Banks are struggling on UX, allowing fintechs to eat their lunch

Customer user experience is lagging in the financial sector.

Financial services companies in Europe are struggling to offer users a good online experience, research commissioned by IT firm Claranet found.

Around 47 per cent of respondents said their organisations were stagnating because they were not keeping pace with competitors digital solutions or offerings. Many also feel that IT departments need to do more to focus on customer experience- around 84 per cent of the 138 IT and digital decision makers said their firms weren’t doing enough when it comes to UX.

“Digital disruption has provided an opening for nimble fintechs and other start-up challengers to out manoeuvre incumbents,” said Jason Zimmer, a fintech specialist at Claranet. “One area in which they’re often able to take advantage of digital technology is in customer experience, where many financial services businesses are not meeting the modern consumer’s digital-savviness and intolerance of inconvenience.”

This lack of digital interface progress at firms is likely due to the out-dated view of IT departments as the cost centre, said Zimmer. However, technological advances means that firms are going to have to start prioritising IT departments and getting them involved in more initiatives.

“Reliable infrastructure and maintaining basic IT functions is vital for organisational success, but there’s often no reason why this should not be outsourced to third-party specialists, allowing the IT department to refocus on what it does best – creating value for the company through the effective use of technology,” Zimmer said.

A key distinction among digital firms, such as robo-advice firms, is their interactive and easy to use customer experience.

If you’re interested in finding out more about UX experience and how to use it to grow your customer base, check out the Wealth Tech Summit on 3 October.