In the vast landscape of European banking, with institutions stretching their reach across multiple countries, one challenge remains pervasive: how to foster a consistent customer experience across all products, channels, and regions. UniCredit, a pan-European bank present in 13 countries, faced this very challenge. But rather than seeing it as a hurdle, we embraced it as an opportunity. Our answer: our new UCX platform.

The Paradigm Shift in Banking

Recent studies underscore the growing importance of CX in banking:

Increased Customer Loyalty: A PwC report highlighted that 73% of consumers point to customer experience as an essential factor in their purchasing decisions, just behind price and product quality.

CX as a Competitive Advantage: Gartner’s research suggests that in 2023, more than two-thirds of companies will compete primarily based on customer experience, up from only 36% a decade ago.

Digital-first Preference: A post-pandemic survey by McKinsey found that 75% of consumers have tried a new digital channel since the onset of COVID-19, and the vast majority intend to continue using it post-pandemic, underscoring the need for digital transformation in banking.

For UniCredit, a pan-European bank present in 13 countries, the question was: How can we not just meet, but exceed these evolving customer expectations?

The Quest for Consistency

A bank’s digital journey is not just about offering online services. It’s about creating an experience. For UniCredit, ensuring that a customer in Italy gets the same intuitive experience as a customer in Germany was paramount. The question was, how?

Enter UCX – UniCreditā€™s digitally native platform that provides an unvarying experience from the first click to the last, regardless of the device or channel. The uniqueness of UCX lies in its cloud-ready, cloud-agnostic, and component-based architecture, allowing each step in a process to be a reusable component.

The UCX Advantage

But UCX is not just about uniformity; it’s about innovation. The platform’s component-driven design not only ensures consistency but also accelerates the roll-out of new processes. Since many of these components are pre-existing on our shared platform, they can simply be pulled and reused, reducing the development and implementation time drastically.

Additionally, the UCX platform seamlessly integrates with core external services. This ensures that whether it’s customer onboarding or credit origination, the experience remains standardized across products and regions.

The Power of Innovation and Consistency

The results of UCX’s implementation have been nothing short of transformative:

A whopping 80% of components on UCX are reused from one region to another.

The time taken for implementing key components and processes has been slashed by between 25% to 40%.

The client’s experience has been significantly enhanced. For instance, the number of fields that customers need to fill out has been cut down by up to 78%.

And hereā€™s the real game-changer: in Italy, the time it takes for a client to get a credit evaluation has been reduced drastically. On average, it’s just 60 minutes across all channels. In some assisted channels, like branches, it can be as quick as 16 minutes!

Beyond Just Technology

While UCX is a technological marvel, its real success lies in how it impacts the end user. By simplifying processes, reducing waiting times, and ensuring a consistent experience, we’ve positioned ourselves as a bank that’s not just digital but digitally native.

In Conclusion

The recent nomination of UniCredit for the Gartner Award, with us being one of the seven finalists from the EMEA region, is a testament to our commitment and innovation. It’s not just a recognition of a product but an acknowledgment of a philosophy – one that puts the customer at the center of everything.

At UniCredit, our journey with UCX is just beginning. With a commitment to innovation and a focus on customer experience, the future looks exciting. Stay tuned!

Looking Ahead

As the banking landscape evolves, leaning heavily into a customer-centric model, UCX is UniCredit’s statement of intent. We’re not just adapting to the new age of banking; we’re pioneering it. Our recent nomination for the Gartner Award is a testament to this commitment.

In the world of banking, where technology meets human touch, and where transactions become interactions, UniCredit, with its UCX platform, is setting the gold standard for the future of customer experience.