Finovate’s flagship event returned to New York this September in what was a record-breaking year for attendance, with an atmosphere full of energy, ideas and tangible solutions.
From the latest innovations from our wide variety of over 70 demos, to the 150 thought leaders from across the sector sharing their insights, FinovateFall truly showcased the latest innovations in financial services - but what were the key ideas that emerged, and what does this say about our sector as a whole?
Arguably the biggest change in financial services in the past few years has been the increased focus on the customer: creating an amazing customer experience, and innovating to meet and solve customer needs. Given this, it was perhaps no surprise that the overriding theme of FinovateFall 2019 was responding to rapidly-shifting customer needs, behaviors and expectations, and how institutions need to leverage technologies and respond to this in order to remain relevant.
In our afternoon keynote, BankMobile’s Luvleen Sidhu made the point that Americans interact with their banks 20-30 times a month, but “on average are walking into a bank branch once a year”. What is clear is that the banking experience is changing, and so much of the conversation at FinovateFall was around how to serve customers better in this evolving environment. It is also increasingly clear that customers are also demanding more of their financial institutions, are expecting tailored experiences relevant to them, are constantly looking for the next, most exciting features and, crucially, are not afraid to move banks if they do not find what they are looking for.
How, then, do banks respond to this, and deliver digital banking solutions that solve customer pain points? In the Wealthtech Summit, Northwestern Mutual’s Vivek Bedi told the crowd that “beautifying the client experience works”, and showcased how his team releases new features every fortnight in order to “keep it fresh”. Many other speakers and demoers across the four days echoed these principles, with the key takeaway being that iterating quickly with products and product features that resonate with the end user will prove ever more important in the coming years.
What also became evident across four days of innovative demos and insight from industry experts is that the bank of the next generation likely looks nothing like a bank. Jeremy Balkin, HSBC’s Head of Innovation, reminded us that “customers aren’t comparing banks to other banks. They’re comparing banks to the last great digital experience that they had.” It is clear, then, that there has never been a more important time for meaningful partnerships and collaboration between “banks, fintechs, and other partners to deliver a world-class experience for customers.”
These nonbanking brands not only deliver a great digital experience, but also are increasing entering the financial services space to compete directly - the fact that Google’s Head of Global Strategy and Market Enablement, Sean Ginevan, delivered a morning keynote on digital transforming and the digital journey in fintech, is testament to this fact.
These new entrants, from Google to Apple to Amazon, are well-known brands with whom customers have strong emotional connections - it has never been more important for banks to adapt accordingly. As Luvleen Sidhu of BankMobile stated in her presentation, “emotion is the biggest driver of loyalty”, so building that connection is going to prove ever-more critical in the coming years.
Banking, then, is moving from being product-centric to experience-centric: in our ‘delivering the next generation of customized customer experience’ panel, experts from Bank of America, Citi and others reflected on how to shift the entire experience around client interactions, above and beyond simply selling a product, and how to integrate your services into digital channels clients are already familiar with, and building a banking-as-a-service strategy that will attract, engage and, crucially, retain customers. One of the Best of Show winners, ebankIT, demonstrated a great example of this extension of the customer experience, moving beyond transactional banking into banking lifestyle platforms.
Integral to delivering an experiential banking service are personalization, trust and, central to both, speaking to customers in an authentic, human voice. Forrester’s Alyson Clarke reminded us that, given the different experiences we all have, “our banking experiences should be personalized, based on our life events”, and shared insights in to how to build customer relationships through personalization.
Meanwhile, Archie Ravishankar from Cogni stated that, in an age where customers are “hyper informed”, the key is to “build trust, and get to know people before trying to sell to them”. Building on this, Beaumont Vance from TD Ameritrade showed the Wealthtech Summit audience the power of chat and voice to build that trust: “Get whatever you want wherever you are using natural language.” This need to how to engage with customers authentically in order to improve trust and loyalty, was a recurring one.
Creating technology to serve human needs also requires, at the most fundamental level, strategies to uncover those customer needs and segment your customers to meet those needs. The need to work from the problems clients face, to then identifying technologies to solve those challenges, was another recurring theme across the conference, including from Bank of America’s Brent Brooks, who touched on how best to uncover those customer needs in order to solve for them. This mindset also requires, as Jeremy Balkin put it, fostering innovation by upgrading “not only legacy systems but also legacy mindsets.”
The mood of FinovateFall was an optimistic and energized one. As Luvleen Sidhu mentioned in closing, “every threat presents an opportunity”: a focus on creating a great customer experience, improving product design, incorporating a human touch, building trust, and leveraging technology for banking services that resonate with your customer, will all prove key to delivering a best-in-class user experience in the rapidly-evolving world of financial services.
We look forward to seeing how these concepts have continued to have been built on, and to seeing the next wave of exciting innovation, at FinovateFall 2020!