Is Your Bank in Need of an Experience Makeover?

That’s what Anne Pascual, a design director at IDEO, a global design and consulting firm, said in a recent interview with Wired UK – and we’re in full agreement at Kobie.

This is a topic we explored  in our coverage of GoBank, the first online bank geared toward Millennials and their mobile devices; turning banking – a traditionally subdued transaction-based experience – into something more engaging and exciting, mimicking loyalty program success in other verticals.

This concept of traditional banks opening up creative new avenues to give customers a more engaging experience is at the core of Pascual’s observations and suggestions for financial institutions.

Most fascinating was Pascual’s discussion of experience-driving technology as related to the “social nature of value systems.” While her answer holds up Kickstarter and Kiva as examples of collaborative consumption and skill sharing, these are also the same types of innovative loyalty program additions ripe for banks to embrace – not just in the mobile and online space, but in the brick-and-mortar world too.

Central to most consumers’ banking experiences is the notion of saving, spending and earning money as well as long-term planning goals. Imagine an innovative bank loyalty program that combined those efforts with social media, allowing members to communicate with their bank, participate in fun gamified promotions and share budgeting tips with friends and family. And imagine if this program delivered a seamless, effortless and engaging experience across all channels.

In that case, advanced technology could, ironically, make the modern banking experience more like it used to be in the mid-20^th Century, when people knew their local bankers and their local bankers knew them. It also creates an endless data stream that can help banks and other verticals leverage customer information to find what combinations of social, cognitive and emotional factors drive desired financial outcomes. Just as other verticals have embraced the power of technology to drive new loyalty experiences, banks, armed with suggestions from experts like Anne Pascual and those at Kobie, are breaking new ground.