The digital transformation of retail banking has so far taken place in two stages – but the most exciting and groundbreaking one is only just starting. The old retail banking model, comprising bricks and mortar banking with digital channels for transactions, will no longer work. As a result banks will have to make changes to all their distribution channels. We believe that the key developments will be as follows:
- Branch networks will be radically transformed into sales and advice outlets—they will be 20 percent more productive than today and their costs will be up to 50 percent lower.
- Digital channels will be designed to create a “wow” experience for the user, thereby capturing these channels’ full sales potential (more than 20 percent of all product sales at the moment start with an online enquiry or investigation)
- Call centers will become a profitable, professional channel in which video technology is increasingly used. As a result 15 percent of service requests will typically be converted into sales.
- Banks will manage these different channels so that service from the customer’s perspective is seamless and ‘end-to-end’ and from its own perspective it captures sales that are currently being lost.
- Minimum amount of all product sales that start with an online enquiry or investigation.
Without decisive action, banks risk being stuck with an expensive and inflexible distribution set-up. To start the journey, top management should look at metrics and governance in a less branch-centric way and should launch a series of multichannel mini-transformations both within and across the different channels.
An overview of retail banking’s distribution transformation
- 1980-2000 – Digitalisation of payments: In this period ATMs, cards and tele-banking replaced paper-based payments as banks sought to capture new cost saving opportunities and reach customers previously excluded from the mainstream banking system. All banks have now completed this part of the ‘journey’.
- 2000-2010 – Digitalisation of basic banking: Over the first decade of the 21st century most customers started being able to access their banks remotely 24/7 for the bulk of low-value added activities. Benefits included greater convenience for them and further cost efficiencies for the bank. This part of the journey is not yet complete but most European players are well advanced along the road.
- 2010-2015 – Full digitalisation with a human touch: Banks are only just beginning to provide the ultimate client experience, namely digitalisation of sales and after-sales service combined with continued face-to-face interactions for the more complex products. Thanks in part to the development of mobile banking, sales of products either transacted online or influenced by online marketing are expected in the medium term to grow to the point where they represent roughly 60% of the total.
In the following chapters we will discuss what’s involved in the third part of the digital journey, as well as how a bank can make the transformation happen.
Distribution 2015
We expect the typical retail bank by 2015 to have undergone a radical change in its distribution mix and to have the following key characteristics:
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Fewer branches, fully digital with a personal touch
‘One click’ processes will allow clients to get key information, order key products and pay for them with their smartphone multifunction card and on iPad. As a result 99% of transactions and service requests will be handled digitally, as well as the majority of sales leads. When customers want to speak to someone at the bank they will interact via telephone or VC, and the bank will link to premium clients at home. Branch network will be more tailored to client needs than at present, with a range of different branch formats to match customer profiles and needs in each location (everything from unmanned fully automated to full service outlets). The changes, which will create a radically different distribution profile, could free-up 30-50 percent of costs and increase sales by up to 20 percent.
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More tailored to individual needs
The banks’ product and service offering will be tailored, providing multiple value-added services to clients with targeted marketing campaigns based on rich CRM data. Such initiatives will increase high quality leads and the conversion of prospects into new customers. Banks will increasingly have different online brands so as to attract different customer sub-segments and differentiate between them on pricing and service. Several banks are already pursuing this strategy: in the Netherlands, for example, in the wake of its multi label strategy focused on different segments, SNS Bank’s savings products market share increased from 7% to 10% in three years.
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Increasingly complex processes
Growing numbers of channels and different platforms for digital delivery (for example, Apple and Android) will create enormous process complexities, especially given the way customers increasingly use multiple channels while expecting the process to be seamless.
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Enhanced profitability (for those that get it right)
The bank’s financial ratios will be much more attractive than they are today. Based on our assessment, it should be possible to reduce costs structurally by 20-40%, mainly due to lower distribution costs and changes in the distribution mix that drive down operations and indirect costs. Higher investments will be needed in new technology, the costs of which can be offset by savings on legacy systems. The retail bank of the future’s revenue development is more uncertain and will mainly depend on competitive behaviour.
