Customer Analytics Adoption in Banking: When Management Doesn’t Lead
Abstract
The underdeveloped usage of customer analytics in banking is a result of two factors: the immature state of data analytics at most banks and a lack of leadership at the top. Most banks don’t have data-driven cultures and don’t seem to care.
Data analytics is a complex subject and a complex undertaking. In the report Customer Analytics Adoption in Banking: When Management Doesn’t Lead, Celent examines the growing role of customer analytics (predictive analytics applied to customer data) in banking and why it is increasingly important. Despite this, two-thirds of surveyed North American banks are still exploring or experimenting with customer analytics.
This report begins by examining surveyed strategic imperatives and the technologies perceived as most important to their achievement. The report then looks at the immature state of data analytics and its causes, while examining the stated and likely future adoption of a variety of applications involving customer analytics.
Over the next five years, as customer engagement becomes increasingly digital, pervasive use of customer analytics will no longer be optional. This will advance customer analytics from a project undertaken by a minority of banks to a core competency among the majority of financial institutions. But many banks are being left behind.
“Despite growing adoption of a variety of customer analytics applications, most banks don’t have data-driven cultures and don’t seem to care,” says Bob Meara, Senior Analyst with Celent’s Banking Group and author of the report. “As long as senior management at most banks continue to trust their judgment more than data, fully leveraging customer analytics won’t be a high priority.”
This report concludes with recommendations for banks aspiring to create a more analytic, data-driven culture.