New survey reveals significant data about customer behaviors, preferences, and experiences with banks
Financial institutions are facing a highly competitive landscape, so they can’t afford to assume they know how customers feel about their services and banking experiences. Banks need real data and meaningful insights when seeking to understand their customers, build trust, and drive loyalty through customer experiences.
In September 2024, FICO commissioned a survey of 1,000 bank customers across the US. We asked about their banking habits and preferences, and whether their financial institutions are truly meeting their needs. Our research revealed many enlightening insights – here are the top five.
1. Primary bank status means coveted customer loyalty… for the long haul
Most consumers are loyal to one bank above all others, which is commonly referred to as their “primary” bank. Over 90% of respondents confirmed that they have a primary provider. Of these, young people are the least likely to have a primary bank account (77%), while 90% of all other older demographics have a primary bank.
When discussing customer loyalty, we should note that people generally hold more bank accounts as they get older. Our survey data reflects this:
- Only 15% of respondents said they have only one account.
- The majority (47%) maintain between two and three accounts.
This means that banks have an uphill battle to acquire new customers since most people will only use two to three banks in their lifetime – and they will remain stubbornly attached once they have chosen a primary provider.
All this seems to confirm that loyalty accrues over time as banking habits and preferences become more ingrained with age. Although it’s easier for banks to target older, more affluent consumers to open secondary bank accounts, the best time to attract a customer to make your bank their primary is when they are young and earning less. Similarly, more than half of surveyed customers (57%) claim that they’ve never changed primary providers, while only 33% have changed one or two times. The older the participants were, the more likely they were to have never changed their primary provider (42% for those ages 18–24; 80% for those over 65).
Overall, US consumers are generally loyal to one bank above all others, and shifting this fidelity to another bank is a major challenge. Banks that capture new customers early on are likely to retain their loyalty for years to come — provided they meet their expectations and communicate well.
2. Once you’ve got primary status, don’t mess it up
So, primary status matters…a lot. Once you’ve earned it, you have to work to keep it. Customers will leave their primary bank if they feel unseen, unheard, or unprotected.
We’ve established that younger customers are more open to choosing a different primary provider and are less likely to have multiple accounts. However, the main concerns among all age groups are security and customer experience. Banks must work hard to waylay these anxieties and make customers feel understood, valued, and supported.
3. Customer experience (still) reigns supreme
Shockingly, 88% of customers say that a bank’s customer experience is as important or more important than its products and services:
- 62% of participants believe that customer experience is as important as a bank’s products/services
- 26% believe it is actually more important
What exactly makes a great customer experience? When asked this question, most of customers say it’s related to how easy their bank’s app or website is to use and empathetic customer support (33% and 26%, respectively).
Our data shows that empathy and intuitive websites/apps are equally important across all age groups. Easy-to-use websites and apps seem to be particularly useful to low-income customers — 45% of them say so — while websites/apps are less important to high-earners (25%) and empathetic customer experience is deemed more crucial (35%).
Today’s customers want seamless, empathetic experiences for both digital and in-person interactions. To succeed in 2025 and beyond, banks must provide stellar experiences across all touchpoints and channels.
4. The bank products customers really want
Banking is sometimes criticized for being traditional and, well, a bit boring. Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) and crypto have added some new spiciness to the financial services industry, but in the long view, the basics matter most. Our consumer research underscored the need for banks to deliver bread-and-butter products and services.
When asked which bank products are most important to them, our survey participants said:
- Savings accounts (81%)
- Credit cards (68%)
- Loans (53%)
- Real-time payments (48%)
- Mortgages (39%)
- Investment services (37%)
- Foreign exchange (22%)
- Buy now, pay later (17%)
- Cryptocurrency (10%)
Banks should absolutely innovate and test new product offerings, but they need to make sure they’re nailing the basics that consumers demand. US customers want great products for savings, credit cards, loans, and real-time payments. BNPL and crypto garner headlines, but they are (much) further down the priority list for most people.
5. Omni-channel (compassionate) communications — the right time, tone, and channel
The foundation of an empathetic and trustworthy relationship between banks and their customers is built on open and clear communication. In today’s world, there are many ways for banks to reach out and engage customers, and each method has its specific advantages. However, we must remember that every customer is different and has their own preferred communication method and channel.
Our findings indicate that most customers prefer to receive text messages for fraud alerts (44%), account reminders (40%), late payment reminders (39%), and identity verification (39%). On the other hand, most prefer email when it comes to updates to terms and conditions (49%), marketing (46%), and information requests (33%).
In many ways, this is the key point behind omni-channel communications: Banks need customers to feel like they’re being listened to, but they must tread a fine line between keeping them updated and bombarding them with constant messaging. Moderation and personalization are key, and banks have to use the right channels to reach the right customers at the right time. This requires a strategic, data-driven omni-channel approach, which means that banks need to understand each customers’ preferences so the appropriate method of communication can be used in every scenario.
The bottom line
Our research shows that customers generally aren’t eager to switch banks, even if another brand has a better customer experience. However, bad customer experiences are very likely to drive people away. Most people now believe that customer experience is as important as banks’ products or services — and a large portion think that it’s more important. Because of this, banks must work hard to ensure they’re maintaining high-quality customer experience across all touchpoints and channels. This is the best way to ensure that they’re driving loyalty and growth across their organization.
Check out the full eBook for all of the insights we gathered in our CEX US Banking Consumer Survey. Reach out to learn more or share ideas on how to drive customer experience, loyalty, and trust.