The Hidden Cost of Skipping Market Research Before a Product Launch
When a new product fails to gain traction, it’s easy to point to the obvious culprits. Maybe the marketing campaign didn’t resonate. Maybe pricing was off. Maybe the rollout lacked visibility or customers simply weren’t ready. But in many cases, the real mistake happened months earlier. It happened when organizations assumed they already knew what […]
The Omnichannel Experience Gap Is Still Wide Open
Banks have invested heavily in digital transformation over the past decade. Mobile banking has become more intuitive, online account opening has improved, and customers can move seamlessly between websites, mobile apps, contact centers, ATMs, and physical branches. From a technology standpoint, most financial institutions have made enormous progress. On paper, many would argue they’ve achieved […]
Banking Loyalty Programs: Do They Work and What Makes Them Stick?
Summary: 70% of customers say financial institution rewards influence their decisions. Yet the majority of bank loyalty program members are disengaged within 12 months. The gap between “rewards offered” and “rewards valued” is the central design problem in banking loyalty. Banking loyalty programs are easy to launch and hard to make work. The easy version […]
How Credit Unions Can Compete With Big Banks on Customer Experience
Summary: 78% of Americans prefer to do their banking digitally, but 52% visited their primary branch in the past year and 69% prefer a branch within 15 minutes, meaning credit unions’ physical presence advantage still matters if it is backed by service quality. Half of consumers agree that credit unions care more about their members […]
How to Choose a Mystery Shopping Program for Your Bank or Credit Union
Summary: Mystery shopping for banks and credit unions goes beyond scoring a visit. The programs that drive real CX improvement measure specific, behavior-level service standards across branch, phone, and digital channels, and connect that data to coaching, not just reporting. The choice between DIY and professional mystery shopping almost always favors professional, independent measurement, not […]
Are Bank Branches Still Relevant? What the Data Says
Summary: Despite digital acceleration, 70+ percent of banking executives view branches as mission-critical or very important to long-term growth. Branch closures between 2020 and 2024 have not produced the customer satisfaction improvements banks expected, in many cases, the opposite. The question is not whether branches are relevant. It is whether yours are operating at the […]