ABA Banking Journal
No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
SUBSCRIBE
ABA Banking Journal
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT
Home Retail and Marketing

Customer Experience: Are We There Yet?

May 17, 2017
Reading Time: 4 mins read

By Tamir Sigal

Here’s what we learned from a CXO panel.

Most likely, many banking executives charged with managing the customer experience (CX) for their organizations did not anticipate having their current role. However, the growing trend to focus on end-to-end customer experience brought increasing respect to—and dependence on—CX as a discipline.

And it gave birth to a new position—the CX executive.

So, where did these intrepid individuals come from? Earlier on, you might have met them in various marketing positions, such as customer service or call center management. The bigger question, though, may be how they manage to persevere and prevail in a loosely-defined, yet often closely-scrutinized, position?

To gain perspective on the current state of CX and its players, a team from GMC Software spoke to a panel of seven CX leaders from the financial services and insurance industries. While I can’t share the interviewees’ names, I can tell you about them, and what we learned from them.

Their titles varied—chief marketing officer, chief customer officer, etc.—with additional descriptors added such as strategic initiatives, digital marketing and consumer products. Despite the variety in titles, they all agreed that the CX discipline not only is here to stay—it also has a long way to go.

We also found out that these CX executives know there is no single channel that benefits CX exclusively. Their goal is channel integration—ensuring that their organization services customers in the way they want to be serviced. That involves identifying how the customer prefers to engage with the business. Bank customers should be able to start something on the phone and finish online or face-to-face as they choose.

The challenge is to differentiate by creating a way for customers to self-select how they want to interact with a company.

In achieving this differentiation, the panel of financial services CX executives we spoke to said they face a multitude of hurdles. Many of them are technical. Here are a few obstacles that were mentioned:

  • Too many channels – Many experiences take place across multiple devices, platforms and channels, but they are treated as discrete actions because there are no systems in place to combine the relevant data. Without the ability to see the experience in its entirety, it isn’t possible to maintain consistent brands and messages.
  • The CX technology landscape – Technologies are emerging to help CX executives tackle the complexities of their mission, but they need to sell the value of those solutions to their organizations. It’s difficult to convince IT and finance to support a new system that is expensive to integrate across different platforms. Our panel of experts finds that complex legacy systems don’t have to be a barrier to improving the overall customer experience because there are ways to use customer communications management software to tap into existing systems.
  • Funding – Funding is always a problem because it’s hard to put a value on the customer experience. The CFO won’t want to spend money on the appearance of a store, or better web technology, or new mobile apps, if the CX professional can’t quantify the value of doing so. This also makes it difficult to get support from senior leadership in general. When CX professionals explain that improving retention will drive higher revenue, they are greeted with skepticism: finding new revenue is easier for other executives to track—and understand.
  • Education – While CX is owned by marketing in more than 60% of the organizations on our panel, it is about much more than marketing. CX leaders need to educate others to ensure that goals are well-defined and results are quantifiable. Business leaders need to understand how their organizational alignment translates to the customer.
  • Stakeholders and risk – Every customer communication, including contracts, welcome kits, invoices and statements, is part of the customer experience and many departments are involved. HR supports training for customer-facing individuals. Legal reviews onboarding and advises how best to communicate with customers. There are complex regulatory issues to be navigated. There may be penalties for gaps in the overall customer experience. IT, sales and finance all play a part and all need to be on board. Banking CX executives need to engage the entire organization to create an environment of success so that everyone in the company is incentivized to be compliant and customer-centric.

Despite these challenges, CX leaders report that they are making progress, particularly in their ability to measure engagement. In the digital and multichannel world, they are gathering more robust data about customer interactions. Once they start measuring, they are able to analyze results and work to improve them. Then they are able to go back to their CFO and point out how far they’ve moved customer engagement—and demonstrate the value of the investment.

Progress positive.