The magnitude of the looming transformation becomes clear when comparing this retail bank of the future with the profile of the average retail bank today. The transformation will require a substantial reduction in branch costs, a streamlining of end- to-end processes and in most cases the building of many still missing digital components. Not doing this, we believe, is simply not an option given the range of new competitors, notably non-banking players, entering the market.
How to make it happen?
In this section we will analyse in greater depth how banks can embark on the third part of the digital journey and what actions they need to take:
- Branches: Right size and boost sales performance
- Call centres: Make it the preferred channel for support
- Digital: Open the Digital Bank before non-banks do
- Multichannel processes: Optimise to eliminate leakage and improve experience
Branches: ‘Right size’ and boost sales performance
Recent research by McKinsey highlighted how branches are becoming more sales and advice oriented, and suggested that in the light of future customer needs it should be possible to free up 30-50 percent of costs by adapting the design of the branch network, and to increase sales per front-office employee by 20%. Any branch transformation should be structured around the following dimensions:
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Light size network
Banks can optimise their branch networks by adapting both the location of branches and branch formats to client needs.
- Tailor footprint: Branch network costs can be reduced by as much as 20%. Sales can simultaneously be increased through improved understanding of customer preferences and behaviour (and more importantly future behaviour) in each micro market, as well as better aligning capacity to demand. This is not only about cutting capacity, but about ensuring that capacity is situated where it is needed. Whereas ‘contribution to profit’ was previously the main consideration when deciding whether to maintain, open or close a branch, other parameters such as customer experience or access to funding may be as important in a low interest rate environment.
- Differentiate branch formats: Whereas the format used in the branches of many incumbent retail banks was previously uniform across the network, there is greater diversity today. Examples of new formats are specialised branches for high value segments (e.g., affluent, SMEs), small service or sales points of 2-4 employees for simple products, and totally automated branches that focus exclusively on service.
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Boost sales
Banks can increase the time they spend on sales, and use that time more efficiently. Here are a number of actions to consider:
Call/ Video Centres: Make them the preferred channel for support
The role of call centres is changing as banks migrate their basic activities to digital channels (notably the web and mobile), and clients dial a call or video centre to seek advice and support. Capturing the benefits requires banks to:
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Increase service to sales conversion
Call centres are potentially able to convert service calls into sales, but to do so they must have the right capabilities. Using a conservative ‘service to sales success’ ratio of 3% (good players go above 5%), the sales generated by one branch would be equivalent to what four agents of a call centre could achieve. The best call centres (with eligible calls conversion-into-sales rates of 6-9%) try to make a sale on 20-50% more occasions than the average call centre, aided by the intelligent call routing of customers to the best agents, use of CRM, and an approach to performance management that aims to develop the appropriate mindset.
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Upgrade quality to become the preferred channel
Many European banks are increasingly using their call centre to provide high quality service and advice (and sales) for customers. This remote phone channel is, today, typically exclusive to certain segments and not available to the full customer base. In some countries like the UK this has become the standard way to serve affluent customers. These call centre ‘islands’—staffed by people with higher skills—spearhead the drive for new sales and provide excellent customer service.
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Be ready for video
The mix of people in centres may have to change, as old scripts may no longer work and the visual aspect starts to assume a new importance.
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Free-up capacity
There is an additional efficiency opportunity. In this context, many call centres have the scope to improve their demand management with better forecasting and staffing, to reduce call times, and to optimise call routing. Between them these can translate into a 10-20 percent cost reduction opportunity.
Digital: Open the digital bank before non-banks do
So far banks have mainly used digital channels to provide services to their customers, but we see the emphasis rapidly switching to sales. Online and mobile channels, we believe, will ultimately converge to create the truly digital bank. The most important step for those embarking on this part of the transformation is to make sure their online services are coherent and well designed, and that they engage users. One European bank discovered recently that only 5% of its sales were made online, yet more than a third of clients said they would prefer to buy products in this way. It turned out that the bank’s inconvenient, poorly designed website was responsible.
This will require banks to create “the Apple experience.” As with the products and services of the US technology company, customers of the banks that get it right will not know exactly what’s good about the service they are using, but it will work and they will like it.
