The importance of fintech partnerships

At a time when customer expectations are increasing rapidly, it is more important than ever for financial businesses to offer good experiences. Other industries, such as tourism and e-commerce, are on track to deliver quick results, and it is crucial that financial enterprises are not left behind.

Offering smart, data-driven digital experiences will build strong customer relationships. This not only increases time-to-value and time-to-market, but also helps financial institutions remain as customers’ most important financial providers.

Moreover, fully engaged customers provide significant benefits. According to Gallup, personal customers who are fully engaged contribute 37% more annual income to the primary bank than customers who are actively disconnected. These highly engaged customers also tend to have more products with the bank and maintain higher deposit balances in their accounts.

The Digital Banking Reports Retail Banking Trends and Priorities 2023 revealed that collaboration with fintech companies and third-party solution providers has enabled 60% of financial institutions to meet customers’ digital banking needs.

Unfortunately, many financial institutions are struggling to keep up with changing expectations. They often lack a deep understanding of their customers’ needs and do not have the necessary digital expertise to exploit them. Part of the reason why they cannot provide effective personalization is that they do not capture or analyze relevant data. Without it, marketing and customer success teams are unable to identify usage trends and customer insights that they can build on to deliver better customer experiences.

To solve this problem, some financial institutions are partnering with technology companies that focus on digital technologies and customer engagement. These partnerships help them combine their industry knowledge with digital expertise to create AI-based customer-focused platforms that deliver rich, personalized experiences.

Improving customer engagement is another major challenge for many financial firms. But this creates its own challenge: delivering highly personalized experiences while delivering a consistent brand experience, on a large scale. This is almost impossible without the necessary technology and systems.

Improving customer engagement also requires a shift in thinking, from the traditional product-focused approach to a customer-focused one. When done right, this change in focus allows financial institutions to find new growth opportunities by offering more immediate and future value to customers.

The most successful partnerships will be those that focus on design-led platforms, have proven results, show a bias towards execution and offer short-term, fixed-price innovation contracts. By collaborating in this way, financial institutions can enrich their customer experiences with valuable data and experiences, and accelerate time-to-market for their innovative services.

Building partnerships on a global scale is not without its challenges. Steep value adjustments, increased commercial scrutiny and changing investment timelines are just a few. But financial data and analytics leaders must continue to emphasize the importance of data and intelligence in customer experiences. Innovative digital development platforms empower financial businesses to deliver reliable, personalized information about their customers’ financial futures.

Financial businesses that strategically collaborate with specialists in digital technology and customer engagement will be better equipped to meet customers’ ever-increasing expectations.