Increasingly digital, the banking customer has now become fully familiar with the management of advanced methods of contact and relationship with their bank. In 2017, the share of users who use the Internet or mobile banking reached 62% of total customers, equal to approximately 18 million Italians. This is what emerges from the survey carried out by ABI in collaboration with GfK. Carried out on a representative sample of bank customers, the survey will be presented during the Abi #ILCLIENTE conference.
The digitization of banking customers has shown a great acceleration in the last 5 years: customers who use the web to access banking services have moved from 43% of 2012 to 62% of the end 2017.
Customer needs, digitalization challenges and sustainable development, these are the main themes from which the #ILCLIENTE conference will start, the new appointment that the Italian Banking Association is dedicating to the relationship between bank and retail customer, which will open in Milan on April 9th.
Digital creates a new proximity to the customer
In the conference we will discover how, with the convergence between the digital and physical worlds, the bank customer becomes “phy-gital” (from the union of the words Physical and Digital) and therefore able to move flexibly between the various bank channels. Multichannel strengthens customer experience and satisfaction, and expands contact opportunities: 43% of customers come into contact with the bank every two days or even more often (it was 37% in 2016). This intensity of contact makes it possible to create a new proximity with the customer which helps to strengthen the appreciation for the bank and the relationship of trust. In fact, this year customer satisfaction records levels of satisfaction that have never been so high: almost 9 out of 10 customers express a positive opinion on their bank of reference.
The challenges of digital transformation
Digital transformation is a key lever for the bank's innovation strategy to meet future challenges. The contemporary effects of the numerous regulatory innovations (and above all of Psd2) and the change in customer buying behavior open up new competitive scenarios, which require banks to make strategic choices in the near future. According to the Abi-GfK survey, a young person on 3 shows interest in the offer of banking and financial services by new technology operators; 1 on 2 if we refer to the only band of advanced young people who use internet banking.
Sustainability creates value for communities
The collective sensitivity towards a business activity that is compatible with environmental and social needs and that contributes to sustainable development is growing more and more. The banking world has been active on the issues of corporate social responsibility for over 10 years. In this context, the biennial Abi ESG Benchmark 2017 survey, which will be presented at the #ILCLIENTE conference, confirms the strong commitment of banks in the development of sustainability policies and in the integration of environmental, social and governance factors in their strategy. Almost all of the survey sample (93%) in fact declared that the bank's strategy takes into consideration environmental, social and governance issues to better manage the impacts, risks and opportunities associated with its business. 81% of the sample identified the most significant initiatives already underway consistent with the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, the international project promoted by the United Nations to collaborate in the construction of a more inclusive global economy and sustainable also through business practices. Again according to the survey, 95% of the sample is also developing new initiatives useful for achieving them.