Here are key elements that need to be addressed to create the digital bank in this respect:
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Make digital channels the channels of choice
Increase penetration: Stimulate more customers to use the bank’s apps and websites more often.
Create a “wow” experience for clients: innovations might include easier log-on, faster and more flexible transactions, and well laid-out screens.
Make information easily accessible: about 20% of all products sold by banks are first evaluated by clients on the internet, mainly via aggregators and comparison sites (as with insurance). If banks do not provide clear and transparent information these aggregators will direct customers to someone else’s site.
Address security concerns: some 45% of consumers say this is the single most important reason why they don’t bank online. It may be more a matter of perception than reality, but if so banks have to alter that perception.
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Attract high-quality traffic and leads
Use event marketing to attract traffic. This will become an essential part of the initial phase of the purchasing process as customers increasingly search for information on the internet, notably via aggregators and online benchmarks, before deciding which product to buy (through any channel).
Use CRM and behavioural data. Banks are sitting on an enviable wealth of information, but so far most have only used the tip of the iceberg.
Use targeted personalised marketing. The Internet enables banks to target ‘segments’ as tiny as just a single consumer. It is possible, for example, to ascertain exactly who has logged on to a page and then to customise offers or investment advice to that individual. One bank in an emerging market manually segmented its clients and then asked IT to insert individualised banners to certain groups. The initiative generated strong sales from the Internet.
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Increase digital conversion by improving process and support
Introduce ’easy‘ customer support: banks should try everything from video calls and SMS messages to the careful sifting of emails and phone calls to addressing clients’ questions while they interact with the bank. Customers with complex issues, or those of high value to the bank, should have access either to a premium service number or an adviser in the branch.
Improve online sales processes: leading players now sell all their most important products online—but the processes behind them are not always efficient and friendly. ING Direct sets a high bar: on its website the bank promises that an enquirer will get an initial mortgage quote in five minutes, an agreement in principle within 10 minutes, and completion of the application after a further 10 minutes.
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Join your clients in their world through social media
Build digital fame: Banks such as JPMorgan have successfully used social media ‘communities’ to allocate sponsorships, generating millions of new followers and much beneficial, low-cost publicity.
Understand Generation Y: social media is ideal for a better understanding of client behaviour and client interests. The most advanced banking players in this respect are leveraging these new networks to help develop new applications for their products. Significantly, 70% of users say they believe recommendations made through social media, whereas only 20% trust conventional advertising.
Service clients: this can be done by responding quickly to questions on Twitter and other digital sources of enquiry. Several banks are dedicating resources to the management of this kind of media, even if some acknowledge that the value still needs to be proven. If nothing else, banks realise they have to use these tools to generate awareness and to keep close to customers, especially the young.
Multichannel: Improve ‘end-to-end’ processes to reduce ‘leakage’
Based on joint research we conducted with EFMA it is clear that clients are already using multiple channels (3-4 per person) to interact with their bank, and that there is a growing role for online platforms when it comes to sales. Clients voiced their frustration during the research, however, about the uneven quality of processes and banks’ slow response at different points on the customer ‘journey’. Missing telephone numbers and email addresses on the web, or poor communication between call centre and branch over a customer’s follow up visit, were among the issues raised. Inadequate search engines and complex forms result in promising leads being missed.
Often the root cause of this is that no one in the bank is responsible for integrating products, services and channels in a way that ensures delivery of an integrated value proposition to every customer. Revenue ‘leakage’ can be as much as 60 – 80 percent of total generated leads as a result. To improve these processes and identify sources of such ‘leakage’, banks should take what we call an ‘end-to-end’ approach. This requires understanding what happens (or doesn’t happen) at different stages of the customer ‘journey’:
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Gaining awareness
Where did clients research the market? How did they decide which bank to contact? Banks should check their search engine ranking relative to their peers, and examine their rating by price comparison sites among others.
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Consideration
Why did awareness not always convert into a formal sales enquiry? It may be that forms were too long to hold customer attention or call centres were unable to handle sales requests.
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Purchasing
How many potential customers received an offer, or attended a meeting with an adviser, and then dropped out? It could have been lack of bank follow- up, excessive documentation or a non-distribution issue such as pricing.
