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Building Customer Relationships via Websites- How Banks are Missing Out
TMCnet Assistant Editor
Perfecting customer relationships and strengthening customer loyalty is a focus for any business. Ensuring that customers are receiving the treatment they deserve and leaving their experience satisfied, is essential.
With the increasing use of the internet, it has become important to now focus on customer experiences with the businesses website well.
While on the website, businesses have an opportunity, beyond displaying sales pitches, to better build their customer relationships by offering tools to make the experience more pleasurable.
One online outlet of particular importance when it comes to customer relationships is online banking. Online banking has seen an uptake over the years as it offers convenience and ease for managing finances. When customers visit a bank's website to make online payments, transactions or to manage their funds, there is a need to offer them an experience that will strengthen their loyalty. Many banks however, are failing to do this.
This is what a recent study by Vox Inc. found when they looked at the online customer experiences at 17 different banks in the U.S.
The study uncovered a disconnection between bank priorities and customer needs and found that customer relationship potentials were not being met because the real estate of websites focused more on sales than on services. 20 percent of real estate on the homepages was dedicated to customer services and features in comparison to 45 percent for sales related services.
Particularly, issues with bank website services arose when it came to search and tutorials that should make the customer experience easy. Most banks websites however, have search options that do not turn up strong results and for many websites, getting to priority information like ATM/Bank locations and online payment areas (an area of significant importance for those visiting the page) required many clicks just to access.
The full report, "Banking Mind Model Representation" is available on Vox's website.
"Customer experience and engagement is critical to ensuring strong, long-term customer relationships. Online banking is one of the most effective offerings for cementing customer loyalty. Its surprising how many of the major banks don't emphasize their tutorials for online banking and online bill payment," commented Luis Serpa, Mind Model Lead Analyst in a statement.
Regardless of the channel of contact with customers, there is always a need to address and meet customer's needs first. Ease of use and convenience are both ways to ensure this is met. Offering tools and services that show customers they will benefit by using the services also helps to build their loyalty and trust.
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