You already know that building trust is absolutely essential in a heavily regulated industry like financial services. So why do so many fintech customers end up feeling misled?
Often, it’s because fintech marketing teams are selling digital experiences that don’t actually exist. And they have no idea they’re doing it.
It’s alarming to think you may be deceiving your customers – even unwittingly – but it’s a more common scenario than you think. The reality is: If you don’t intentionally create avenues of communication and collaboration between your sales and marketing teams and your product teams, you unintentionally over-promise or under-deliver. And that leaves your customer experience disjointed and disappointing.
Here’s how the bait-and-switch happens, and how to prevent it.
Why does the communication breakdown happen to begin with?
The saying “keep your own counsel” may work in a courtroom, but not in financial services. Whether you’re in marketing, engineering, or IT, people tend to be pretty tight-lipped or downright territorial when it comes to sharing information across departments.
However, the lack of communication can be unintentional, too. People work with their heads down most of the time. They’re so single-minded in their objectives that they forget to share them with the broader organization. Either way, reticence won’t work for a successful business strategy.
Failure to communicate doesn’t just hurt your team — it undermines the entire customer experience
Creating avenues of communication between departments may only seem like an internal issue but it has a profound effect on how your customer experiences your products. Effective communication can go a long way in instilling confidence in your brand.
One common area where a lack of communication can erode customer trust is your digital product’s functionality and updates. The more features and customer entry points in a complex digital experience, the more opportunities there are for gaps and inconsistent messaging. Add siloed communication between departments, and you get a convoluted customer experience (CX) that’s hard to untangle.
But apart from new features and updates, your digital product needs to back up what your marketing and sales team says it does. That’s not easy when developers and designers don’t know what’s been promised. For example, say you’re a potential homebuyer who recently contacted a bank for a mortgage loan. The bank promises a seamless digital experience — a far cry from most borrowers’ typically stressful, tear-out-your-hair loan application process. But when you get to the underwriting portion of the experience, you can’t upload your files. The site’s performance lags. And the bank loses some of your personal financial information.
Do you trust this company anymore? Probably not. The gaps and inconsistencies in the experience completely erode your confidence that you’ve partnered with a safe lender who has your back.
In an industry that runs on complex exchanges of sensitive data, trust is everything. And reliable and accurate messaging is crucial to building and maintaining that trust. If your sales and marketing teams promise a seamless experience, your developers and designers better deliver, or you risk losing customers altogether.
3 ways to improve communication and alignment around your financial services digital product
To provide a seamless CX, it is essential that all teams are aligned on the product vision — and the reality of that vision. Here’s where to start.
1. Loop everyone in on new products and features
If your product team doesn’t communicate with your marketing team about new products, updates, and features, your messaging to your customer base won’t be accurate. We’ve seen companies market defunct or outdated products simply because no one on the product team thought to send a company-wide email.
The solution is simple: revamp your communication strategy. Email or devoted Slack channels can help keep all teams informed and aligned in their efforts, effectuating better CX because sales and marketing know what type of experience they’re selling — and its value.
2. Roadmap your product
Roadmapping isn’t just for product teams. Sales and marketing should be included in your roadmapping process to fully understand the connection between what they’re marketing to the customer, and what the customer actually experiences.
3. Include customer insight to validate experiences
Focusing on marketing and sales efforts alone is not enough for a successful digital product strategy. You must invest in improving your customer experience to ensure your products and services deliver on the promises made in marketing campaigns. You can ramp up paid ads and drive as many leads as much as possible, but if you’re overselling a digital experience that doesn’t deliver, your customers will eventually figure it out and drop the service.
A customer insights program can continually test and validate your end-to-end experience with new and existing customers to guarantee that what they see is actually what they get.
O3 has strategies to get your teams talking
You now know the importance of intentionality when it comes to communicating and building trust — not just with your customers, but within your organization. Nevertheless, a lot of companies find it difficult to maintain avenues of communication without a partner to keep them organized and accountable. We’d love to help.
O3 is a digital product consultancy that specializes in financial services. We foster alignment among internal stakeholders that are crucial to building a seamless customer experience.
Curious how we can help your organization collaborate on must-have fintech? Reach out.