10 Ways Fintech Companies Can Increase Customer Loyalty

Today’s consumers are more value-conscious than ever. They want to get the most bang for their buck, which is why companies need to step up their game if they want to keep them coming back time and again.

Customer loyalty for fintech companies is an important factor that can keep customers longer and encourage them to return for continued usage.

Cashback, rewards points, and other loyalty schemes are some ways you can achieve this but it doesn't end there. Being part of a financial firm means you need to understand what drives customer loyalty and how you can implement these strategies in your business models.

Let’s take a look at 10 ideas you can use as part of your strategy to boost customer loyalty today.

Here's what we’ll consider:

1. 10 ways fintech companies can increase customer loyalty

• Create a seamless customer experience
• Welcome (and respond to) criticism
• Use digital customer onboarding
• Offer rewards and incentives for frequent use
• Establish trust through transparency
• Make it easy to discover and understand fees
• Personalize digital banking experience
• Provide an exceptional customer service experience
• Launch a referral program
• Continuously refine your product and services based on customer feedback

2. Summing up

10 Ways to Increase Customer Loyalty for your fintech company

Here are 10 ways you can boost customer loyalty :

1. Create a seamless customer experience

A significant part of the customer experience happens before a customer even decides to use a certain product or service. If you want to increase customer loyalty, you need to make the sign-up process as easy as possible.

This includes simplifying your website, ensuring that there aren’t any unnecessary steps, and providing clear information about your product or service and what it does.

Additionally, you’ll want to make it easy for people to pay you. You can do this by accepting multiple forms of payment and making it clear which payment options are best for specific customers.

Finally, you’ll want to make it easy for customers to get in touch with you. The best way to do this is to offer various methods of communication (emails, LiveChat, chatbots, etc.) and make it clear where customers can find the ones that are most appropriate for their needs.

Here's an example of how Robinhood uses chatbots to improve communication with its customers.

2. Welcome (and respond to) criticism

Businesses are always going to receive feedback, both positive and critical. Some of it will be in the form of reviews, while some of it will be in the form of direct communication with the company.

If you want to increase customer loyalty, you need to ensure that you welcome both types of feedback, good and bad.

When you receive a negative review, respond politely and offer to help rectify the problem. People are less likely to patronize companies that don’t take feedback seriously, and it’s even more likely that they’ll avoid businesses that don’t know how to respond appropriately to negative feedback.

When you receive positive feedback, be sure to respond in a meaningful way. Thank your customers for their business and encourage them to spread the word about your product or service.

3. Use digital customer onboarding

Remember first impressions matter.

When your customer begins to use your banking app, you need to ensure that you deliver a great customer onboarding process.

This includes sending timely messages to help your customers get the best use of your product. For instance, you can use push notifications and in-app messages to

• Ask for feedback
• Send onboarding tips
• Send short tutorials
• Send a product tour

With Engage, you can send personalized in-app messages and push notifications to your customers at the right time.

Customers like to have the least challenging experience when using an app. If you offer flexible access to your product or service, it will make it easier for people to use it and make it more likely that they’ll keep coming back.

4. Offer rewards and incentives for frequent use

People love getting rewarded for their loyalty, and it’s one of the easiest and best ways to increase customer loyalty. Before you start thinking about rewards, though, you’ll need to first decide which customers you want to target.

If you want to increase customer loyalty, you should offer rewards and incentives to customers who use your product or service frequently. After that, you’ll need to decide what type of rewards and incentives you'll offer to your chosen customers.

There are different types of rewards, so you’ll want to choose wisely. Some good options include discounts and exclusive access to new product features before the rest of the world.

You can also give customers incentives for referring their friends or family to your business. The best way to do this is by creating a referral program.

5. Establish trust through transparency

Many consumers are wary of doing business with companies that don’t offer transparency. Fortunately, it’s easy to establish trust through transparency.

Before you start, you’ll need to decide what parts of your business need transparency. You can create transparency by creating thorough terms of service and privacy policies and clear and detailed explanations of how your product or service works.

6. Make it easy to discover and understand fees

Since the financial services industry is heavily regulated, many companies are required to disclose the fees associated with their products and services.

If your company has such fees, you’ll want to publish your expenses (including applicable taxes and government-mandated fees). Also, you need to make sure that it’s easy for customers to find and understand them.

You can do this by including them on your website, providing them on your app, and publishing them on other third-party apps where your customers might look for your product information.

If you have fees that are not legally required, you should make sure that it’s easy for your customers to find and understand them. You can include them in your terms and conditions or provide them on request when a customer calls or sends an email to your company.

7. Personalize digital banking experience

Your customers are people with specific needs, preferences, and behaviors, so you need to avoid vague generalized terms when communicating with them.

As your customers navigate your banking app, focus on delivering personalized messages that highlight their needs and their stage in the buyer's journey.

Here's an example of how Quickbooks sends personalized in-app messages.

8. Provide an exceptional customer service experience

When people call customer service with questions or concerns, they want to be treated well. To increase customer loyalty, you need to provide an exceptional customer service experience.

Here are some ways you can do this:

• You need to make sure that your company’s customer support reps know how to answer common customer questions and solve problems.
• You’ll also want to make sure that your employees know how to treat customers with respect and courtesy. If they don’t know how to do this, or if they don’t care enough to do it, you’re going to drive away customers.
• Finally, you’ll want to ensure that your company has an ideal response time for customer service inquiries. The last thing you'd want is a customer that waits too long to receive support. If someone calls or sends an email concerning a problem, you need to respond within a reasonable amount of time.

9. Launch a referral program to increase customer loyalty continuously

A referral program is a great way to build customer loyalty for your fintech company because you'll show your customers that you appreciate their support.
When a customer spreads the news about your product, you can set up a referral program that rewards customers according to each referral they do.

Here's an example of how YNAB uses a referral program to increase customer loyalty:

10. Continuously monitor and refine your product based on consumer feedback

Another way to increase customer loyalty is by continuously monitoring and refining your banking app based on consumer feedback.

When customers provide feedback, they’re actually giving you advice on how to improve your product. You should take advantage of this opportunity by making necessary changes to your business model.

For example, if many customers complain that your app's UI is difficult to navigate, you can make adjustments to make it easier for them to find the information they need.

Summing up

Building a strong customer base is difficult, but it’s essential if you want to succeed as a business. If you want to increase customer loyalty for your fintech company, you can start by implementing the strategies above.

No doubt, you may want to implement other strategies as well. No matter what, though, you need to make sure that you’re giving your customers a reason to choose you over your competitors.

With Engage, you can use our powerful in-app messaging and push notification feature to send personalized messages for improved customer loyalty.