Is Customer Experience the silver bullet for younger customers’ engagement?

A few weeks ago, I was guest speaker at the International Customer Experience Summit, held in Barcelona. It was interesting confirming a real interest on beginning to improve the customer relationships, in industries such as Financial Services or Telecommunications.

Nevertheless, there is still a lot space for improvement in many services’ interactions. This is especially relevant for younger customers, used to new digital ways of connect. In an article of The Washington Post, different data confirm how non-competitors, such as telecom T-Mobile or Google could steal young customers from traditional banks. More than 70% of 18-34 US consumers would bank with non-financial company services. The new players could be in different industries: Amazon, Apple, Walmart, T-Mobile, Paypal or Square.

But, how would be a bank experience inspired by Starbucks or Apple? It might be simple and “design for people like me”. As an example of simple design, Vodafone is expanding its mobile payment solutions: M-Pesa. Launched as a basic mobile payment system in Kenya, now is being rolling out in Europe.

An example of human touch “for people like me”? For a few years, a medium US bank has been installing a different branch experience: Umpqua Bank. In a recent article, Forbes hightlights 3 key points of difference in their branches: obsession with the customer; human and friendly interactions, advisory and not intimidating; and employee empowerment to deliver them.

To highlight: strategic efforts to offer integrated and branded experiences.