Omnichannel Banking: 4 Steps to Build Omnichannel Customer Experiences with Insider

“Banks are no longer just financial institutions—they’re technology companies in disguise,” says Sharanya Ravichandran, VP of Design at JPMorgan Chase.

As digital payment methods, mobile apps, and AI-driven platforms become the norm, the banks that win aren’t just those with the best rates or the most branches. They’re the ones that deliver a unified, intuitive experience at every touchpoint.

But here’s the catch: while customers expect their banking to be as smooth as ordering groceries online, many banks are still stuck with siloed systems and clunky handoffs. 

The result? Frustrated customers and a growing risk of losing them to fintech upstarts who get it right. 

Capgemini’s research found that 75% of banking customers are drawn to fintechs precisely because they offer the fast, convenient, and personalized experiences that traditional banks struggle to match.

From mobile notifications to in-branch service, from virtual assistants to human advisors, customers want every channel to work together, without friction or repetition.

So, what exactly is omnichannel banking, how does it work, and why does it matter now more than ever? 

Let’s unpack how this approach is redefining customer experience and what it means for the future of financial services.

Read more on Insider’s Customer engagement platform for financial services!

What is omnichannel banking?

Omnichannel banking creates a seamless, connected experience across all customer touchpoints like mobile apps, websites, branches, and beyond. 

Unlike multichannel banking, where each channel functions in isolation, omnichannel banking ensures that every interaction is unified and consistent. 

Powered by a Customer Data Platform (CDP), it enables real-time engagement, integrated insights, and a frictionless feedback loop that drives both convenience and loyalty.

What are the benefits of omnichannel banking

Before smartphones, instant transfers, and banking apps that knew you better than your own accountant, what did your bank really offer beyond a place to deposit checks? 

Nothing much. But in the last five years, retail banking has changed completely.

Retail banks are battling for relevance in a world where customers expect their financial experiences to be as personalized and frictionless.

The problem is, many retail banks are still running on legacy systems that create fractured experiences. 

A customer might start an application on your phone, only to be forced to finish it at a branch. 

They might contact customer service, only to repeat your story to three different representatives. 

The end result is frustrating!

But what happens when your bank knows the customer, understands their goals, and anticipates your needs across every interaction? 

What happens when you can start an onboarding process on WhatsApp, Facebook, and then seamlessly continue with an email account setup, and then finish on the app with personalized banking that feels just convenient to customers? 

That’s the promise of omnichannel banking, giving your customers a unified, customer-centric approach that integrates every touchpoint, from mobile apps to physical branches, into a single, seamless experience.

Let’s explore the benefits first: 

A. Enhanced customer satisfaction and retention

Remember when personalized service meant your local branch manager knew your name? 

Omnichannel banking allows retail banks to recreate that intimacy at scale, using customer data to deliver tailored advice, personalized offers, and proactive support across all channels. 

Imagine the customer journey as a complex, interactive story where all touchpoints are synchronized, creating personalized experiences that build trust and loyalty.

B. Increased operational efficiency through streamlined processes

Retail banks often struggle with fragmented systems, creating bottlenecks and inefficiencies that impact both customers and staff. 

Omnichannel banking leverages cloud-based platforms and AI-powered automation to streamline processes, eliminate redundancies, and free up staff to focus on higher-value interactions.

 Zendesk’s CX Trends 2025 report highlights the need for improving data security, investing in new CX technology, optimizing self-service support, and using generative AI in customer experience, all of which align with the goals of streamlining retail banking operations.

C. Data-Driven insights for personalized experiences

An omnichannel marketing approach transforms the retail bank into a robust data turbine, capturing real-time customer data across every touchpoint. 

AI-powered analytics sift through this data to identify trends, nuances, and patterns, enabling banks to deliver hyper-personalized experiences, anticipate customer needs, and proactively offer relevant products and services.

3 common challenges retail banks often face in implementing omnichannel experiences

According to Talkdesk’s 2024 CX in Banking survey, it’s not just a lack of channel options that frustrates customers. A whopping 80% cited disjointed experiences when moving across channels as the biggest source of frustration. 

