In many industries, there has been an excessive shift towards lower costs and (by extension) pricing.  Why do we call it excessive? Because at times, companies seem to be so caught up in price competition that they don’t bother to ask customers what they want.  Is it exclusively lower pricing or are there other things which could lead to greater loyalty.

We put the spotlight on this study from the banking industry because it carries valuable insights for many industries.  The study by Capgemini and Efma was conducted globally and has a massive footprint among banking customers.  Their findings are particularly useful from a loyalty marketer’s perspective.

While pricing (both in the form of fees and interest rates) was a key factor, it was equally matched by quality of service and ease of use as key factors in customers willingness to be loyal to their bank.  It’s a topic we’ve discussed before: price sensitive customers are not necessarily only driven by price in their buying decisions.  In this case, banks which balance a strong CX with well presented and honest pricing can establish an equal level of loyalty at potentially higher margins that those which take a pure price competition approach.