv. “FIs don’t need to migrate to cheaper channels. Rather, they need to optimize the experience that best suits their [customers’] needs.”

In other words, banks should follow their customers as they move across channels, rather than pushing them through a specific vertical.

“If you drive people who aren’t comfortable on mobile, they will be upset,” Knapp said.

Realizing that channels need to work in harmony with one another is one reason why Brian Pearce, senior vice president and head of retail mobile channel of the internet services group at Wells Fargo, said he doesn’t believe he competes with other banking channels.

“It’s about meeting customers where they expect to be met,” said Pearce.

Those customer expectations are quickly ticking up, too, as internet touch points continue to proliferate.

“Will there be a Wells Fargo app on the fridge? Who knows,” said Pearce. “Touch points are really exploding and you need to think about how to be out their with your customers. …You need to think about the different ways to use the channels. …No one has cracked the nut yet in banks, especially in the U.S. …You need to stay on top of it. There are more capabilities coming online all of the time.”

Regardless of where a bank boasts a channel presence, it must give a customer a unique reason to use that channel.

“You must listen to customers to develop products,” said Pearce. “If you want customers to adapt a channel, you must give them information that is only available there.”