Summary:

• The sheer convenience of super apps is a major market driving force.
• Banks are facing significant challenges in adapting CX to these super apps.
• Optimized CX can boost personalization and omnichannel engagement for banks, giving them a competitive edge.

Which do you prefer?

• Switching between multiple apps to hitch a ride home from a bad day, order comfort food, and look for insurance policies that cover everything but your downtrodden spirit, or… 
• An all-in-one app that covers all those bases? 

 If it’s the latter, then it’s likely that you and your customers (and human nature) will enjoy the convenience, elegance, and simplicity a super app offers.

Super apps aren’t a new-fangled concept per se. Apps like WeChat and Alipay emerged from China and started out as messaging apps. They have since evolved to consolidate online messaging (e.g., Telegram), social media (e.g., Moments, Facebook), marketplaces, and services (e.g., DiDi, Grab, Uber), and more. 

In Southeast Asia, Grab and Gojek, two of the leading ride-sharing platforms, are also offering a range of other services including medical advice and financial services.

The rest of the world is catching up as well. A study by KPMG shows that in the next decade, the trend among consumers and businesses is leaning toward super apps. Savvy banks would see this as an opportunity to prepare themselves for a potential disruption. 

However, a wholesale jump onto the super app bandwagon isn’t imperative. Instead of a forced fit, taking stock of the developments of super apps and why customers are turning to them, is the key to supercharging banking CX.

Here are two reasons why banks will want to pay close attention to the rise of apps.

• Super apps are disintermediating banks from their customers

Super apps offer a range of basic financial products to their users. While these financial products are still underwritten by financial institutions, the initial touch points remain on the apps themselves. 

Ergo, super apps might be drawing traffic away from traditional banks, which can pose a serious concern if the latter do not augment their experiential value for customers.

• Customers love what super apps can offer

Furthermore, customers love the convenience, contextual communications, seamlessness, and highly personalized services a super app typically offers.

In this study by PayPal and PYMTS, 41% of global consumers report they would likely increase their banking services if they had access to a super app, and more than 90% of consumers motivated by convenience would integrate a super app into their lives.

These threats can spur banks to innovate and deliver superior CX. Depending on the digital maturation and unique goals of the bank, the exact approach it takes will likely diverge from that of another. Here are three such possible scenarios:

• Banks collaborating with super apps

Collaboration is one recourse. Banks that value partnerships can embed their services within other existing super apps in the market. However, with the limited number of super apps available, the competition for a successful partnership remains stiff.

• Legacy banks experiment with leveraging data

A more feasible approach would be to carve out one’s own digital path. Legacy banks that struggle with fragmented customer views are hindered from delivering truly captivating CX. To overcome this challenge, they need to devise a roadmap for unifying their data, gleaning customer-focused insights from it, and translating that intelligence into targeted communications and tailored customer journeys—through new digital channels and suitable technologies. This evolution can, to an extent, deliver some of the benefits that super apps promise—personalization, omnichannel engagement, and constant relevance.

• Digital-savvy banks competing against super apps

Otherwise, banks that are already servicing their customers with a mobile banking app could elevate their approach further. They can consider turning their digital banking apps into super apps by embedding their financials with other non-financial offerings.

Conclusion

Super apps have brought many benefits to the customer, and for brands, they offer advantages that go far beyond convenience—centralized insights, increased upselling/cross-selling opportunities, and more.