The Riverbed Digital Performance Global Survey 2018, which includes responses from 1,000 business decision makers from companies across nine countries and in a range of industries with $500 million or more in revenue, has found that more than half (54%) of the respondents from the financial services industry believe that that poor performance of critical digital services and applications negatively impacts their team’s work at least once a week or more, and 79% say performance is impacted at least a few times per month.
Many in the financial services sector believe the industry is not moving fast enough to address this pressing issue, with over one in three (37%) feeling digital strategies are being progressed too slowly. This is largely due to restraints over budget (49%), a lack of visibility across the digital or end-user experience (45%), and having an overly complex or rigid legacy IT infrastructure (42%).
The cost of failing to act on this issue is clear – 95% of business decision makers in the financial services industry expect to see negative consequences if digital performance in their organisation does not improve in the next 12 months. The most significant consequences include:
- Loss of customers (44%)
- Loss of brand loyalty (43%)
- Loss of sales revenue (40%)
It is clear that a shift in strategy is in the pipeline for these organisations, as 79% of the respondents feel it is critical that their company invests in improving the digital experience for users or customers specifically during the next 12 months.
Commenting on these findings, Carl Helling, Regional Director, Financial Services, UK & Ireland at Riverbed Technology at Riverbed states:
“Financial institutions in the cities have invested huge amounts into cutting-edge customer facing technology. However, the branches which attract comparatively less customers are suffering in their wake. Customers expect a flawless digital experience, regardless of location and failure to deliver this will instantly damage customer satisfaction — and make it harder for employees working in those branches to maintain productivity and efficiency. This can ultimately have a catastrophic impact on overall brand reputation, as indicated by the results of the survey.
“Realistically, banks aren’t able to offer the expensive tech driven branches across their entire network. However, these organisations can make subtle changes to unlock the benefits of widespread digital transformation, by ensuring they have a modern infrastructure in place that is able to support digital services and remote local banks. Visibility of customer and employee experience across all digital channels within branch is vital, and by equipping the IT team with an integrated end-to-end monitoring solution and implementing a next-generation network architecture, financial organisations can compete more effectively by delivering digital services that offer a superior customer experience.”
