Effective Onboarding Begins with Good Insight

In 2003, the BAI released a research study entitled, 'The Ninety Day Window of Opportunity', where interviews, deposit statistics and segmentation models revealed that nearly 75% of all cross-sell opportunities and the vast majority of attrition occurred in the first 90 days of a new customer relationship. These findings continue to be verified in the marketplace, with expanded concern recently around the lack of funding, engagement and use of new products by these new customers.

More than ever, financial institutions need to begin the onboarding process by capturing an accurate and robust view of the customer which can be used across the organization to enhance the customer experience and expand the relationship with the bank. In short, to optimize the customer experience during the first critical months and year of the relationship from both the customer's and bank's perspective, you need a 360 degree view of the customer. With online account openings, this process becomes even more critical.


Unfortunately, with so many data entry points and so much emphasis on operation efficiency and regulatory requirements, the capture of many key elements of customer insight gets overlooked or is done inconsistently by the front line. Beyond address, birth date, gender and identification information, financial institutions need to begin to collect insight such as email addresses, primary decision maker on the account (it is often the female in the household even though we usually address correspondences to the male), the preferred channel of communication (which is often email), the reason for coming to the bank (move, dissatisfaction, previously unbanked) and what services they use elsewhere (the holy grail of insight). Of course, with more and more of the collection process occurring online, organizations are under increased pressure to validate this insight (especially the address).

With this insight, you are in a much better position to communicate with the new customer in a personalized and relevant manner, using the right channels to the best person in the household offering a service or solution that is geared to their needs. These communications should begin on day one and continue throughout the early stages of the customer relationship enhancing the customer experience and increasing loyalty and retention. Multiple channels should be utilized to improve effectiveness and measurement of all touches should occur to gauge the ROI of the process.