Disruptive Innovation Can Drive Win-Wins for Banks

As we near the one-year mark of pandemic living, a big takeaway is the consumer lean-in on digital channels that saw them pushing through psychological barriers that felt insurmountable pre-COVID-19. From seeing a doctor to restocking the refrigerator, across generational lines, there’s increasing comfort in the few keystrokes necessary to handle the day’s tasks online.

While banks have been attempting to migrate customers to digital channels for more than a decade, the COVID-19 pandemic has been the biggest (and most effective) driver for this consumer behavioral shift. But as banks ready themselves for a post-pandemic future, a recent Credit Karma/Qualtrics survey finds that even among staunch pre-pandemic, in-person bank customers, many plan to continue banking digitally.

The Big Picture The last thing banks need when they pursue a digital transformation is a digital strategy. Not many banks get this right. Organizations need one enterprise strategy for how to be the best in their business. If you set up different internal strategies, all you really have are a bunch of disparate go-to-market ideas. Spending time crafting a savvy digital strategy signals that you have a separate approach from the rest of your banking channels. That very narrow digital strategy puts you on a road to failure, because it forces competition and conflicts as teams vie for differentiated levels of support and resources to strengthen their now-competing channels. Instead of standing on its own, digital should shape and help drive your single banking strategy as yet another tool in your arsenal. You might think your current approach is setting you up for an omnichannel delivery, but you’ll end up with disjointed services that create friction for customers if digital is treated distinctly. Even if you want customers to handle the overwhelming percentage of their banking online, many will continue to walk into branches, particularly for complex transactions like mortgage applications, and end up calling you with questions. Granted, 2020 and safer-at-home guidance as the coronavirus arrived have pushed digital adoption forward more by necessity than desire. In July, nearly five months after the pandemic started, 91% of consumers conducted banking online, mostly to deposit checks or review their account balances. Even more striking: 40% of consumers reported using their bank’s mobile app more often. Some of the elasticity in consumer preference may be tightening. Still, a successful transformation is about integrating digital with your enterprise strategy to be more available and flexible as consumers speed up their digital adoption. With the onset of the pandemic, people are now using online banking daily. Not everyone is going back to your branches. You can’t afford to not meet them on a journey they’re already taking.