Disruption. When it happens in the financial services industry, it can reshape organizations to their core. With the explosion of the new technologies, like mobile, businesses in financial services are expected to incorporate their convenience and ubiquity into the experience they offer.
This is easier said than done. In this report, Econsultancy shows that more than 40% of FSI businesses worry about appealing to their new generation of consumers.
What’s the cause of this concern? Customer expectations. Expectations that have risen as technology, like mobile, has allowed customers to consistently and conveniently get what they want more often than before. Ten years ago, mobile phones were merely telephones on the go.
Today, mobile devices, sites, and apps are people’s connection to everything. A multichannel customer experience is now the new normal.
With so much change in the way companies engage with customers, I’ve observed that there are two kinds of businesses in this industry. Those that are treading water in this downpour of data, channels, and expectations. And those that quickly read the waters, and paddle hard, and catch the next wave of innovation before their competition does.
That gets to the root of what this new report examines — the digital leaders and the mainstream. What the two types are doing differently from each other, and how that manifests itself in retail banking compared to insurance and investment businesses.
What I particularly like to see are the businesses that share Adobe’s vision for digital innovation. Those that do more than improve what’s around them, but also look down the road — not just interpreting, but creating the next big thing.
Successful marketers in financial services are aware that competition is coming from more sources than ever. Digital disruption has given a big stick to small upstarts and a window of opportunity to the likes of Google, Apple, and Microsoft. That’s what makes digital disruption so unpredictable, but in my view, also so fun.
I hope you enjoy this report, and it inspires you to explore new ideas, blaze new paths, and create tomorrow’s new financial services experience today.
Christopher Young, Director, Industry Strategy for Financial Services, Adobe
