Customer Experience Trends in Financial Services 2023 & UX Design Ideas for Apps

The pandemic is almost over. The economic condition is slowly returning to normal, but the threat of recession is a bit haunting the industries in 2023. Nonessential businesses, including banks and other financial institutions, are predicted to face decreasing demands. Customer experiences (CX) become one of the companies’ priorities to gain customers’ interest and increase revenues. It is not only about giving minimum-error services, but establishing qualities through engagement, responsiveness, empathy, and transparency.

Illustration

McKinsey finds that effective CX organization and management may lead to a 20% improvement in customer satisfaction, a 15% increase in sales conversion, a 30% lower cost-to-serve, and a 30% increase in employee engagement. Unfortunately, there is a contradiction here. Digital Banking Report says that 70% of senior banking executives make CX their top priority, but fewer than half of them took an investment in CX in the bottom third of priorities. In fact, without financial and organizational commitment, they risk missing the opportunities of reaching to differentiate CX.

What are the CX trends in the financial sector and what to apply to the UX design?

CX Trends in the Financial Sector

Broad trends of CX in banking and finance compiled from many sources:

1. There is more and more digitalization in financial services. Boston Consulting Group’s study showed that financial services lost 43% of customers as they fail to provide an excellent digital experience. Seamless digital experience can help companies to generate 10% more revenue. Consistency of the digital experience, easy access to relevant information, timeless support, and contextual advice are some of the keys to it.
2. Collaboration with fintech companies. Instead of being threatened, big banks and financial institutions will continue to collaborate with fintech companies. It can be in the form of investment or partnering with them on specific projects to take advantage of their expertise without having any long-term commitment. This collaboration may also affect the design of their digital products.
3. More AR & VR usage. Not only giving faster and simpler digital services, financial institutions also try to humanize their services as customers seek more immersive ways to interact with their financial institution. AR & VR will be used for maximizing digital engagement, test drives, showroom showcases, talking to customer services, etc.
4. Omnichannel strength. The collaboration between the physical and digital (phygital) channel is on the rise. Financial institutions need to build and make sure their omnichannel strategies such as multiple contact channels, app-based channels, in-branch transactions, and social media marketplace run well.
5. Hyper-personalization. It refers to the use of a customer-centered approach to delivering digital banking services based on behavioral data science and AI to generate real-time data on consumer insights. It includes targeted product recommendations via chat support, predicting consumer needs based on their behaviors, and content for improving customers’ financial wellness. Companies collect data from every step of their customer journey (including chat, calls, emails, and social media or apps). Companies also utilize data science, analytics, AI, and ML to make suitable recommendations to their customers based on what is happening in their respective lives.
6. Self-service. Zendesk wrote 69% of customers want to solve problems on their own. AR is predicted for being a bigger component of self-service options. They will help companies by giving a range of knowledge to customers, product FAQs, tutorials, AI-powered chat and messaging, and automated contact centers.
7. Emotionally engaged. Haunted by the recession, non-essential spending will decrease. Brands need to showcase empathy and build relationships with customers for the future.
8. Green Finance. Sustainability still becoming an important issue for customers. Financial companies still consider making it a priority in 2023. More financial companies show their responsibility for the planet’s future.
9. Total Experience. The year 2023 will begin with a total integrated experience (TX) perspective. It brings four disciplines of experience: multi-experience (MX), customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX), and user experience (UX). It was predicted to bring a 25% increase in CX and EX metrics.

UX Design Trends

After knowing the CX trends, we also need to know how to implement them into our UX design. These are some ideas you can apply to your apps:

1. Gamification.

Finance companies primarily work with formal and strict designs. The increase in fintech collaboration may impact the UX design of most finance apps. Gamification, for example, is widely used in fintech apps. It can be less stressful and reduce the worrisome. It increases engagement by making UX fun and interesting. Gamification means putting parts or elements of games into a non-game section within your apps. It can be a memorable experience of rewards, adventures, challenges, quizzes, and the excitement of being a winner, unlocking badges when saving more money, or getting a victory when achieving a financial target.

Gamification in StarX apps by DSF

2. Emotional Design and Product Identity

In digital life, we do not meet our customers directly. The design of our digital product represents our presence. In 2023, showing up product identity is still a basic part of giving certain experiences to customers. It is not only by giving color palettes and jargon. The use of white space and emojis makes the design more human, and more inviting, and gives an enjoyable experience. An emotional design might skyrocket user engagement, especially for millennials and younger generations.

The use of emojis in one of money management tools.

3. Centralization and/or Superapps

As a part of personalization, many financial institutions also collaborate with third-party. This enables users to follow their expenses through a variety of channels and get a bigger picture of what kind of financial services they can enjoy in an app.

StarX integrates “Perbaikan,” “Perawatan,” “Jual Kendaraan,” and “Perpanjang STNK” features to give a centralized service within an app

Centralization is in line with the “superapps” concept to bring an all-in-one solution to mobile application design. Superapps are believed to provide a seamless user experience and increase engagement as most customers to integrate their activities into one place. It follows some principles, such as seamless, integrated, efficient, contextualized, and daily use it. A superapp not only gives many features but also makes sure that all the features work well to give solutions to customers.

4. Data visualization

It is always interesting for people to know what they have been through, including in their financial life. Imagine your customers’ satisfaction after reading a notification that they have saved a certain amount of money by using your services or your customer may realize that they have spent too much money on the car services. Your data visualization may help them to make a decision on their future spending. They may decide to keep using your services, give you advice to add a new feature to help them manage the car service, or simply change their money management strategy. At this level, your app has become a part of their financial life cycle.

Gojek data visualization on their yearly contribution to their customers' transportation life

References:

1. https://thefinancialbrand.com/news/customer-experience-banking/top-5-customer-experience-trends-for-2023-and-beyond-155728/
2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2022/12/01/five-cx-trends-to-watch-in-2023/?sh=2c6b7f5623c7
3. https://www.quinnox.com/top-five-customer-experience-trends-in-banking-for-2023/
4. https://uiuxtrend.com/top-ui-ux-trends-2023-you-need-to-know/
5. Freepik license: <a href=”https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/dashboard-analytics-computer-performance-evaluation-chart-screen-statistics-analysis-infographic-assessment-business-report-display-vector-isolated-concept-metaphor-illustration_12470212.htm#query=ux%20trend&position=7&from_view=search&track=sph">Image by vectorjuice</a> on Freepik
6. https://arounda.agency/blog/the-importance-of-ux-in-financial-applications-and-latest-trends
7. https://www.easysend.io/blog/top-ux-trends-in-banking-for-2022
8. https://www.theuxda.com/blog/digital-banking-design-trends-2021-transform-financial-industry
9. https://adamfard.com/blog/fintech-ux-trends