That’s like ordering a pizza online and having to re-enter your address every time you call to check on the delivery.

For most retail banks, delivering this kind of unified experience is easier said than done. Siloed systems, legacy technology, and fragmented data make it tough to see the customer as a whole person, not just a series of transactions. 

Meanwhile, fintech challengers are raising the bar, offering frictionless, hyper-personalized journeys that make switching banks as easy as downloading a new app.

So why is it so hard for retail banks to get it right? It boils down to three core challenges that turn seemingly simple customer journeys into operational nightmares:

1. The disjointed experience of legacy systems:

Imagine trying to build a modern smart home on a foundation of rotary phones and dial-up modems. That’s what many banks are dealing with. 

Decades of mergers, acquisitions, and patchwork technology upgrades have left them with a jumbled mess of core banking systems, CRM databases, and channel-specific platforms that simply don’t talk to each other. It’s a data silo apocalypse.

2. Orchestrating the digital and physical symphony:

Delivering a consistent customer experience across digital and physical channels isn’t just about having a mobile app and a branch network. 

It’s about making those two worlds work in harmony. Customers expect their mobile app to know they just visited a branch, their phone conversation to pick up where their chatbot session left off, and their ATM transactions to be reflected instantly online.

But the reality is often jarringly different. Siloed data, inconsistent interfaces, and a lack of real-time synchronization can turn a simple task, like updating an address, into a frustrating maze. 

This problem leads to users facing difficulties in accessing information or support as a significant frustration, hurting loyalty.

3. Regulatory and security concerns:

From GDPR and CCPA to KYC and AML, retail banks operate in a thicket of regulatory and security requirements that can make even simple changes feel like navigating a legal minefield. 

Balancing innovation with compliance requires constant vigilance, significant investment, and a level of expertise many banks simply lack.

As AI and self-service become more prevalent, the pressure to protect customer data, prevent fraud, and ensure regulatory compliance only intensifies. 

Banks must not only adopt new technologies but also adapt their security protocols and internal processes to safeguard against evolving threats.

4 actionable steps you can take now to build an omnichannel banking experience 

So far, you’ve understood the common challenges retail banks face in implementing omnichannel experiences. Now let’s learn about the actionable steps you need to take to overcome those challenges.

1. Integrate customer data across channels

Every great omnichannel experience starts with a single source of truth: unified customer data. 

For many banks, this means investing in a robust Customer Data Platform (CDP) that brings together insights from every touchpoint—branch visits, mobile app activity, call center logs, and more—into one 360-degree view.

However, the problem is that traditional CDPs often fall short. Banks struggle with slow, complex setups and the headache of stitching together multiple point solutions just to activate their data. The result? Marketers bounce between platforms, workflows get tangled, and costs spiral.

The solution is a CDP that goes beyond storing data. Insider brings together 12+ activation channels, advanced personalization capabilities, and a customer journey builder under the same umbrella as our enterprise CDP. 

Besides that, Insider is also a leader in various categories based on reviews from customers and industry experts.

Global financial services provider Allianz was looking to deliver outstanding experiences across its digital channels. Data and privacy regulations had previously prevented Allianz from gaining a holistic view of its customers to build stronger customer experiences. However, Insider’s platform enabled Allianz to collect and store data safely and without risk. 

Insider also unified the data into one dashboard, so marketers had access to a 360-degree view of customers across all touchpoints, making it easier to create data-driven decisions and improve key results.

By connecting data across channels, Insider enabled Allianz to build AI-powered segments and deliver customer experiences tailored to each user. Allianz used this data to power an App Push campaign, which achieved an 80% opt-in rate and a huge increase in CLTV.

Read the full case study here. 

2. Leverage AI to understand and anticipate customers

Knowing what your customers did yesterday isn’t going to cut it anymore. The banks leading the pack use AI and predictive analytics to understand what their customers will want tomorrow.

You need predictive AI analytics to analyze patterns across millions of interactions to forecast needs, like when a customer might be ready for a loan or at risk of leaving for a competitor. 

