How many banks and insurance companies let social anthropologists move in with customers to better understand their needs? In the study that will be presented at the Fast Money vs. Slow Money Seminar which you can join here, Cognizant, together with partner ReD Associates, did just that to understand consumers better.
Overall, Nordic banks have been fairly quick to offer their customers digital and mobile solutions for transaction-intensive banking services. The focus is primarily on customer experience. But to what extent can you refine your customer experience without getting to know their customers in depth?
Fast money – and slow
Cognizant’s global study "The future of money" demonstrates the necessity of taking into account the customers’ entire life cycle. Traditional banking services, such as fixed money, interact with long-term investments, like mortgage money and pension (“slow money”). And the players who are best at reaching their customers with information and advice, both in the short and long term, can get a second to an unintelligible head start.
“The real challenges are to be agile and flexible despite being in a system park that is not built to work,” says Mats Johard, head of Cognizant in the Nordic region. “This is where players like us are needed. Not only because we have the technology and have customer insights, but also to support the banks and insurance companies in the cultural journey they need to do.”
The world is catching up
In the past, there has been quite a big difference in how technically mature a country’s financial market is, against others. But the gaps are being bridged in a way that eventually creates a global marketplace for boundless services and products.
“For example, in Africa, we have skipped several development steps we’ve gone through,” says Mats Johard. “They simply do not have time to take them. Instead, they immediately jumped into mobile banking and e-payments that gained momentum earlier than in many Western European countries. Working together with all these players around the world makes us very well suited to fulfill all possible needs before, during and beyond digitalization.”
Want to hear more about 3,074 consumers' relationship to money and banking?Join Cognizant Snapshot Breakfast 22 June in Copenhagen
