With inflation, rising interest rates, and a flattening housing market – consumers have a lot to consider when they swipe their cards. And let’s face it, brands have been in a continual learning mode for over two years now. That’s why Kobie recently met up with key leaders in the FI industry to uncover the pain points they’re facing and how they’re leveraging loyalty and data throughout the member journey to make an impression.
Since many brands lost contact with consumers, or consumers changed channels in how they engaged, the brands’ ability to see the full scope of who the customer is and what behaviors they’ll do next became unpredictable. This shift forced many brands to start to refine and get smarter about data and what their actual plans are to measure impact. We heard a few themes bubble up from long-standing experts in the field as they brought real-life insights to the table.
Finding relevancy
We heard, “meeting people where they are is key” a few times and in a few different contexts. This is something that financial institutions and quite frankly, most brands, have had to navigate as consumer behaviors have shifted drastically. Banks are looking at consumer behavior and interests to see which loyalty levers can be pulled to provide the right mix of benefits and rewards. For example, many credit card issuers pulled back on travel and hospitality offers when mobilization seized and this forced them to fill in the gap with other partnerships that still provided relevancy for the member and met them where they were in their journey. We see this type of partnership a lot with redemption catalogs, where brands can feature different experiences based on consumer interests and accumulated data. This type of approach seems very much in sync too with what Kobie’s research study has identified – that consumers are craving choice from their loyalty programs – and partner offers can be a tool to meet that demand.
Humanizing digital
From logistical hurdles, like how to deposit a paper check (do people still use those?) to how to open a new savings account, going into a branch was not an option for a while and consumers had to figure out how to check things off their to-do lists with reduced resources. Enter, a focus on call centers and a need to bring the “That’s my bank, I’ve been going to that branch forever” feeling to a phone call without a face. Banks are reassessing the role of the call center and seeking ways to level up the convenience factor, like offering more self-serve functionality, while infusing some emotion into the experience.
Timeliness is everything
We talk about “moments that matter” throughout the journey and those moments are more important now than ever. Continuing to follow the member journey in its new state and learning new behaviors offers new opportunities to be more thoughtful when engaging. Brands are seeking ways to be thoughtfully timely with outreach based on these new behaviors and are bringing loyalty into the mix. One way that brands are doing this is by identifying ways to remind consumers about benefits that they may not use often but have natural ties back to a recent behavior or activity that just occurred – marrying timeliness and relevancy when it matters.
Whether it’s uncovering the new ratio of in-person vs digital experiences, or providing the right offers at the right time, banks are wading through the consumer data to find the formula that works best for their members so that they are consistently keeping them top of mind and meeting them where they are. Contact Kobie to learn more about how you can tap into unused data to help guide your member engagement and loyalty journey roadmaps.
