How Neobanks have disrupted the banking space with better UI, UX, and CX — CX Framework

The second part of the two-part blog completes the best practices in neobank UI/UX started in the first part of the blog. It concludes with offering a neobank CX framework that can help neobanks provide their offerings to customers, keeping the excellent customer experience in mind.

Customer experience should be inside out. Neobanks should leverage data analytics which is the inside, to improve the processes and how customers interact with them to every extent possible. As the banking processes improve, the experience from the platform becomes more fluid. Any blockades and diversions will become easier to patch and mend. The neobank CX framework discussed in detail later will aid the neobanks in improving upon app beautification to streamline business processes to provide a best-in-class customer experience.

Best practices for designing UI/UX for banks(continued…)

11. Design a financial marketplace

Banks offer their customers many financial services, but the users aren’t able to get the maximum value out of these products. It is primarily due to the challenges in identifying and presenting a product’s benefits to the customer.

The ideal banking app UX should focus on personalizing the value offered to each customer. It means offering easy-to-use and understandable services and also having customizable products.

It is important to note that having too many options can cause decision paralysis and confusion. But with a personalized banking user experience and having highly customizable solutions that fit each customer’s need is commendable.

Neobank UI UX for Financial Marketplace and Services

The best way to interact with many financial services is the financial marketplace from the UX perspective. Presenting each service in a card-UI is mobile users’ most familiar and convenient format. It helps quickly categorize the banking services, personalize recommendations, and manage subscriptions.

12. Ensure business finance management that fits user needs

Many customers struggle with monitoring their finances. The financial app should come in with an insightful overview and offer recommendations.

It is what a bank app should deliver. It should display money movement clearly and intuitively, allowing the customers to control their finances better. The customers then can have an instant understanding of their spending and get valuable recommendations to improve their financial status.

Neobank UI UX for Financial Status

A banking app with business finance management allows categorizing all transactions to set a budget for each category. The customer can also review how expenditures move across categories on the timeline. The customers can compare their spending levels with an average bank customer. It will allow the customers to evaluate and optimize their financial health.

13. Stimulate motivation to reach financial goals

For the financial app to become part and parcel of the customer’s life, it has to become an irreplaceable companion that can help achieve higher financial goals by motivating and assisting the customer through the process.

Supporting the customers through the journey toward reaching their financial milestone, a banking app UX should have designs that offer templates and relevant objectives and set up automatic transfers into saving or investment accounts to achieve customer goals faster.

Neobank App UI UX for financial goal setting

14. Make finances more exciting

Technology makes our lives more engaging, interactive, and accessible. A banking app should bring fun and positive emotions to the financial experience by gamification.

Gamification is the art of crafting fun elements in the app and harnessing them to drive engagement and sales. It is a “Human-Focused Design,” contrary to the usual “Function-Focused Design. A “Human-Focused Design” optimizes for whatever motivates a human to take action than optimizing for pure functional efficiency.

The banking app can offer customers rewards, which they can earn by trying new services, sharing their experiences, participating in the banking community activities, and achieving goals. Banks can leverage a banking gamification platform for cross-promotions for partners.

User’s profile with the bonus points and credibility level

Banks can monitor the customer’s financial status and evaluate, displaying the banking experience and improving credibility. It will ensure service discounts or exclusive offers for customers with limited access are handed out carefully. Then, customers can redeem points for gifts or free goods and services.

Banks can also share users’ achievements with relevant social connections to garner positive responses for financial expertise. This information can be displayed under the customer profile to easily manage their settings or check their credit score and enhance it. From this screen, the support chart is more accessible. Furthermore, it also allows the customers to gain bank aid via text or make a video call.

15. Compile personalized offers that customers resonate with

One of the most powerful features digital banking AI can provide is customized promotions. Banks can ensure this with predictive analytics. Predictive Analytics combines the user’s financial activity, social media interaction, and big-data analysis on behavioral data patterns, geolocation data, and context-based inferences.

For example, location-based push notifications on the location of ATMs may come in handy when traveling. Purchase of a flight ticket is an excellent indicator of offering a travel insurance policy. Banking AI detecting a purchase of child care products could be an ideal reason to provide a home loan. Each promotional offer must satisfy an immediate need that can be satisfied with the push of a button.

Preemptive Personalized promotions and services for the users

Is there more to Neobanking than UI/UX?

Even though we have best practices for UI/UX for banks, they would be challenging to implement and create a great UI. It would be easier if banks had a framework to look up and make appropriate changes to deliver an excellent customer experience. The 8-point neobank CX framework explained below will make it a tad bit easier for neobanks to implement, measure, and deliver an excellent customer experience every time.

The 8 point customer experience framework for neobanks

After researching 50+ retail neobanks across 10+ countries, Twimbit, an innovation platform, has developed an 8-point neobank CX framework to deliver the best customer experience. The framework has analyzed annual reports, websites, and other published materials to understand what has allowed some neobanks to offer excellent customer experiences where others fail.

