Customer experience in financial services: trends, strategies, and the future

Customer expectations for digital services have changed significantly, and financial institutions are facing growing pressure to provide experiences that are fast, intuitive, and personalized. For banks and insurers, improving customer experience requires more than optimizing individual touchpoints — it means combining customer-focused design with modern technologies, data-driven insights, and flexible digital solutions. 

In this article, we explore what defines a successful financial services customer experience and how organizations can build stronger relationships with customers through better digital interactions. We look at practical approaches such as MVP development, API-driven architectures, and pattern libraries that help financial services companies create consistent, scalable, and customer-focused experiences. 

Why customer experience is key in the financial industry 

Customer experience matters in financial services because it directly affects customer trust, loyalty, and retention. As digital interactions become a central part of the financial journey, customers expect financial institutions to provide experiences that are convenient, personalized, and consistent across every channel. According to Mastercard Business Intelligence’s research, 72% of banking customers consider personalization highly important, while 76% expect an omnichannel experience across their interactions with their bank. 

For financial services companies, meeting these expectations requires more than offering competitive financial products. Customers increasingly evaluate providers based on how easily they can access services, receive support, and complete tasks across digital and physical channels. A seamless experience across every customer interaction can become a key differentiator in a market where products and services are often similar. 

However, creating this level of experience remains challenging for many financial organizations. Legacy systems, fragmented data, and disconnected channels can make it difficult to understand customer behavior and deliver consistent interactions. This is why banks and insurers are focusing on customer-centric design, modern technology foundations, and approaches that allow them to continuously improve the financial services experience. 

How can financial institutions improve customer experience with MVPs? 

A positive customer experience depends on how well financial services companies understand and respond to customer needs. The MVP approach allows organizations to test digital solutions, collect customer feedback, and continuously improve products based on real user behavior. 

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the first version of a product or service that includes only the core features needed to deliver value to customers. Instead of developing a complete solution upfront, financial institutions can launch a simplified version, measure how customers interact with it, and introduce additional features based on real insights. This makes it easier to improve usability, reduce customer effort, and ensure that digital products align with customer expectations. 

This approach has two main advantages: 

• Development can be done agilely in manageable sprints, instead of implementing the waterfall method up to a predefined “version 1.0” 

• Feedback rounds and A/B tests can be used at any time to find out whether functions fulfill their purpose and are accepted 

In this way, it can be optimally ensured during development that the end product meets the customer’s requirements. 

The best combination of stability and modernity 

While an agile MVP approach helps financial institutions create and refine customer-focused solutions, it can also be challenging to implement within historically developed IT infrastructures. Enabling new systems such as mobile apps or customer websites to exchange data with legacy backend systems often requires significant adjustments. This is because these systems have traditionally prioritized stability, security, and compliance — all of which remain essential for maintaining reliable financial services. 

This is why they often reflect complex internal processes and organizational dependencies, something which often has negative consequences for the design of services for customers – in other words, for the customer experience. 

So, it is precisely the IT infrastructure from earlier waves of digitization which now presents companies with problems for further transformation. A common solution for this is to divide the systems into areas with clearly divided tasks: 

• The backend is responsible for server continuity, cost optimization and efficiency of the company 

• The frontend, on the other hand, is responsible for implementing new technologies and must adapt quickly and easily to new conditions 

Since both “IT worlds” are often very closely interwoven, it helps to separate them. This can be done with the help of a front-end layer or an API gateway between backend and frontend. It releases the rigid connection between the systems on both sides and replaces it with a flexible one. This technology can then serve as an independent development layer on the one hand, and provide interfaces for transferring data of all kinds between the two layers, on the other. In this way, systems in the background remain untouched, while the frontends intended for customers can be developed much more freely and quickly.

Usability, consistency and scalability with pattern libraries 

Usability, consistency and scalability are the three most important elements companies should focus on when developing new solutions for their customers. So-called pattern libraries are a powerful tool for this. They bring all front-end elements together in a single location (“Single Point of Truth”). In this way, graphical elements such as buttons or even entire menu bars can be used in a wide variety of contexts without much effort. Requirements such as defined behavior on different end devices are also reliably fulfilled. 

The use of pattern libraries thus also facilitates extensive projects such as the standardization of different web Poor Customer Experience Without C-level Support presences after a company acquisition. Thanks to the reusability of all elements, they make it easy to implement a consistent look and feel on all websites or apps of a brand, as they are always available as a reference for the design and development staff, and simplify communication. 

Pattern libraries also offer another major advantage: New employees can be integrated into an ongoing project much more easily. 

Poor customer experience without C-level support 

As requirements are constantly changing, it is even more important to be able to react quickly with tools such as pattern libraries. In this sense, digital products and services are never really “finished”, but always evolving. Therefore, it is unlikely that a development team that starts a project will finish it in the same constellation. 

Even if all technical requirements are optimally met and the best designers and developers are working on the project, one thing is still needed above all else to achieve success: strong support from top management. 

Recent banking research shows that financial institutions are continuing to prioritize digital transformation and customer-facing improvements. According to the Bank Leaders Priorities Survey, 92% of banks are prioritizing investment in customer-facing technology, while 46% identify integration with existing systems as a major challenge. This highlights that improving customer experience requires not only technology investments but also strategic decisions and coordination across the organization. 

Without executive support, CX initiatives can face challenges ranging from unclear ownership and limited resources to difficulties connecting customer needs with implementation. However, when executive management is involved, cooperation between business and IT benefits significantly, making it easier to deliver consistent and effective customer experiences. 

Ready to bring C‑level support to your customer experience initiatives? Contact us to learn how we can help. 

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Jan Webering

Former CEO at Avenga