As a result of the efforts of these CX executives, the banking industry is beginning to see CX as a key business objective, not only for customer retention, but also for attracting customers, driving revenue, and creating brand advocates. More banks are putting effort into becoming customer-centric than they were five years ago.

In some cases, CX just sprouts. Our panel called this phenomenon “the mushroom approach,” which happens when the CXO role is created without infrastructure support in place. Some companies, however, are moving deliberately toward funding and supporting CX as part of their vision of the future.

Overall, CX is an emerging field, and leaders are looking to continuously reinvent the customer experience to allow customers to manage their affairs from wherever they are, regardless of time difference, device or channel. The goal is to create something entirely new and truly elevate the customer experience.

Tamir Sigal is CMO at GMC Software, a leader in customer communications. Sigal is a seasoned marketing executive with 20 years’ experience in enterprise software, governance, enterprise archiving, document management, records management and regulatory affairs. Sigal is a regular presenter at numerous industry events.

ADVERTISEMENT
Tags: Customer experienceCX technology
ShareTweetPin

Related Posts

Is deepfake technology shifting the gold standard of authentication?

Will fraud prevention ever be autonomous?

Technology
June 17, 2025

Anti-fraud systems are learning to anticipate fraud rather than merely react to it. Better anticipatory abilities inch systems closer to full automation.

Podcast: Old National’s Jim Ryan on the things that really matter

Podcast: Old National’s Jim Ryan on the things that really matter

ABA Banking Journal Podcast
June 12, 2025

Jim Ryan has led Old National Bank to 250% asset growth. On the podcast, the ABA American Bankers Council chair discusses the bank's growing profile and footprint, his views on deposit insurance reform and the experience of leading...

Bank community engagement: Yes, you can help bank veterans

Bank community engagement: Yes, you can help bank veterans

Retail and Marketing
June 9, 2025

AMBA partners with the ABA Foundation to recruit banks to provide our nation’s veterans access to safe, reliable and flexible financial products and services.

FHFA finalizes strategic plan for 2022-2026

Marketing Money Podcast: Why leadership matters more than likes

Retail and Marketing
June 6, 2025

For bank marketers, the value of being strategic is great.

Looking for trouble?

Podcast: What bankers need to know about ‘First Amendment audits’

ABA Banking Journal Podcast
June 5, 2025

"First Amendment auditors" have long tried to provoke public officials into stopping them from recording in public settings. Now, some auditors are targeting banks.

ABA: Proposed quality control rule for AVMs would overburden banks

Bank survey: Uncertainty weighing on prospective homebuyers

Community Banking
June 4, 2025

Roughly 60% of current homeowners and prospective homebuyers are uncertain whether now is a good time to buy a home, up from 48% two years ago, according to a recent survey by Bank of America.

NEWSBYTES

ABA DataBank: Planned/announced office conversions spike

June 20, 2025

OCC releases mortgage performance report for Q1 2025

June 20, 2025

Justice Department seizes millions of dollars linked to alleged crypto investment scams

June 20, 2025

SPONSORED CONTENT

AI Compliance and Regulation: What Financial Institutions Need to Know

Unlocking Deposit Growth: How Financial Institutions Can Activate Data for Precision Cross-Sell

June 1, 2025
Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

April 25, 2025
Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

April 5, 2025
Six Payments Trends Driving the Future of Transactions

Six Payments Trends Driving the Future of Transactions

March 15, 2025

PODCASTS

Podcast: Staying close to clients amid tariff-driven volatility

June 18, 2025

Podcast: Old National’s Jim Ryan on the things that really matter

June 12, 2025

Podcast: What bankers need to know about ‘First Amendment audits’

June 5, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT

American Bankers Association
1333 New Hampshire Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
1-800-BANKERS (800-226-5377)
www.aba.com
About ABA
Privacy Policy
Contact ABA

ABA Banking Journal
About ABA Banking Journal
Media Kit
Advertising
Subscribe

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.