It’s safe to say that, among all industries, the financial sector is one of the biggest believers in customer insights. In 2023, U.S. banks spent over $5 billion on data initiatives.
That’s a lot of data. I would even go as far as to say they’re drowning in it. So much so that 71% of banks don’t seem to have a documented strategy for using that research.
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from years of working with banks and financial institutions, it’s this: Numbers alone will only take you so far.
In my previous role, I had the pleasure of working with some of the largest banks and insurance companies in Europe, focusing on quant. We could tell them which insurer had the highest CSAT, if NPS went up or down for their private banking customers. We could tell them that B2B customers were dissatisfied with their service.
“72% of our detractors are dissatisfied with our financial advice.”
“38% think our prices are too high”.
We could tell them exactly where the problem was.
But time and again, I saw executives asking the same follow-up questions: Why? What should we do next?
And quant alone almost never had the answers.
Pizza and pineapple: Why quant only tells you where, not why
To me, quant and qual are like pizza and pineapple. Dwight Yorke & Andy Cole, Batman & Robin. They work fine on their own. But they’re better together.
Quant tells you where to look. That is extremely important. But without knowing what drives dissatisfaction and why, it’s difficult to find the right solution.
Then we’re back to guessing what potential solutions could be. That can take time, be expensive, and risk making it worse.
By adding insights from real human customers, GetWhy has uncovered pain points organizations never realized they had. Mismatches between expectations and service. Confusing onboarding and missed opportunities for relationship building.
The fact is, if you want to understand your customers, you need an insights engine that uses both quant and qual efforts. And history has proven that the best companies do so not just for one-off projects, but in a constant stream of feedback.
What’s holding everyone back?
If you’ve read up to this point, you’re probably asking:
Ok, Leander, enough with the pizza analogies. If quant is so flawed, why do so many banks and financial institutions primarily rely on it?
First of all, it’s not flawed, but there is a cultural bias. Quant is perceived as more trustworthy and more “scientific.”
It’s quick, cost-effective, and fits neatly into business dashboards. You fire off a study, get your percentages, and make a deck.
But most importantly, the alternative was always seen as too hard.
Qualitative insight used to be slow and expensive. You’d need weeks to design an interview guide, recruit participants, and synthesize findings. By then, the decision window might be gone.
But that’s all changed.
AI-powered qual
Today, by using AI, GetWhy can help conduct quick, rich interviews and synthesize customer voice in hours, not weeks. We can give you customer feedback on your most important decisions, so you’re sure that your new initiative actually solves the customer’s problem.
Or even more important – stop a product launch that customers won’t like.
Enrich your quant. Understand where your problem is with quant – and understand why the problem is there and what you can do about it with AI-powered qual and GetWhy.
If you want to learn more, book a demo and we can help you de-risk your most important decisions – and make sure your growth initiatives resonate with your customers.