Omnichannel: Excellence in customer and advisory services
How regional banks can hold their own against (digital) competitors in the retail banking business.
Rising volumes, shrinking margins, digital competition and changing customer needs – our market analysis shows: these are just some of the challenges that regional banks need to master in order to remain competitive. What are the decisive success factors? We have identified four key building blocks for banks to make their retail business fit for the future by 2030:
Providing excellent services and advice: customers expect convenient digital services and advice across all sectors. Regional banks need to meet these requirements not only in their apps. Channel synchronicity and multilingual availability of all processes are important factors.
Strengthening digital channels: the regional banks’ DNA – strong personal advice – should be expanded to include digital channels. In other European countries, regional banks are already generating large revenues via digital channels, while German regional banks have so far not sufficiently integrated them into their sales strategies.
Retaining young customers: on average, each retail customer offers income potential of around EUR 15,000 over their entire lifetime. Leveraging this potential starts in the 30+ age group, where regional banks are losing market share to competitors. Despite the risk of around 33% of young people changing their bank, regional banks invest too little to retain this target group in the long term.
Strengthening geographical coverage: regional banks should regard their branch network as a unique selling point that sets them apart from their digital competitors. New ways of combining the strengths of humans and technology as well as a sensible integration of the branch network in cross-channel customer journeys are required to ensure cost-efficient geographical coverage.
