Where once banks were among our most trusted institutions and brands, the decade following the global financial crisis has seen that trust all but dissolve.
Our relationships with money and our financial health and wellbeing remain profoundly personal, but increasingly we have suspected that our financial partner no longer has our best interests at heart.
Where historically banks reciprocated our trust by opening branches in our communities and through staff that knew us and understood our needs; branch closures, industry consolidation, tech and digitisation has put distance between bank and customer.
Add that to the consumer disillusionment with the sector in the wake of the global economic crisis, and our relationships with bank brands are now purely of necessity.
Consumer trust in financial institutions is languishing
CSpace’s Customer, Experienced benchmark report has highlighted these relationship issues repeatedly since it began five years ago. Banking brands have continually languished in the bottom third of the industry chart when it comes to CXC (customer experience) scores.