How competitive intelligence research helps financial services organizations reach their goals
Competitive intelligence research is a critical need for financial services firms as they navigate the rapid evolution of digital platforms. Website and app experiences are now a key differentiator across banking, insurance, investing and healthcare. Digital experiences in these industries also change faster than ever before. In order to keep up, firms need to systematically gather, analyze, and apply the latest competitive insights to refine their experiences. This monitoring is a defining characteristic of the leaders offering today’s best digital experiences. Competitive intelligence research keeps financial services organizations ahead of their competition.
This is because, beyond monitoring to better understand competitor behavior, effective competitive intelligence research also provides financial services organizations with the insights needed to make better decisions for themselves. Competitive intelligence helps organizations identify key trends, adopt new best practices, and make data-driven moves that lead to sustainable growth. The best competitive intelligence empowers firms to do this all faster, because today’s trends are tomorrow’s best practices.
Firms doing their own competitive intelligence research often fall into the trap of tracking only the largest, most successful firms. But looking at a large sample is key, because best practices can come from across the sector. Startups offer outside-the-box solutions to long-standing problems. Deep-pocketed incumbent firms have the resources to test and refine their digital experiences. CI’s research has found that the best overall digital experiences don’t come exclusively from innovators or established traditional firms. Instead, the best digital experiences come from firms that identify and aggressively adopt best practices wherever they arise. That’s the value of competitive intelligence research: It enables firms to create best-in-class digital experiences.
In other words, it’s a best practice to track and adopt best practices. Regular competitive intelligence research allows organizations to identify and adopt innovations as soon as they arise. It helps them to shore up weaknesses and enhance strengths, and to improve an organization’s competitive position.
Below are several ways firms can leverage competitive intelligence research to improve their digital experiences in the financial services industry:
Stay ahead of the curve by monitoring competitors
When it comes to competitive intelligence, especially in financial services, speed matters. Digital experiences change quickly: In CI’s most recent Pace of Change report examining consumer banks, our researchers found that the most active banks make around six noteworthy changes per month to their authenticated (post-login) experiences. The most aggressive bank made nearly 90 noteworthy changes in a single year. In investing, the most aggressive firm made 124 changes. It’s a challenge to keep tabs on competitor experiences when they change this quickly. Firms with real-time insights gain immediate advantages. They can move faster and make better data-driven decisions before other firms even realize what’s changed. Ongoing competitive intelligence ensures that organizations understand the current landscape and make better decisions.
Competitive intelligence research allows firms to understand the expectations of today’s financial services customers. When a competitor revamps their app or introduces a streamlined application process, customers immediately feel this change. They come to expect the same level of service from every other financial services firm. Organizations need to understand the current expectations of their customers to provide them with a best-in-class experience. Real-time competitive intelligence enables firms to detect emerging patterns today, not months or years later. These immediate insights allow for responsive innovation rather than reactive catch-up. The cost of delayed competitive intelligence can be significant, as market shares erode quickly and missed opportunities last forever.
Track trends to take advantage of new opportunities
For a recent example of the value of competitive intelligence, consider the aggressive introduction of personal financial management (PFM) tools from banks, investing firms, and retirement plan providers in response to the closure of the popular budgeting app Mint.
Account aggregation and PFM tools are increasingly popular across platforms and industries. The demise of Mint provided financial services firms with a golden opportunity. Firms had a chance to boost engagement, add value to their digital platforms, and gain more customers with best-in-class account aggregation and PFM tools. Firms that used competitive intelligence research to track the PFM trend had a first-mover advantage. When former Mint customers looked for a new home for their financial management, they went to firms that had already built high-quality PFM tools. These leaders were able to meet customer expectations. They were able to solidify loyalty to their tools before competitors had a chance to introduce their own PFM options.
This shows how the benefits of competitive intelligence are compounding. Financial services organizations that excel at rapid intelligence gathering and deployment create an innovation feedback loop. They spot opportunities faster, implement solutions more quickly, learn from results immediately. They can iterate before competitors have even identified the same opportunity.
In our own competitive intelligence research, we recognize the importance of speed in today’s digital experiences. Our research teams issue regular Updates that track all changes to competitor experiences, on a biweekly basis for most industries. And in some fast-moving industries, this research is almost instantaneous: CI’s online brokerage competitive intelligence subscription includes weekly updates.
Understand key trends and essential offerings with in-depth competitive intelligence
Competitive intelligence research has critical value beyond real-time monitoring. Financial services organizations must also understand the digital components that comprise a best-in-class experience. That is, firms need to understand which digital capabilities are most important to customers and how to make those essential offerings sing. Customers like it when firms help them meet their goals. Competitive intelligence makes it easier for firms to do that. Key areas like navigation can sink the entire user experience if it is confusing or fails to adhere to convention. A best-in-class card dispute capability doesn’t matter if poor navigation within a credit card app prevents users from finding it.
This is where in-depth analysis reports shine. In-depth reports on the most important parts of the digital experience can make sure firms nail those critical areas. Such reports helps financial institutions understand not just what competitors are doing, but why they’re doing it and which approaches most effectively address customer needs. The nuanced insight in these reports need to go beyond surface-level monitoring. Once you see what’s changed, the next step is to understand why. An in-depth report can provide these answers. (Benchmarking can also help in this area.)
