How to keep the future customer

It’s a given that when you’re dealing with customers from the most educated, communicative and socially connected generation in the history of mankind, the old ways of banking won’t do. These are people to whom the branch is a back-office, and banking, just another service that they consume online. By 2015, digital consumers between the teens and mid-forties will make up 60% of the world’s mobile and Internet user base, and this generation is expected to inherit approximately US$ 40 trillion over the next one decade.

If I had to list the 5 top expectations of these banking consumers of the future, they would be, in no particular order:

• Personalization and flexibility – in other words, the right to determine what, when, where, how and how much they will consume
• Convenience – products and services where they want it, when they want it
• Simplicity of usage – simple, intuitive interfaces and processes to make consumption fast and fuss free
• Immediacy – Instant content and transactions, at their fingertips, on a handheld
• Context – Offers that are relevant “to the moment”

How geared are our banks to fulfill these demands?

In recent times, banks have become more customer-centric, and are starting to look beyond the basic business of banking towards experience design and consumer need. But I think there are more cases of missed opportunity than otherwise.

For instance, how many banks have a reputation for being on the leading edge of innovation, or are known for the simplicity of their processes? Where’s the banking presence in social media? And when most products are becoming cheaper, faster, better and simpler – which is exactly what the digital consumer expects – why aren’t those in banking?

The problem that banks face is that unlike the customer of old, the new banking customer does not settle for less. This customer is brought up on a diet of the ultimate online experience provided by the likes of Amazon, Google and Apple and expects the same from every other consumption experience. Banks have no choice but to accept this reality and align their thinking accordingly. Or risk losing their future customers to the Google Wallets of the world.