Top Ten Issues Facing Banks Today – What They Can Learn from Retailers

By Steve Schmidt
The banking industry continues to go through turmoil, and the pressure’s building up on all sides. Beyond regulatory scrutiny and competitive stress from both inside and outside the industry, customer demands aren’t letting up. Driven by today’s digital, on-demand, anytime world, customers are more likely to have financial relationships with multiple providers and often less likely to engage in face-to-face interactions with their bankers. Even so, just like in the world of retail, the expectation for a personal, positive overall experience hasn’t gone away.
In fact, banks and credit unions can learn a lot about how to tackle today’s biggest challenges by taking a page from what the best retailers in the world do so well. Here’s a look at some of the major trends facing financial services organizations today, along with a few examples from the retail environment.
Personalization. Will that be half-caf, soy milk, vanilla flavored and sugar free? Customers