New FICO Survey: 88% of Customers Consider Customer Experience of Equal Importance to Product Offerings When Choosing Their Bank

Banks that offer high-quality customer experience across all touchpoints and channels better compete with fintechs, drive growth, and secure loyalty

FICO (NYSE:FICO)

Highlights:

• A new FICO survey finds that 88% of bank customer respondents report that customer experience is as important or more important than its products and services.
• 33% of respondents have only changed their primary banking providers 1-2 times.
• Traditional banks are still popular among older demographics (85% of ages 65+), while younger demographics (53% of those ages 18–24 and 55% of those ages 25–35) increasingly use digital apps.

Global analytics software leader, FICO announced new research regarding customer opinions about their banking experiences and whether financial institutions are meeting their needs. The 2024 Bank Customer Experience Survey: US showcases findings and perspective on the implications for the financial industry. 88% of respondents report that a bank's customer experience is as important or more important than its products and services. Banks need to remain in tune with ever-evolving customer behaviors, experiences, and preferences.

Customers want their banks to meet them on their terms

Positive customer service is one of the main reasons why customers choose a bank to be their main provider in the first place. Most respondents say that their primary bank experience is positive, with 39% overall answering ‘excellent' and approximately half answering ‘generally good.'

Customers are generally loyal to one traditional bank above all others. Banks that capture new customers early on are likely to retain their loyalty for years to come—provided they meet their expectations. Over 90% of respondents confirmed that they have a primary provider. Of these, young people are the least likely to have a primary bank account (only 77%), while 90% of all other older demographics all have a primary.

As customers continue to demand a more personalized customer experience, it is essential for banks to choose the appropriate communication channels based on customer preferences, use context to provide personalized customer interactions, and prioritize fostering lifetime customer loyalty. Banks should be utilizing data and analytics to gain insights into customers to build optimal customer experiences across all channels.

"Customers will stay with their banks if loyalty and safety are established," said Darryl Knopp, head of customer insights at FICO. "The survey found that 33% of customers have only changed their primary banking providers 1-2 times. Banks need to prioritize choosing the appropriate communication channels to provide customers with personalized interactions and foster long-term relationships."

Gen Z and Millennials favor digital banks

Most respondents (66%) still receive their banking services from a traditional bank, followed by credit unions (21%), and digital banks (11%). Of this overall percentage, the survey found that young people are less likely to rely on a traditional bank. About 50% of 18-35-year-olds cite a traditional bank as their primary provider, compared with 85% of people over the age of 65. In addition, lower-income customers are more likely to use an app (24%) versus medium (7%) and high-income customers (13%), showing that digital services can better reach untapped markets of lower-income earners.

For more details and insights regarding the survey results, download the 2024 Bank Customer Experience Survey: US. This survey was issued to 1,000 U.S. bank customers across age and income demographics in the West, Midwest, Northeast, and South regions.

For more information on how FICO can help organizations exceed customer needs and expectations, visit https://www.fico.com/en/fico-platform.

About FICO

FICO (NYSE:FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 200 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, insurance, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 80 countries do everything from protecting four billion payment cards from fraud, to improving financial inclusion, to increasing supply chain resiliency. The FICO® Score, used by 90% of top US lenders, is the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the US and has been made available in over 40 other countries, improving risk management, credit access and transparency.

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Julie Huang

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