A significant number of customers consider themselves mobile bank users these days, completing tasks like cashing checks, transferring funds and paying bills via website or app. In fact, 75 percent of Millennials self-identify as at least “somewhat reliant” on a mobile banking app. Still, these customers haven’t necessarily given up on more traditional banking channels. A 2016 Gallup survey shows that 79 percent of mobile banking users have also visited a physical branch in the last six months, and 84 percent have visited an ATM. Separate research found that for every 100 mobile interactions, there’s an average decline of only 16 branch interactions.

This means that to create the best possible experience for your customers, every aspect of your services needs to be faultlessly, digitally integrated.

Now that we’ve made it to the fifth and final stage of assessing digital transformation for your organization, it’s time to tie together all the offerings you’ve built along the way – informational customer service at your physical locations, transactional self-service, a personalized mobile web experience and mobile app engagement – into a holistic, intuitive digital brand your customers can  engage with easily and reliably.

This higher level of transformation is known comprehensively as the omnichannel – and it’s also the fifth stage of digital transformation. More than a buzzword, focus on the omnichannel is vital to success.

According to Invesp Marketing, “companies with omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain on average 89% of their customers, compared to 33% for companies with weak omnichannel customer engagement.” Perhaps that’s why earlier this summer, one major American bank invested in a seasoned customer experience veteran to lead its omnichannel experience team.

And contrary to the digital transformation a strong omnichannel can lead to, omnichannel development isn’t really a technological undertaking – it’s a customer experience undertaking. After all, the omnichannel succeeds when every other piece of the customer experience and every interaction, from the bank branch to the mobile app, works together seamlessly.

For example, an omnichannel experience could allow a customer to quickly make a branch appointment with a representative about a new investment opportunity from their smart phone, chat with a remote advisor from their laptop, or withdraw funds from an ATM and see the transaction immediately in their personalized mobile app.

Answer these questions to assess your organization’s stage five progress toward true digital transformation:

·         Can you get a single view of your customers, so you can best serve them and easily recognize high-value customers?

·         Can a customer access a single view of their accounts – including savings, checking, credit cards and investments – all in one place?

·         Do you ask customers if it’s okay to save information so you can personalize communications and they don’t have to resubmit info when applying for a new product or service?

If you answered yes to all three of these questions, you’ve achieved innovative status and can consider your organization on the forefront of the customer experience in the realm of digital transformation. If you answered no, take heart. Because you’ve put the effort into your branches, self-service capabilities, mobile web offering and mobile app optimization, you already have all the building blocks you need to deliver a world-class customer experience, redesign the organization and operations of digital banking, and reinvent the bank of the future. From here, the sky – and the cloud – is the limit.

Ready to learn more? Download your free copy of Banking on a Digital Future: A Guide to Digital Transformation in Banking.