Consumers around the globe expect their banks to act and interact more like top technology brands. Our latest global consumer survey on digital banking reveals where the gaps are—and what banks can do to meet heightened expectations.

Today, many consumers have a stronger emotional connection with leading technology brands than they have with their primary banks. If banks want to keep up, they will have to engineer the digital experience they offer to make these emotional connections which can ultimately translate into sticky interactions and more profitable customers.

In May 2018, Deloitte surveyed 17,100 banking consumers across 17 countries to measure the current state of digital engagement. The results confirmed findings that we have observed in other Deloitte studies: Consumers’ overall satisfaction with their primary banks is generally high. Nearly two-thirds of consumers in our global sample are either completely satisfied or very satisfied with their primary bank. But this measures emotional engagement with broad strokes; it does not paint a full picture of customer satisfaction. Consumers feel best-in-class digital service providers including Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung, and Microsoft, outperform banks in providing quality, convenience, and value via an exceptional digitally driven consumer experience.

Our study indicates that consumers are ready for a higher level of digital engagement from their banks. This clearly presents an opportunity for banks; if they can improve their digital offerings, they could increase customer engagement.

Of course, many consumers already interact with digital banking channels quite frequently, which is a highly positive development. Our study found 86 percent of consumers use branches or ATMs to access their primary bank; 84 percent use online banking; and 72 percent use mobile apps to access their primary bank. But tellingly, digital channels are used more frequently than branches and ATMs across all generations, and in all countries. While the frequency of digital channel usage is a positive sign, there is an important distinction to make here regarding quantity versus quality of interactions. Digital channels are mostly limited to informational and transactional services while consumers still prefer traditional channels for complex or advisory services, however. Of the respondents who filed a complaint with their bank, 42 percent used contact centres, 26 percent used branches, and only 30 percent used digital channels (online or mobile). The trend is also true for applying for new products, especially loans that require multiple verification and documentation steps. And although few banks allow their customers to apply for a consumer unsecured term loan or small business loan through digital means, fintechs have been allowing this for almost a decade. For the most part, retail banks still require human intermediaries and cumbersome nondigital documents to process loan applications.

Further, banks’ “pull” approach versus a “push” approach to digital service could be standing in the way of creating emotionally engaging digital interactions. Today’s consumers still come to the bank’s platform to meet their needs— be it monitoring account details or understanding their spending patterns— and banks tend to react to their needs. Meanwhile, fintechs have shown a better way to digitally engage consumers through a “push” strategy that includes sending them intelligent, tailored insights based on their spending behaviour or notifying them about discounts or loyalty offers at nearby retailers.

Although banks have made the important step of making the login process easier by having mobile devices remember information in a secure manner, they can invoke more push strategies, such as providing customers with alerts regarding unusual movement in their accounts.

For more information, read the full global report