Customer experience in banking - where is the north star for card issuers?

Banking technology is evolving very quickly. Digital innovation may have started with internet banking and mobile apps, but it’s now expanded to include smart digital banking assistants, omnichannel banking experiences and AI that can predict customer needs before they even arise. Yet having better or smarter technology than your competitors doesn’t alone guarantee success.

As Steve Jobs said, “You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.” This simple idea still holds true today - whatever technology trends are currently on the radar, the key point remains that without great UX or CX, any technology is essentially doomed. So while banks have access to more technology than ever, the important question to ask is: how will it make life better for customers?

In this article, we’ll explore this question for card issuers in Europe. We’ll look at how to make customer experience your main competitive edge, how to keep the human touch in an AI world and how to roll out ‘invisible’ digital banking features.

In most cases, banking apps are used but not loved. This is why great customer experience has become such a key battleground in retail banking across the DACH region. In Germany, ING has been the top-ranked bank for customer experience for three years running.

What makes leaders like ING stand out is how they personalise services in ways that add value to the customer experience. For example, ING’s ‘Save Up’ feature helps Belgian customers save by automatically rounding up transactions to the nearest euro. It’s simple and low-tech, but extraordinarily effective - customers love the extra control it gives them over their finances.

Some forward-thinking banks have started to focus on ‘lifetime banking’, creating experiences that change to address customers’ needs at different life stages. For example, Deutsche Bank’s Global Hausbank Strategy focuses on building long-term customer relationships by offering tailored solutions that evolve with them as they hit certain life milestones, such as starting a new career, buying a new home and planning for retirement. Rather than treating each product separately, forward-thinking banks are building ecosystems that anticipate what customers will need before they even realise it themselves.

As banking becomes more digital, there’s a growing tension between advancing technology and keeping things human-centred. The American designer and author, Frank Chimero, famously said that “people ignore design that ignores people" - and that's never been more relevant for DACH card issuers.

N26’s multilingual AI assistant, Neon, shows how technology can enhance rather than replace human connection. By handling 30% of routine customer service questions, it frees up human operators to deal with the more complex and nuanced issues that need empathy and understanding. The result? More meaningful human interaction, not less.

This more balanced approach is particularly important in the DACH region, where 88% of Germans say they won’t use a product or service until it has strict AI controls. For card issuers, this suggests that being transparent about how AI is used within their service would be well-received by customers.

The most effective banking strategies will balance technological innovation with a human approach. This could be achieved by developing user interfaces that understand context - recognising when customers need quick, efficient service, and when they might benefit from more guidance or education. Card issuers that find this balance will be able to create banking experiences that feel both advanced and trustworthy, suiting the privacy-conscious DACH market.

Many European banks know they need to transform digitally but struggle to move from intent to action. This gap between awareness and execution is often referred to as the ‘transformation paradox.’ We see this when banks try to move beyond transactional interfaces to create meaningful emotional connections with their customers. Most know they should do it, but few successfully manage to.

The issue is less that banks lack the technical skills, and more to do with priorities, timing, how internal teams work together and management boldness. Research shows that 82% of respondents in the banking sector view customer experience as the leading driver behind customer loyalty, yet implementation lags behind intention. And two-thirds of banking leaders say their slow rate of digital transformation has caused them to miss out on acquiring new customers. Meanwhile, Forrester’s 2024 European Banking CX Index shows the quality of customer experiences across European banks has dropped significantly, with smaller challenger banks outperforming them. What explains this gap?

Legacy systems may be part of the problem - globally, 58% of banks still rely on mainframes that are between 5 and 30 years old. But the bigger blocker is often cultural, with some banks continuing to think in terms of products rather than experiences that add real value to customers’ lives.

The UK credit card provider Yonder shows how a different approach can work, focusing on building strong emotional connections with their customers. Rather than emphasising traditional credit card features, they’ve created a lifestyle ecosystem around their product. As discussed in a G+D Netcetera podcast, Yonder shifts the focus away from transactions and payments towards helping customers discover the ‘hippest’ restaurants and events through their app. The credit card itself becomes almost secondary - a background utility in a primarily emotional experience centred on dining and lifestyle discoveries. This approach has earned them an impressive Net Promoter Score of +77 and industry leading customer reviews. Interestingly, 23% of their customers are accessing credit for the first time, showing how this experience-focused strategy can develop trust even amongst new customers who are less familiar with the brand.

For banks looking to transform digitally in 2025, the message is clear: stop seeing customers as account numbers and start seeing them as people with complex feelings about their money. This could involve:

• Using data to spot what customers might need next
• Making banking tasks simpler and less stressful
• Creating pleasant surprises that make everyday banking more enjoyable

For banks to create meaningful digital experiences for their customers, they’ll need to think beyond their traditional banking products. As G+D Netcetera’s digital wallet solution demonstrates, the most effective way to improve customer engagement is to integrate banking services seamlessly into their lives.

Our Banking App Takeover Prevention SDK is an example of how a security feature can enhance rather than complicate the user experience - when a user registers a new device, the SDK identifies it, performs a risk assessment and sends a secure activation link to the customer’s verified mobile number. This happens seamlessly and quickly in the background. The SDK enables banks to protect their customers while also building customer trust.

As we’ve seen, racing to keep up with the latest technology isn’t a great way to keep customers happy. Instead, focusing on customer experience should be at the heart of every card issuer’s strategy.

For banks in the DACH region, success in 2025 will come from putting customer needs at the centre of their digital business decision making. By doing this, everything else should fall into place more easily - technology choices, strategic partnerships and even how you approach regulatory compliance should all become clearer because you know exactly who you’re serving and why.

The most successful DACH banks will be the ones that use technology as a tool to deliver banking experiences that feel personal, trustworthy and satisfying to use. In an industry where banking products can look similar on paper, differentiating through improved customer experiences can really set card issuers apart.