Bi-Direction Channel Banking, the Next Step in the Customer Experience

Omni-channel banking correctly places customers or members at the center of the banking experience. Allowing customers the ability to access multiple banking channels while providing the customer the ability to begin a transaction on one channel and complete the process where they left off on another banking channel is integral to the successful implementation of an omni-channel strategy. Bank and credit union customers are beginning to expect to be able to move between banking channels using a simple, intuitive, consistent and interactive user interface.

Successful implementing of an omni-channel banking experience may seem like the epitome of customer service success. It is not, it is only halfway there. The best customer experience can only occur if both the customer and the bank/credit union customer facing teams are on the same page, accessing the same information in real-time, without having to migrate through and between multiple banking systems. Financial products and services are often complex and numerous, resulting in many desperate banking systems that may or may not effectively communicate with each other. Middleware and a front-end UX system that can interface with these different systems and display the information in a user friendly, coherent manner is required for a bank or credit union to be able to deliver a successful customer or member omni-channel banking experience. 

Omni-channel banking is providing the customer or member with access to all banking channels in a seamless and unified manner. Providing BOTH customers and bank/credit union employees with access to all banking channels in a seamless and unified manner closes the service/user experience loop, which I call “bi-direction channel banking”.  

Bi-direction channel banking is the ultimate bank customer or credit union member user experience.  To create a truly great customer experience both the customer and the customer facing support team must have real-time access to a single user interface that allow them both to access the same data and information. Despite bank’s and credit union’s desire to create easy to use self-service products, transactions and services, invariably bank and credit union personnel have to interact with the customer to either resolve a problem, answers a question, provide advice or counsel, or assist with the process. Unlike online retail stores, financial products are often complex, require multiple decisions and product knowledge expertise.

Multiple banking systems are a fact of life for credit unions and banks. The complexity, processes, external transaction networks and regulation involved in banking makes having a single banking system impractical. Instead of focusing on a single system, embrace what each of these individual banking systems do, …. process and manage transactions. The vast majority of banking systems were developed for internal back-end use by bank or credit union staff. As the transition from brick and mortar banking to digital banking has evolved, those legacy banking system have not evolved with the change. As a result, credit unions and banks are trying to deploy customer/member facing banking systems that were designed to be back-end employee facing systems.

By focusing on the presentation layer and integration middleware layer, banks and credit unions have an opportunity to maximize their investment in existing banking systems, while being able to deploy bi-direction channel banking using customizable user experience (UX) presentation/middleware platform.  In order to deliver a seamless customer experience credit unions and banks need to deploy technology, re-organization, processes and training that are externally focused while closing the loop so employees and customers are working from the same playbook. The future of banking is bi-direction channel banking, the next step beyond omni-channel banking.