Use third-party reports to understand key digital capabilities and serve as a tiebreaker
Reports on key aspects of the digital experience help firms ensure that the most important elements of their own digital experience are successful. Secure site homepages are a good example where this research is critical. Homepages are a key part of any platform, that can make or break the customer experience. Homepages are also tricky to build because they must balance diverse needs from competing groups within an organization. As the first page a customer sees upon login, a homepage needs to be easy to understand, intuitive to use, direct users to key capabilities, and convey important firm messages. The best secure site homepage does all the above. Building it requires knowledge of an industry, a grasp of UX convention, a complete understanding of competitor experiences, and data-driven insights into what customers want.
Product managers and their teams are familiar with the usual struggles to build these authenticated homepages. The UX department wants to focus on usability, marketing wants to feature cross-promotions, and the C-Suite wants it all done with minimal budget. These competing requirements can stretch even the best in-house teams. For that reason, top financial services firms often rely on a research partner for in-depth competitive analysis. Competitive intelligence reports from neutral third-parties help firms make better decisions by serving as a tiebreaker when internal groups disagree. These reports can help the entire team understand the latest in critical aspects of the digital experience.
Reports on specific areas of the digital user experience, from an experienced partner, help firms understand industry convention, evaluate it, and make decisions about what methods fit their individual needs—be it for homepages, navigation, or an industry-specific capability.
Leverage experience in financial services to avoid common pitfalls in competitive intelligence research
Partnering with an experienced firm is essential when relying on a third party for competitive intelligence. Expertise goes a long way in financial services research. Competitive intelligence is not a one-size fits all endeavor. It needs to be tailored industry-by-industry and firm-by-firm.
Experience also helps you avoid common pitfalls. For example, in CI’s research and surveys, we find that customers always say that they want advanced customization options. In brokerage surveys, this might mean that customers say they want to be able to customize the data or charts they see upon login or when looking at different equities. Surveyed users might similarly say that they want to be able to customize the homepage on their life insurance site.
An experienced research firm, however, knows that while all users say they want advanced options, only certain users will actually use these advanced options. That is, customization options are only a value-add in certain areas. Knowing this allows a firm to make better decisions and avoid wasting resources. This is where competitive intelligence research from an experienced partner makes a difference. An experienced competitive intelligence researcher will know an industry inside-and-out. In investing, the best analyst will know that users say they want advanced options on brokerage sites and apps. This analyst will also know that retail day traders actually make use of these options.
Similarly, an experienced life insurance researcher will know that life insurance customers tend to say they want advanced options. But they also know that someone who logs into their life insurer’s site once or twice a year, as most customers do, is never going to use advanced options. An experienced research partner can help financial services firms direct resources to areas that actually make a difference.
See the whole landscape to identify areas of opportunity and key differentiators
Gaining a complete view of the competitive landscape is also essential for financial services firms. Regular updates help firms monitor the competition, in-depth reports help firms understand the key elements of a top user experience. Experts can help firms sort all the data. But there is also the need for a complete look at how it all fits together. To make truly informed strategic decisions about their digital experiences, financial services firms need the full picture.
A comprehensive competitive view enables financial organizations to identify patterns and trends that remain invisible when examining competitors in isolation. By mapping the entire landscape of features, capabilities, and experiences across all major players, institutions can recognize emerging industry standards versus genuine differentiators. It also serves as proof-of-work: A comprehensive view ensures that every rock has been overturned.
This holistic perspective reveals white space opportunities in an industry—unaddressed customer needs or experience gaps that represent potential competitive advantages. These insights are impossible to discover when intelligence gathering focuses only on direct competitors or individual features. A comprehensive look also allows firms to see where the industry as a whole is spending resources over time, which digital areas are changing more than others, and the pace of change within an industry.
The full picture enables firms to make better decisions. Organizations can see when various elements reach a tipping point—a retirement plan provider can see how many competitors offer biometric login to determine whether their username-and-password-only login has fallen behind the times, while a bank can see how competitors notify customers about changes to interest rates.
The best competitive intelligence allows firms to zoom all the way in and all the way out. Decision makers need actionable intelligence that provides a full picture to understand the moves to make next.
A third-party competitive intelligence research firm can be necessity
Finally, competitive intelligence research comes with additional complications for financial services providers. In financial services, regulations and compliance departments often limit the types of accounts that employees of the firm can own. This makes it hard if not impossible to keep the full range of competitive intelligence work in-house. If you work for the personal banking arm of a larger investment firm, and you want to see what a competitors’ savings accounts look like on the digital platform—that’s hard. Compliance departments will object if an employee takes $10 and opens an account at a competitor, even if it is just to see their digital experience.
This is where an experienced research firm becomes a necessity in financial services. An outside research firm can solve these issues, giving an organization the competitive intelligence it needs about its competitors’ digital experiences, along with the expertise and industry knowledge to provide the appropriate context. Third-party firms often have resources and abilities that even the best in-house teams lack. A third party firms might have an on-site UX lab, quantitative researchers, or experts in the account-opening and onboarding experience. The best providers of financial services competitive intelligence understand the industry, know the specific challenges, and are experts in the digital user experience. The best research firms become an extension of your team.
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