3 customer insight program strategies to build essential digital financial services products

Creating an iterative, ongoing process to understand your financial services customers is the cornerstone of successful digital products. In fact, it can make or break the future of your entire organization, which depends on knowing (and meeting) customer needs. 

Yet you may find yourself designing products based not on customer feedback, but on directives from your c-suite or a tech team excited to build their version of the hottest fintech on the market. Their visions aren’t necessarily the wrong direction to take. In fact, sometimes they’re table stakes. After all, to compete with other financial services companies, your enterprise is obligated to provide a certain product or feature. But that doesn’t mean you won’t run into major trouble if the voice-of-customer isn’t part of your process, too.

A customer insight program is one of the easiest ways to prevent this. Iterative products are instrumental in establishing trust in your brand. Customers will feel like they’re in the driver’s seat, informing products that are actually built for them. 

Here are our best practices for a successful customer insight program.

1. Set screeners to reach a wide range of customers within your target market

Most teams start with a benchmark survey, or screeners, to get a baseline of customer feedback. This survey answers the questions you may have about customers’ perceptions of your product and which digital products provide value to them. However, to create products that truly serve everyone, adjust your screeners to include all groups within your target market. 

For example, your screeners can focus on anything from a variety of income ranges or accessibility modifications within your market. If your mailing list can’t provide you with users who meet these specifications, get creative. At O3, we work with community organizations who help get our clients’ products in front of a wider audience of people with varying levels of financial literacy.

Surveys need to account for all levels of financial literacy

Many customers find financial products intimidating. The terminology itself can feel like a barrier to entry, especially if the customer already feels stymied by their financial situation. Making matters worse is there’s no shortage of predatory financial services companies ready to take advantage of people with low financial literacy. Customers have a right to be on their guard.

When designing user tests or surveys, use language all of your customers can understand and provide context in easily digestible increments. It will go a long way in making your customers feel both secure and included in the conversation — and give you more accurate responses.

Here’s a real-life example about what it means to be more inclusive. We’ve conducted A/B tests with clients who provide stock options to their employees, but the employees’ understanding of those options vary depending on their background and role within their organization. What these companies come to realize is that a rising tide lifts all ships. They must meet their employees where they are in their financial literacy to improve their overall experience.

2. Dig deep into your data

There’s more to your metrics than meets the eye. Say you decide to change the language on a navigation item on your website to improve clicks. And you do see an increase in clicks after changing the item. Clicks are a good sign, right? 

Not necessarily. 

Clicks can be a sign of customer engagement, sure, but they’re just as likely to be a sign of customer frustration. How do you know whether the customer is clicking around navigation because they’re positively engaging with your site? Start by looking at other data points on your site to contextualize the higher click rate. If your click rate is increasing,but  your bounce rate is, too, you’ve got a problem. Sure, more people may have navigated to the page you wanted them to, but the information or experience they encountered once they got there didn’t answer their questions.  

Accounting for this in your customer insight program can fill in the blanks. Create an A/B test and change the language of a navigation item. Then you can measure how that improves your bounce rate. And don’t forget moderated usability testing. Recorded sessions where you witness your customers navigate your website can reveal what their expectations are and if you’re meeting them.

3. Prototyping should be iterative

Once you understand the gaps and opportunities in your CX, build a prototype. Prototyping saves you time and money you would otherwise spend on a lengthy development cycle. With prototyping, you can quickly ascertain whether a new feature or product is viable before you invest millions in development. 

You don’t need to build your prototype to fidelity; however, a well-run customer insight program is likely to generate a high-fidelity model. So your prototype should be flexible enough that you can test different aspects of a product in small doses and receive feedback as you develop. 

The Agile development methodology

Instead of launching all your new features and products simultaneously, try an agile approach. In Agile development, you continuously build new products in small increments and user testing occurs throughout the process. It’s an iterative way to develop new products and deliver value to your customers quickly. 

Honing one feature and launching it gradually is a more efficient, low-stakes method to test products and improve your CX. Otherwise, if you launch everything all at once, you won’t be as likely to pinpoint gaps and opportunities in your customer journey. All your new features will create a flood of information, and parsing it all out is sure to frustrate both your customer—and your product team.

Digital financial services consultants can keep your insight program on track

Teams are often more receptive to hearing customer feedback through a third party. If your voice-of-customer gets drowned out by your executive team or tech department, a digital consultant can help you make sure the customer gets the last word. 

O3 is a consultancy in digital financial services products with more than a decade of experience. Our customer insight program is a well-oiled machine at this point. We deliver the results you need to improve your overall CX, increase ROI, and boost your brand loyalty.

Interested in learning more? Reach out to our team.