Episode summary 

Digital transformation is here for the long haul, and businesses that want to stay afloat must go through it. But in conservative industries like finance, change comes with many challenges, especially if the executive team is not open to innovation and is worried about the effect it might have.  

So it’s critical to keep the conversation about entering and conquering the digital space alive. The more information financial institutions have, the more confident they’ll feel about taking that step. After all, people spend more time online and want to access various products and services there.  

In this episode of CX Education, Christopher Young, the Director of Industry Strategy & Marketing for Financial Services at Adobe, joins our host Heather Share to discuss customer experience in the digital space, primarily in finance. 

 Chris discusses the challenges financial institutions face when establishing the tools, processes, and channels for client-company communication. He also talks about the importance of being where your customers are and communicating with younger generations, as that’s the path to growing your customer base in the future.
 
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Guest-at-a-glance 

💡 Name: Christopher Young 

💡 What he does: Christopher is the director of industry strategy & marketing for financial services at Adobe. 

💡 Company: Adobe 

💡 Noteworthy: As he describes it, Christopher's role includes conversations with the company's financial services customers, the branch banks, insurers and management firms. Christopher is an experienced marketing professional with an extensive background in cross-channel marketing, customer acquisition, customer segmentation, brand management, and creative development. 

💡 Where to find Christopher: LinkedIn 

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Key insights 

⚡Create an environment where customers feel comfortable communicating their finance-related plans, doubts, and concerns. The increased use of technology and the internet has influenced customers' preferences and reshaped their needs. Financial institutions that want to stay relevant in the market and continue to grow must stay atop innovations and make the most of the digital channels available. That way, they become part of the entire customer journey: prior to, during, and after a purchase. After all, when clients feel their needs are heard, they are more likely to stay with a particular organization. ''The key thing for financial services is loyalty. And loyalty has been put at risk with a lot of everything — the pandemic, digital entrance, all of these things. So that puts a lot of pressure on our financial services customers. There was a huge change in journeys.'' 

⚡The quality of customer experience depends on how fast you can adapt to change. Asked how he would rank financial institutions in terms of their digital experience - Christopher shares results from an Adobe Digital Trends Report. They had around 500 respondents from the financial services industry. One of the questions was, "How would you rate your digital experience in keeping up with customer expectations?" Around 70% of those surveyed claimed they are keeping pace or staying ahead, while 30% are lagging. However, they also got some additional insights. ''The same survey indicated that the marketing executives, 90 plus percent, said that the key to future success is the agility of the marketing department. And to be clear, it's not about applying an agile methodology, but it's for their teams to be able to move fast to rapidly respond to a customer's changing needs. So if there is a situation, consumers are going to react very differen