The Omnichannel Gap Is Growing Faster Than Banks Can Close It
By Suman Bhattacharyya, Contributor at The Financial Brand
Simple Subscribe
Subscribe Now!
Executive Summary
- Banks continue to struggle with fragmented data and inconsistent messaging across channels, fueling customer frustration and regulatory risk.
- AI engines and influencer content amplify inconsistencies when institutions cannot control or align the information feeding those channels.
- Leaders are shifting from chasing omnichannel sameness to delivering context-driven interactions that rely on unified data and continuous oversight.
Maintaining a consistent message across every customer touchpoint has long been a hurdle for banks and credit unions as customers interact with them across branches, call centers, websites, apps and emerging areas like generative AI and influencer content.
The term “omnichannel” entered the industry lexicon over the past decade, describing how customers hop between touchpoints and how banks strive to maintain consistency of message across them. Banks still struggle to get this right — and the challenge is growing as gen AI and influencer content play a bigger role in how customers get information about products and services. When asked about the leading causes of customer frustration in support interactions, eight in ten respondents in Talkdesk’s 2024 CX in Banking Survey cited “disjointed experiences moving across channels,” while nearly two thirds pointed to difficulty accessing information or support. Meanwhile, a Capgemini study from that year found that 52% of customers were frustrated by “ambiguous communications” from their banking institutions.
Experts say the problem comes down to bank’s internal data: if the underlying information lives in fragmented systems, the output could be inconsistent. And if internal policies and reviews aren’t catching noncompliant content, that amplifies the risks. To keep the message coherent, financial institutions need clear data governance, consistent oversight of what gen AI engines are saying about their products, and clear processes for reviewing what partners and influencers say on their behalf.
“Never has there been a moment more important than now, where banks have to get truly a handle on their foundational data, and then being able to capitalize on unlocking the potential of what really is a significant sea of proprietary data that lives still in many silos,” says Nikhil Lele, EY Americas’ consulting banking and capital markets partner and leader. Banks also need to continuously oversee influencer scripts and app copy updates for regulatory compliance and message accuracy, adds Nick Chiapetti, vice president of fintech partnerships and marketingmarketing and partnerships at FinWise Bank.
Want more insights like these? Check out Naehas’ content hub: More Speed, More Value: Bring Personalized Offers to Market Faster.
Leaving Money On the Table
Inconsistent messaging creates confusion and adds regulatory risk. If the goal is personalized interaction and recommendations, mismatched messages can drive customers away: nearly half of customers would switch banks for a more personalized experience, according to a 2024 Persado survey.
The problem is banks still haven’t lived up to omnichannel expectations, analysts say.
“The main challenge they are still struggling to tackle is the fact that the data is fragmented within the bank,” says Nicolas Miachon, product director for digital engagement at banking technology firm SBS.
The result: communications that may not be tailored to the customer’s situation, such as asking them to open a type of account they already have, he says. Disconnected, fragmented data systems prevent banks from seeing all of the information relevant to the customer and making tailored recommendations.
Inconsistent messages also can erode customer trust and damage the brand, says Jackie Wylie, head of marketing at Middesk.
While the original definition of omnichannel was just about ‘ being in all the channels,’ over the past five years, the conversation has shifted toward alignment and engagement, she adds.
Now the appropriate question to ask is: “How are we making sure that we’re consistent across all of those channels?”
“There was a period of time where the advice [on omnichannel] was just to go live,” she says. “Now I think there’s more of a conversation around coherence and consistency, because inconsistent experiences actually erode trust and can damage the brand.”
While banks may aim to centralize customer data, that’s often not feasible given the fragmentation of legacy systems. In those cases, they need tools that can pull information from different sources and make it usable, allowing them to deliver more unified and personalized messages and experiences, Miachon says.
New Channels
Originally based on the hackneyed financial marketing phrase “meeting the customer where they are,” the concept of omnichannel is now under pressure as new touchpoints make it harder for brands to maintain a consistent voice.
As The Financial Brand recently reported, banks are prioritizing generative engine optimization as visibility on AI platforms becomes critical to product discovery. With these platforms becoming a default source for information for many consumers, institutions need better ways to monitor how their content is presented to maintain uniformity of voice, accuracy and compliance.
Gen AI platforms “have become trusted advisors for customers, but they only reflect the data they’ve been fed,” says Dennis Gada, executive vice president and global head of banking and financial services at Infosys. “If the bank’s own content is fragmented, AI will echo these inconsistencies.”
One possible solution, according to Chiapetti, is to regularly review gen AI search outputs and compare them to the institution’s own website to monitor for discrepancies.
“We should, as banks and fintechs and financial institutions, be scraping our own websites for consistency across the board,” Chiapetti says. “People won’t update a certain section, then they’ll have a product offering in another area, and the president will do an open letter or a blog — and if those don’t match, [inconsistencies] are going to be picked up.”
Beyond generative AI search, content from influencers — brand advocates who offer information about products and services — is also becoming a key channel for how customers evaluate financial offerings. The challenge for banks and fintechs is ensuring consistent, compliant communication that doesn’t misrepresent product offerings.
“We don’t believe in giving scripts to influencers — it takes away from the pizzazz,” says Jessica Johnson, co-founder and president of consultancy Rosy Finch Method & Company and former senior director of marketing and customer acquisition at First Republic Bank.
She adds, “We 100 percent believe in the authenticity of the influencer, but there should be a series of checks and balances… We always recommend you work with a third party that manages influencers. They’re going to have built-in controls, and they’re going to make sure that your message is hit and that they’re in compliance as well.”
Dig deeper:
- Omnichannel’s Unfinished Business: Reviving the Bank Branch to Reignite Loyalty
- Banks Are Missing the Next Great Growth Market — Independent Workers
- Search Marketing is Now About Visibility, Not Clicks. Meet the Gatekeepers
Counterpoint: If AI Performs the Handoffs Between Channels, Is Omnichannel Still a Debate?
Others say omnichannel hasn’t failed — but the goalposts have changed.
Sairam Rangachari, chief product officer at Temenos, says the industry’s original idea of omnichannel was about “sameness,” or replicating the same experience and messaging across branches, call centers, mobile apps and websites. That’s been overtaken by events, notably AI, he argues.
“Omnichannel, when it came out, was more all about enabling access, and sameness was the mantra,” he says. Now, however, it’s about “being super contextual about meeting customers with the kind of mindset they’re in, .” with AI acting as a type of connector that smooths over gaps between channels. Of course, AI can only manage these handoffs if it can pull the right customer data at the right time.
In practice, this means tailoring each channel to what customers expect to do there: quick, routine tasks like checking balances or sending payments on mobile, and more complex actions like wires or dispute resolution on desktop. In a modern setup, conversational AI bridges these channels, guiding each interaction based on the customer’s situation and intent.
AI agents take that a step further, handling tasks on the customer’s behalf, like moving money between accounts or paying a bill. By adding a conversational AI layer across all touchpoints, banks can help close the gap between fragmented digital experiences and what customers have come to expect.
“You have this chatbot that you just pick up and say, ‘Hey, I need to track when my next payment is due based on my spending,'” says Rangachari. “You can simply post that question, instead of going through four different tabs and calculating it yourself. And you get a response saying, “If you spent an additional 400 bucks, your monthly payment will go X, Y and Z.”
