FSI Member Spotlight, Episode #5: Data & Personalization in the Customer Journey

In this episode of FSI Spotlight, Praxent Senior Director of Innovation, Lance Vaughn, sits down with financial services veteran Jonas Ng, Senior Vice President of Digital Product: Originations and Financial Wellness at KeyBank. Prior to this role, Jonas served as Vice President of Product at Nationwide Bank, as well as serving in several key product and partnership roles at Discover Financial Services.

KeyBank is the 29th largest bank in the United States. With its positioning between a regional bank and a national bank size, an institution of this capacity is ripe for innovation. When asked about the major trends he’s seen over the course of his career, Jonas points out that the trend towards digital banking has been on the rise for well over a decade — not just as a response to the pandemic. A major trend Jonas brings attention to is that banks have an imperative to become more than just transaction managers. Banks that differentiate themselves take on the expanded role of financial advisor, or counselor, to their individual customers. For Jonas, banking has never been about ‘moving money’ — banks exist to integrate many aspects of the customers financial life, adding value and improving overall quality of life.

When asked about innovation, Jonas’s perspective has shifted from what was once an aspirational, almost magical ideal — how do we create the next big thing? — to seeing innovation as the norm. Empathy-driven innovation has a place in our everyday lives, and it’s the job of the financial community to deliver that. Jonas notes that financial services are held up to a particularly high standard — customers judge banks based on their perceptions of innovations occurring across verticals. If customers see voice-response, chatbots, or AI in one vertical, they will come to expect it in another. This further drives the passion Jonas and his team have for innovating and deploying truly omni-channel platforms to solve customer problems. In addition to omni-channel solutions, KeyBank is obsessively focused on building customer relationships. What drives them? A desire to meet people where they are –which just happens to be on a tiny screen these days. The measure of success is not just how to get the customers in the door and out again — but how to get them to stay and explore.

Jonas emphasizes incremental data collection as a key building block towards personalization — which drives customer engagement. He brings up two primary dimensions of data here. The first is tactical data — banks already know the essentials about their customers — credit scores, employment, marital status, and so on. The second is what he refers to as metadata — data that cannot be found in a database, that isn’t filled out on a standard bank form. This data is unique and more challenging for banks to obtain. It’s worth the effort, however, and has required the manner in which banks interact with their customers to fundamentally change. Here’s where the incremental part of incremental data collection comes in — collecting data over the course of the customer’s journey, not just at account opening. More than ever, banks must find effective ways to capture, relay, and publish data on an events-based basis.

Key Takeaways

• Empathy-driven innovation is not just a trend — it’s the norm.
• Banks that differentiate themselves from the competition are far more than transaction managers — they’ve become trusted financial advisors to their customers.
• Banks have always had to gather and maintain tactical data such as credit scores, work or marital status of their customers. Now, a newer emphasis is placed on metadata — unique data based on personal preferences, pain points, and other pieces of information that are gathered incrementally, event-triggered throughout the stages of the customer journey.

About FSI

FSI is an exclusive community for financial services executives and digital product leaders who are looking to deepen their understanding of relevant innovation and emerging trends. What you can expect to get as a member of FSI:

• Access to conversations and discussions with your peers.
• Exclusive content focused on helping grow your business.
• A forum to ask questions, share experiences, and learn from some of the top leaders in this field.

This group is not for promotion, and content of an overtly promotional nature will not be allowed. The community is professionally moderated.

Share your experience and find solutions for the greater good. Invite your friends & colleagues!

Additional Resources

• Jonas Ng, LinkedIn
• Jonas Vernon Ng’s Website
• KeyBank