The neobank CX framework shows that UI/UX is a small part of a composite ecosystem that banks leverage to deliver a fulfilling customer experience. Everything matters, so to begin with, we have:

1. Hyper-personalization: Refers to customer data to create unique experiences for each customer. Banks can achieve hyper-personalization by providing spend analysis, increasing savings, customizable cards, tailor-made investment schemes, and scheduling payments.
2. Channels’ reach and innovation: To improve the channels’ reach and innovation, banks leverage the handshake between traditional and latest digital touch-points to offer banking services. Banks do it by integrating with the latest IoT-wearable tech or banking cafes and stores.
3. Third-party ecosystem: Banking is liberated from the secure infrastructure and transformed into a receptive ecosystem that accepts other brands or tech integrations. Digital integrations, account aggregation, third-party integrations, affiliation with other banks, FIs, and lifestyle merchants are a few ways banks create the ecosystem.
4. UI/UX design: Building relatable real-life experiences to provide an authentic banking experience is the true motivation behind having a great UI/UX for banks. It is achieved by how easily customers can navigate the platform, using the latest tech such as Audio-ID for support and gesture-based actions.
5. Gamification: Applying gaming concepts and design elements to various non-gaming features and businesses. Banks achieve it through a dynamic but interactive platform that uses psychometric evaluation to understand customers and awards them for attaining specific goals.
6. Data and security: Leveraging earth-shattering technology to provide best-in-class security to customer data and follow customer consent and established norms. Banks leverage unique passcodes, captcha, biometric authentication, multi-factor authentication, blockchain technology, and in-app card controls to achieve the highest level of data security.
7. Customer service innovation: Enabling customers to take up the challenges they face with the support team and solve them in minutes through the digital platform for a smooth customer journey. Banks achieve it with customer care, great FAQs, interactive community, robust knowledge base, and real-time conversation with AI or customer support.
8. Real-time notifications: Alerts customers of any planned and unplanned banking transactions in the account and any other relevant information that the customer should know, like ATMs close by and deals or launch specific financial services pertinent to the customer. Real-time notifications, notifications based on spending patterns, location-based offerings, and many others.

Recommendation

Delivering the best customer experience to its consumers is one of the highest priorities of banks. There are many challenges to understanding technology to use and what message to put out there to manage customer data.

Therefore here are a few recommendations that banks can implement to improve their customer-centricity:

1. Leverage the customer data to understand them in their every walk of life and then deliver hyper-personalized Targeted tailor-made products:products that only fit them. Because every industry has been doing it, customers expect the same from the banks.
2. Gamification: As in games, the player completes tasks and achieves goals for which they are awarded medallions. Similarly, banks can offer and help customers set up financial goals, and every time they complete tasks, the customers get medals. These medals they can share digitally on their social circles will give them a sense of fulfillment.
3. Chatbots, assistants, and voice-enabled services: AI and machine learning technology have evolved leaps and bounds. It is not much of a challenge for AI to understand now. Without a robotic command set, it can realize a human conversation and do whatever you ask. These services are typically premium customers used to get and are symbolic of the highest level of customer experience. When you can complete menial tasks without lifting a finger, it drives customer loyalty and improves customer engagement.
4. Enhanced UI for better UX: How well a bank designs the UI reflects how serious they are about delivering the highest level of user experience. Great UX determines the viewpoint of a customer. More frictionless the experience higher the value of the banks for their customers.

2. Neobanks leverage the power of Open Banking systems to gain access to customer data. The open banking customer data has enabled brands to partner with banks to provide additional services and tailor-made products, leading to enhanced value addition. Build an ecosystem:
Banking API has changed the whole game of banking. API has allowed neobanks to quickly exchange customer information and embed financial services relevant to individual customers, increasing brand loyalty and retention. Banking API integrates with various devices through IoT and performs multiple banking functions like making payments for bills and purchases, e.g., customers can use Amazon Echo dot to make transfers, payments, and purchases through the Amazon platform with a simple voice command. Communities are essential for neobanks to attract new ones and nurture existing relationships. Here the customers won’t be overwhelmed by too much information. Exchange of dialog between the community members can improve customer engagement and solve complex problems more simply with mutual consultation. Better community engagement and familiarity with issues and benefits attract customers and help in a seamless onboarding experience. The community also helps in improving the product and help bank gather customer data organically to deliver customized, relevant product.

3. Data and Security: One of the biggest challenges that neobanks face are a continuous onslaught of cyberattacks. Apart from that, scammers steal digital identities and infect the system with malware. Now that banking is more connected than ever, the fear of contamination is always high. Therefore, data security holds the highest importance for banks and customers. A secure banking environment is a trust-building aspect for customers to perform banking activities confidently. Data security is an evolving space, so banks need to upgrade their security regularly. Running awareness campaigns with customers can go a long way to ensure safety and security. Banks should implement multi-factor authentication, advanced biometrics, and adaptive authentication tech. Banks should continuously engage with customers regarding security and make them feel safe. Customers should understand that security and authentications are a necessary hindrance. Blockchain tech can also go a long way to ensure secure monetary transactions.

4. Innovation in channels’ reach: Today is the age of hyperconnectivity. Banks are more connected than ever. Banks connect with a customer over apps, devices, physical branches, mobile phones, and many others. Banks want to be in every nook and corner at a customer’s fingertips so that banking services always remain accessible.

The arrival of IoT services has taken hyperconnectivity to the next level. Now customers can make monetary transactions from wearables, VR devices, gesture-based devices, and voice assistant devices. Banks want customers to be self-reliant, and for that, the banking process has to be highly consumer-friendly. From UI/UX, business processes and security banks focus on improving customer experience.

Conclusion

The migration of people from traditional to digital banks goes as far as 2015. The pandemic is a surprise that pushed the customers and banks to focus on digital aspects of banking. Pandemic or not, customers slowly siding with the digital bank was inevitable.

Since neobanks are digital-only banks, each interaction with the customer matters, so having a frictionless interaction that flows naturally is modern is essential. They have to look good. More than that, they have to make every customer interaction meaningful. And doing that is quite a challenge when you want to deliver a great customer experience.

But excellent neobank customer experience (CX) is not limited to looks. It is incomplete without offering exceptional data security, brand affiliations, tailor-made offerings, IoT integrations, and many others. It has to be an all-around experience.

Originally published at https://open.money on May 4, 2022.