The recent ‘Australia 2020 Customer Experience Index’ examined the Australian banking and superannuation industries and found that customer experience (CX) quality remains undifferentiated.

Forrester surveyed the customers of five banks –ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Suncorp, and Westpac – to determine how they perceive their experiences. According to the results, three of the four ‘big banks’ in Australia ranked very similarly, highlighting how Australian financial services firms struggle to differentiate with CX. Consumers reported that the banks have all been quick to adapt CX in response to the pandemic but did not go beyond just meeting customer expectations.

When it comes to the superannuation industry the scores of seven brands were compared: AMP, AustralianSuper, BT Financial, Colonial First State, MLC Australia, REST and Sunsuper. Similarly to the Australian banking industry, all funds fell within a range of just 6 percentage points when it came to CX. In contrast to the banking industry, the superannuation firms improved their industry average by 1.3 percentage points amid COVID-19, during which they experienced rapid regulatory changes that allowed customers A$15 billion in early fund releases.

According to the report, Suncorp and Colonial First State held the top banking and superannuation CX rankings respectively.

While digital interactions have risen in importance because of the pandemic shutdowns, data from Forrester indicates that in-person interactions still evoked the most positive emotions, which in turn leads to greater brand loyalty. 

“While digital interactions have risen in importance because of the pandemic shutdowns, our data indicates that in-person interactions still evoked the most positive emotions for both banking and superannuation customers,” said Riccardo Pasto, senior analyst at Forrester.

“When designing their customer journeys, financial services firms must prioritise a balanced experience with a hybrid approach of human interaction enabled by digital channels. Building emotional connections through digital experiences is key to improving CX and differentiating from your competitors.”

Forrester has a CX Index rankings tool that uses rich data to benchmark a brand’s CX performance against peers.

Photo by Erol Ahmed on Unsplash.