With all this talk about the customer centricity over the past few years, it got me thinking, is it really enough? In my view, it isn’t. Customers’ expectations have moved on. As such, banks need a different way to engage with their customers. Rather than go with the traditional route, banks now have to look to multi channel banking to attract these customers. While some channels may be immediately profitable and others not, the focus of the bank must be the customer experience. Engaging the retail banking customer is all about addressing their needs through a single customer view and customer intelligence.

How can all this be achieved? Using the right financial technology is paramount in transforming the customer experience. The results speak for themselves. Customer centric technology solutions ensure higher customer acceptance than traditional direct marketing practices – generating an excess of 40% positive responses to offers (as opposed to 1%)!

The face of the retail banking market is shifting with many non-traditional banks shaking up the market by putting customers at the heart of their core business. Tesco Bank is doing this already and at the BBA conference this week Tesco Bank’s CEO, Benny Higgins spoke how crucial using the right technology is in building a different kind of bank based on customer intelligence. Through better understanding their customers’ needs with clever technology, banks hold the holy grail for increasing loyalty and profitability. This means not only continued business with existing customers, but the potential for growing the customer base and in these times who doesn’t want that!