That’s why a good customer data platform (CDP) like Insider is so crucial for making accurate predictions. CDPs unify customer data from different sources into one convenient database. This means they can act as a central hub for storing and analyzing customer data.

Plus, our platform’s AI-powered intent engine can analyze this unified data to come up with accurate predictions around each customer’s likelihood to purchase, likelihood to engage on a specific channel, discount affinity, and more.

When Hangikredi used real-time analytics and AI to personalize mobile loan applications, they made it effortless for returning visitors to pick up where they left off, boosting conversions by nearly 7%.

Read the full case study here.

3. Ensure consistency across every channel

Nothing erodes trust faster than inconsistency. Whether a customer is chatting with a bot, calling support, or speaking to a teller, every interaction should reflect your brand’s promise and knowledge of their journey.

Modern journey builders and automation tools let banks design, test, and optimize customer journeys across all channels. 

With solutions like Insider Architect, banks can orchestrate seamless transitions—so a customer who starts a mortgage inquiry online can finish it in-branch without repeating themselves, and every channel feels like part of a single, coherent conversation.

Insider ensures you can make every channel work together, so your customer never feels like a stranger, no matter where they show up. Here’s how: 

• Create AI-Powered segments: Automatically group customers based on their likelihood to purchase, preferred channels, or discount affinity.

• Design dynamic journeys: Map out multi-channel experiences with a simple drag-and-drop interface, triggering personalized messages based on real-time behaviors.

• Test and optimize: A/B test different messages, offers, and journey flows to continuously improve engagement and ROI.

Architect provides detailed analytics at every step, allowing you to track key metrics, identify drop-off points, and refine your strategy in real time.

This level of precision gives your customers a cohesive experience across all the platforms. Take Vodafone, for example. 

Vodafone was looking for ways to enhance its cross-channel marketing strategy and test new channels to engage its audience. They wanted to increase Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), customer retention and loyalty, and conversions.
Insider’s cross-channel capabilities—including Web Push, On-Site, Email, and Facebook—helped Vodafone engage its audience with consistent, timely messaging across multiple channels.

With 120+ ready-made attributes to segment users (including traits, behaviors, preferences, and more), Insider empowered Vodafone’s marketing team to quickly build and launch new, expertly segmented campaigns to highly targeted audiences.

Read the full case study here. 

4. Prioritize security and compliance at every step

In retail banking, your customers’ data is their most valuable asset and their deepest vulnerability.

Think about it: every transaction, every app login, every branch visit generates a trail of personal information—from account balances to spending habits to home addresses. 

This data is the lifeblood of personalization, enabling banks to offer smarter services and more relevant offers. But with great data comes great responsibility and significant risk.

Data breaches have become a constant threat. Customers know this, and they’re holding banks accountable. They expect you to protect their data as fiercely as they protect their own wallets, and they’re increasingly willing to switch banks if they don’t feel safe.

That’s why security and compliance can’t be an afterthought; they need to be woven into the very fabric of your omnichannel strategy. Meeting regulations like GDPR and CCPA is just the start; it’s about building a culture of data stewardship that earns trust and fosters loyalty.

The good news? You can make security a competitive advantage with Insider. Here’s how:

• Invisible protection: Create an omnichannel experience that feels seamless, but operates on a foundation of robust security measures. This means granular access controls, real-time threat monitoring, and strict adherence to data privacy regulations.

• Empowered control: Give customers visibility into their data and control over how it’s used, to make them active participants in their security.

Reshape the future of omnichannel banking with Insider

Banks that cling to outdated systems risk becoming relics.

The good news? Meeting those expectations isn’t a pipe dream. It’s within reach. With Insider, you can transform disjointed interactions into seamless journeys.

Our AI-driven personalization, unified data platform, and channel orchestration tools help you build banking experiences that are as fluid and intuitive as your customers expect.

Ready to stop playing catch-up and start leading the pack? To learn more about Insider, book a demo with our team or try the platform yourself.