Investments in Omni Channel banking have been focusing on traditional and commonly known media such as mobile, web, branches, paper, email and ATMs. These strategies have no doubt brought tremendous advances in customer experience, operating cost synergies and marketing effectiveness. However, with recent industry evolution, the definition of channels is changing. Previously largely ignored in the integrated multi-channel marketing strategy, aspects such as cross industry partnerships (retail, non-profits, airlines etc.) and changing payments landscape (mobile, web, intermediaries etc.) present significant opportunities.

My premise is that these emerging customer engagement trends must be viewed from the perspective of a Customer Ecosystemin order to survive. How should financial services organizations alter their strategies to attract and retain relevantaudience that can drive the core business?

My simple framework measures the potential of customer engagement by classifying the needs and content strategy.

For example, if seen from an industry perspective, on the high end of the spectrum are relationship based industries such as financial services (consumer banking, insurance, cards). On the other end of the spectrum we see industries such as packaged goods that must work much harder to achieve deeper and persistent customer interaction.  The underlying rationale is that industries with a higher index have a customer relationship created by default (e.g. an account). This initial relationship can then be cultivated for improving customer life time value.  Companies with a lower index rely on brand awareness, promotions and emotional connections to receive preferential share of mind. In this model it is also evident that promotional strategies are influenced by the positioning on the customer interaction spectrum.

The fact that banking inherently enjoys a high Customer Interaction index is proving ineffective in this digital age. Payment upstarts with new payment models and the rise of new age online banking models are all threating the once robust banking model.

Customer engagement must then further be measured (and enhanced) by the extent of the customer ecosystem that is linked to you. How are you enhancing your position as a hub of not only deposit, investment and payments but also lifestyle choices? The framework thus extends to capture categories of engagement across the customer personas.