Finovate Spring 2021: U.S. Bank’s customer centric digital transformation.

It’s been an exciting week at Finovate, a 4-day conference with 1,100+ senior FinTech attendees discussing the future of banking and financial services. 

Michael Hanson, Regional VP of Banking & Financial Services at Quantum Metric, spoke with Michael Heimkes, AVP of Customer & Employee Experience Systems at U.S. Bank, about the nuances and challenges to digital transformation within the financial services. The conversation centered around how U.S. Bank drives proactive decisions with customer centric data democratization with the help of Quantum Metric, the Continuous Product Design platform.

U.S. Bank’s digital transformation has focused on enhancing the consumer or employee experience. As just one example of their success, the bank has tripled the number of account openings by “tripling down on teams becoming engaged in all things digital experience.” For the bank, that means developing a better understanding of how customers and employees interact with mobile applications, websites, and other digital channels.

The bank takes a “customer centric approach,” which has evolved over the years. According to Heimkes, “We always heard of customers first and always ‘be listening,’ but it’s really evolved over time with the technology we’ve deployed, the partnerships we’ve made, especially with Quantum Metric.”

Partnering with Quantum Metric.

With Quantum Metric, digital teams at the bank can quickly identify problems that are affecting large user segments and watch individual session replay sessions “to see exactly what clients did,” Heimkes explained. This helps teams identify problems that arise from technical errors, as well as clumsy designs, broken buttons, and other issues.

The best part? Quantum Metric quantifies the business impact of each issue, so the bank can populate their backlogs with items that will have the greatest impact on KPIs such as conversion rate and revenue. “You can actually quantify what that impact is on your bottom line,” Heimkes explained. 

When an API isn’t working properly, for instance, the problem is immediately escalated as a ticket. If something causes conversion rates to suddenly plummet in a new workflow, Quantum Metric alters teams of the problem before it impacts more users. 

For U.S. Bank, Quantum Metric has enabled continuous iteration, continuous improvement, and baseline agility. The bank’s digital team has been able to more effectively build digital products that reduce friction for both employees and customers while benefiting the business, according to Heimkes.

“I think you basically just described Continuous Product Design,” Hanson said, referring to how U.S. Bank has incorporated Quantum Metric’s unique methodology to build, enhance, and launch digital products. After all, it’s all about “using the employee and customer experiences to build and innovate products,” Heimkes explained.

Branchless experiences.

Towards the end of the keynote Hanson and Heimkes also discussed what the rise of FinTech technology has meant for retail banks, especially for how people interact with in-person branches. 

“We look for different ways to build empathy even without the storefront,” Heimkes said. The pandemic prompted the bank to evaluate different limits for different virtual deposits and other transactions, especially for clients who were at high risk or immunocompromised. To help clients manage their banking needs, the bank “deployed a small assistant technology that talks back to you.” 

Digital channels have also boosted in-person engagement. U.S. Bank clients can now schedule in-person appointments ahead of time, as well as read resources about more sensitive topics, such as securing a home mortgage or commercial loans.

The customer experience will continue evolving over time, and with the help of Quantum Metric, U.S. Bank will be ready to continuously improve it. 

Watch the full recording here: