Even just a quick glance at the statistics in the 2013 World Retail Banking Report from Capgemini shows that a customer-centric approach is an essential factor for success for today’s banks, no matter where they are in the world. Getting at the heart of what customers want requires a deep understanding of how and where customers experience your products and services.
In addition to the thousands of documents, emails, news articles, regulatory documents and other types of texts, due to the multiple interaction channels that its customers use today, banks have access to more customer data–and potential knowledge about customers–than ever before.
“Although banks have an unprecedented amount of data on their customers at their disposal, much of it, particularly the semi- and unstructured data, remains uncaptured, and therefore unutilized. Of the data that is captured, only some is accurate and relevant, and of this, only a small portion is used for generating insights. Of the insights generated, only some are actionable, and among these actionable insights, only a few result in successful outcomes that really add benefit to the business. In effect, only a small portion of the total data that banks have of their customers gets utilized for driving successful business outcomes.” (p. 28)
Being able to capture–and make useful–the unstructured data that forms the majority of customer data (customer emails or social media messages, as well as ATM transaction logs and contact center logs), is essential for driving an approach that puts customer preferences first.
As an executive at National Australia Bank stated, “Big data is useless if it is not made small and relevant, whilst adding value to the employee and the customer.”
