The banking world is increasingly digital. According to the American Bankers Association, 55% of customers say that mobile apps are their preferred choice for managing their bank accounts.
However, with customers now able to access banking services from anywhere, the demand for support is on the rise. So, how can your institution deliver the experience customers expect without putting more strain on your budget? This is where digital banking self-service can help.
The right customer self-service tools can help your institution cut costs without sacrificing the quality of the customer experience. Below, we go over some of the current challenges for financial services providers and how banking self-service support can potentially help you scale support without putting further strain on your budget.
What are some of the current challenges in digital banking?
Digital banking teams face the challenge of lowering costs without sacrificing the customer experience. These pressures make it difficult for banks to scale support efficiently without adding more staff or compromising service quality.
Together, these challenges create the conditions where self-service becomes not just a convenience feature, but a core operational strategy.
Customer support costs are rising
Customer support costs are rising as many banks continue to operate on legacy contact center systems that weren’t designed for digital-first, self-guided experiences.
These platforms often introduce hidden costs that compound over time, including:
- High maintenance and licensing fees for aging infrastructure
- Fewer technicians who can help maintain and repair outdated infrastructure
- Complex integrations between banking systems, mobile apps and support tools
- Manual processes when customer data and interaction history are not shared across systems
In some organizations, older infrastructure can consume up to eighty percent of the total IT budget, which limits the ability to invest in critical digital experience improvements and automated support tools. As a result, banks may choose to add more staff or increase agent workloads, which increases operational costs.
This makes it difficult to scale support as digital adoption grows, especially during critical periods such as service outages, fraud alerts or major product changes.
Customers have high expectations
Customers expect fast and consistent support in every service interaction. They don’t want to wait in a call center queue to speak to an agent.
Many customers now interact with their bank primarily through mobile apps and online platforms. When something goes wrong, such as a declined transaction, missing deposit or locked account, they want the issue resolved fast.
Providing timely and accurate support is critical for reducing customer churn. Research by HubSpot shows that two-thirds of customers expect a response to service inquiries within five minutes or less. If banks and other financial services providers fail to meet these rising expectations, customers are increasingly willing to go elsewhere. In fact, one in four customers say they’re thinking of switching to a different bank.
Yet meeting these standards through agents alone is difficult. As expectations rise, banks face increasing pressure to provide faster answers without significantly increasing staffing levels or support budgets.
Disconnected customer experiences
Multichannel support environments are often inconsistent and siloed, with separate systems for phone, chat, email and in-app support. This means customers may get different answers to questions depending on the channel they choose to use to engage with your company.
This fragmentation creates friction in the customer experience. Customers frequently have to repeat themselves since agents lack context from previous interactions. Additionally, agents have to scour multiple tools or even the internet to reconstruct account history or locate answers to a customer’s urgent request.
These gaps can lead to:
- Longer resolution times as context is gathered and verified
- Increased average handle time (AHT) due to inconsistent answers and repeat help requests
- Lower first-contact resolution rates (FCR)
- Increased customer frustration and churn
Over time, disconnected experiences push customers back toward phone-based support, even for simple questions. This increases call volume and staffing demands, reinforcing the same cost pressures banks are trying to reduce.
How does digital banking self-service help businesses cut costs?
Self-service can help banks cut costs by lowering call volume, improving customer retention and increasing call deflection rates. This allows support teams to focus on complex issues that require human expertise.
When done well, customer self-service can cut costs without sacrificing the quality of the customer experience. Below, we go over a few ways self-service can reduce business expenses.
Improves customer retention
When done right, self-service can improve customer retention rates by streamlining the customer experience. When customers can access instant support to resolve common issues without waiting on hold, they’re less likely to churn.
This, in turn, can reduce business expenses. Acquiring a new customer typically costs more than retaining an existing one, with some studies finding it costs up to seven times more to acquire new customers versus retain your current ones. Each time a customer leaves due to poor service experiences, banks not only lose revenue but also incur increased marketing expenses.
So, what does customer self-service look like in the financial services sector? Some examples of banking self-service include:
- Logging into the app to view account balances
- Freezing a lost or stolen credit card
- Using a banking app for mobile check deposits
By implementing automated support tools, banks can empower their customers to complete these tasks independently which can increase digital adoption and customer satisfaction.
Repeated delays, unclear answers or inconsistent service across channels increase the likelihood of attrition. Reliable, easy-to-use self-service helps strengthen long-term customer relationships and potentially reduce customer churn.
Meets the needs of Gen Z customers
Gen Z customers, born between 1997 and 2012, grew up with smartphones, grocery delivery and instant streaming. They grew up in an era of instant everything, and they expect the same out of their bank.
Gen Z in particular is drawn to mobile-first banking experiences and self-service. This generation doesn’t want to wait on hold when they have pressing issues like a failed transaction or need to dispute a charge. In fact, research shows that Gen Z will hang up after waiting less than a minute to speak to someone over the phone.
Gen Z also represents significant long-term value. With an estimated $360 billion in spending power, retaining these valuable customers through seamless digital support experiences can impact your institution’s future revenue or customer lifetime value.
Reduces call volume for financial services providers
Self-service reduces call volume by deflecting repeat inquiries into digital channels where customers can resolve issues independently.
High-frequency call drivers such as balance checks, transaction questions, password resets and card management are often well suited for in-app guidance, self-service knowledge bases or interactive tutorials. When these tools are easy to find and tailored to the customer’s context, fewer issues escalate to live support.
Lower call volume can potentially lead to these key benefits:
- Shorter hold times for customers who need to speak with an agent
- Reduced case burden for support teams, allowing agents to focus on complex or sensitive issues that require human expertise
Over time, this shift improves both efficiency and service quality, as agents spend less time answering repetitive questions and more time resolving problems that directly affect customer trust.
How do I choose the right self-service solution for our institution's needs?
So, how do you choose the right digital banking self-service solution for your bank or financial services institution? Below are a few key features you may want to consider when evaluating your options:
- The ease of integration with your current tech stack
- Compliance with industry regulations and data privacy laws
- Timeline for implementation
- Scalability to grow alongside your business
- Availability of data-driven insights into customer behavior
Of course, every financial institution is different. Be sure to assess tools with your organization’s specific goals and needs in mind. Additionally, consider attending product demos to see the tool in action to evaluate the best fit for your institution.
Digital banking self-service is a foundation for scalable support
As digital adoption continues to grow, self-service is becoming a core part of modern banking support strategies. When customers can resolve common mobile banking issues on their own and agents have clear, reliable guidance for complex cases, institutions are better positioned to manage demand, maintain service quality and scale operations without adding unnecessary cost.
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