Acquiring a new customer is up to 25 times as expensive as retaining an existing one, according to Harvard Business Review. That makes the fourth and final phase of the cardholder lifecycle, retention, extremely important to banks. By reinforcing card value proposition and proactively addressing potential causes of churn, banks can reduce their costs while also building loyalty.
Every day, more and more credit and debit card transactions take place without a customer ever touching their card. From Venmo to Apple Pay, bigtech and fintech players are launching services that erode banks’ interface with customers, making it harder than ever for financial institutions to build and maintain brand loyalty.
Usage is generally the stage of the cardholder lifecycle where the bank recoups acquisition costs and generates the most revenue. When a customer is fully onboarded and credit card usage is happening on a regular basis, banks enjoy steady revenue, especially if the customer has set profitable primary-card habits as discussed in my last post on activation and early month on book (EMOB).
The period after acquisition is high stakes for banks. On average, only 57% of new customers activate their cards after receiving them in the mail. That means nearly half of new cards remain unactivated and unused, with no way for banks to recoup acquisition costs. For customers who do activate, their behaviors during their first 60-90 days with the card, also known as the EMOB, sets usage patterns that will last the lifetime of the relationship, for better or for worse.
Customers expect every activity to be as frictionless as searching on Google or buying those new sunglasses on Amazon — and their expectations extend to financial services. Innovation within the industry teaches customers to expect hyper-personalized experiences with insights, recommendations and offers tailored specifically to them.
When we talk about business disruption, it’s all too easy for the overused and entirely vague nature of the term to turn what should be important conversations about change into a string of empty buzzwords amounting to counterproductive discourse. “Reimagined” airport lounges that just have new carpets, “disruptive” Instagram-first chinos with no perceivable difference —
On October 10th, we hosted the 2nd annual Flybits Airshow. This year’s show took place in New York and attracted an audience of senior level executives and experts in financial services. Whereas the 2018 Airshow, which took place in Toronto, focused on how AI was making headway across a number of sectors like insurance, wealth…
When it comes to methods for carrying out everyday financial transactions, consumers are spoiled for choice, with a plethora of newer digital payment methods on offer. The problem is that many of these methods make the underlying transaction invisible, removing banks from the customer interface. Digital wallets, online subscription services, and P2P payment apps are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to offerings that let consumers transact without seeing or thinking about the underlying cards or bank accounts they’re using.
Customers expect every activity to be as frictionless as searching on Google or buying those new sunglasses on Amazon — and their expectations extend to financial services. Innovation within the industry teaches customers to expect hyper-personalized experiences with insights, recommendations and offers tailored specifically to them.
Technology advancements and the proliferation of consumer apps have created a new customer experience paradigm, where customers expect interactions to be simple, intuitive, and seamlessly connected across physical and digital environments. In banking, the branch is no longer at the center of customer engagement — the “center” is the consumer themselves.
