The current economic and political climate presents significant uncertainty for financial services companies: shifting tariff policies, persistent inflation, geopolitical risks, and rising unemployment. As you navigate the uncertainty, don’t lose sight of the fact that your customers are experiencing it, too! Their expectations of you won’t change during challenging times — the reality is that they’ll lean on you even more.

The financial services industry learned from the COVID era that a crisis presents opportunities to deliver value to customers, as well as build trust and deepen your relationships. Forrester’s report, Financial Services Leaders: How To Thrive Through Volatility, highlights how financial service leaders can create customer value, optimize resources, strengthen risk management, and lead with courage. Leaders can achieve these aims by:

    • Distinguishing the cyclical from the secular. Hasty reactions to short-term market movements can be detrimental. Instead, dedicate time to understanding shifts in consumer confidence, interest rates, and stock market indices. Don’t let the noise muddle the signals coming from your customers.
    • Maintaining relentless focus on the customer. Prioritize supporting customers facing financial difficulties by deepening your understanding of their goals and preferences. Leverage granular customer segmentation to develop personas that reveal your customers’ unique needs. These insights will enable you to communicate with them more effectively, offer tailored solutions, and create emotionally resonant experiences that drive long-term trust and loyalty. Hone the processes and systems that will make these efforts possible by leaning on voice-of-the-customer programs or creating and adopting an enterprisewide metrics framework.
    • Cutting costs while maintaining the quality of customer experiences. Leading firms will optimize their existing tech stacks — by, for example, consolidating vendors and eliminating unused licenses — and consider using AI to automate routine tasks. Deprioritize large, risky transformation projects in favor of more time-sensitive initiatives and only make expense cuts when absolutely necessary, ensuring that customer value is preserved.

Lead with courage by communicating transparently to inspire and foster alignment among stakeholders. Galvanize your teams around a unified mission to support your customers through the current volatility while positioning your company for the eventual economic upturn.

Our new report, Financial Services Leaders: How To Thrive Through Volatility, explores this topic and provides practical strategies on how to navigate through this time of volatility. Clients interested in discussing this report and increasing their data sophistication can connect with me via an inquiry or guidance session.