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After sales support
Banks should draw up and implement an action plan. We have seen banks that did this improve their sales conversion rates by factor two or more, benefit customers by providing a better experience, and reduce their average costs of serving each client.
Organising for success
The transformation journey to this “digital bank with a human face” requires alignment around a common objective and division of the whole exercise into a portfolio of projects. Key success factors include:
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IT capacity and effectiveness
The transformation will likely touch all relevant bank systems to a greater or lesser degree; however, we believe that a portfolio of small IT transformations is key to making the overall transformation successful.
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Organisational and governance change
As mentioned earlier, all changes will likely modify the way the bank organises and governs itself. Banks should bear this in mind throughout the transformation—sometimes, though, a new structure can be planned in advance and will help push things forward. Key lessons from organisational design experience include aspects such as:
- Harnessing the support of the CEO
- Involving all channels and avoiding the sense that channels other than the branch are merely ‘alternatives’.
- Acknowledging the inevitability of a matrix structure, especially for multinationals with multi-country outlets.
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Cultural change
Change is often most difficult in very traditional banks where regional leaders hold sway. The issues here are typically cultural, inspired by a feeling that local entrepreneurship, the sense of ownership and the capability of leaders to deliver are all being undermined. On the contrary, such a transformation like the one we are addressing should be an opportunity to present these executives with a new set of weapons for combating the challenges of the multichannel world. Conveying this message through the organisation and making sure everyone understands the potential is critical. It can be more costly to lose key divisional or regional leaders than to delay the completion of the project.
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New metrics
Banks need to evolve from a retail branch network view of reporting (product x segment) towards a multichannel view of the MIS (product x segment x channel X). Our multichannel survey demonstrated how few banks have an integrated, multichannel view, that their sales activities are not always transparent, and that the number of leads generated from digital channels is not always clear.
How to get started
The transformation journey requires action to harness all the energy and capabilities of the bank. There are many approaches, but having seen many initiatives fail, we believe pragmatism should be the guiding principle. We see a journey with three stages:
1. Create your own distribution 2015 vision
The vision needs to be articulated from three angles: the future distribution mix, cus- tomer experience opportunities and strategic orientation:
- Future distribution mix: What is the best blueprint for transactions, service and complaints as well as sales and advice.
- Customer experience. Key questions include: What are the Moments of Truth, and how can the bank create a “wow” effect? What are the biggest frustrations of clients? How can innovations lead to improvements in this area?
- Strategic posture: Does the bank want to be a shaper of innovation or more a follower? Which is the greater priority - cost reduction or increasing revenue?
From these three dimensions banks should incorporate several insights to develop their broader vision: the bank’s overall strategy, an understanding of the starting position and current customer base, some references to the competition and a definition of the target distribution blueprint.
2. Develop a portfolio of mini-transformations to deliver the vision
This stage is the most critical one for, in our experience; most organisations tend to get lost. The bank needs to select the most important things it wants to change so as to translate its vision into action by using the approaches described in the earlier sections of this article. Many of these mini-transformations will be projects in themselves. Based on our experience, a quick diagnostic is the most helpful way to ‘size the prize’ as well as to identify the key priority areas. A series of mini-transformations increases the chances of success and will deliver immediate benefits.
3. Lock in an integrated roadmap and execute
Once all the mini transformations have been sketched out they should be brought together again in an integrated transformation roadmap. Banks need to:
- Maintain and monitor the portfolio of mini-transformations
- Elaborate a high level business case for pursuing them and monitor progress
- Identify the implications for IT and Governance, and monitor accordingly
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We have reached an unavoidable turning point in the industry’s development that creates an opportunity for smart banks to differentiate themselves from their competitors. The question is not “will branches disappear?”, rather how can banks win and retain clients who are increasingly using multiple channels and serve them in a cost efficient way. Few banks have yet taken this seriously: on average less than 5% of retail product sales are handled online, and in the case of most players their full product range is not even available online. We believe banks therefore need to step up their game and radically transform their distribution model.
Download the report Retail bank distribution 2015—Full digitalization with a human touch (PDF—1.61 MB).