User Experience Data Leading Indicator of Customer Attrition

PYMNTS asked business leaders for their take on how to plan for the rest of 2023 and what they are telling their teams to focus on. Mike Kress, FIS senior vice president of products, services, B2B and money movement, said businesses need to think like their customers.

So far, 2023 has seen continued momentum of exciting global money movement initiatives, including “PayTo” in Australia, P27 in the Nordics, FedNow in the U.S. and NPA in the U.K., just to name a few. 

These initiatives are set against the backdrop of an “ever-looming” recession, economic and industry headwinds, and once-in-a-generation cost increases in wages, goods and services.

Regardless, the focus of our business and the direction for our teams remains the same:

• Client-Centricity: Stay close to and focus on, our clients
• Innovation: Innovate in areas where FIS is strong, and clients have a growing need
• Simplification: Standardize our offerings, simplify delivery, and shorten time to value

Client Centricity

I’ve learned a number of truths about clients over the last 30 years: No clients equals no business: Your business does not exist without clients.

Ask your clients. It is such a simple activity that too few leaders remember.

• If you want to know the parts of your business that work great, ask your clients.
• If you want to know the parts of your business that cause pain, ask your clients.
• If you are wondering if a new capability should be built, ask your clients.
• If you are looking for adjacent market opportunities, ask your clients.

We are all clients — we should create an experience for our clients that we would want.

Innovation

It is important to focus our investments and our efforts in market growth areas where we have proven that we can deliver strong solutions for our clients. It is so easy to get distracted by the latest trend, but if we draw near to our clients and listen to their needs, we will have a properly prioritized roadmap.

I tell my team that we need to focus on “core,” i.e., what we know we are good at, and not “more.” We will remain focused on what we do well and invest in solutions that drive value for many of our clients vs. focusing a large amount of investment on a solution for a single client.

Simplification

Client executives worldwide have given me a consistent message over the past two years: “Please help us to deploy the standard offering for your solutions.”

There are four reasons they give:

• · We want to take full advantage of the capabilities in the solution that you have built.
• · We don’t want to perpetuate our existing process but want to move to efficiency.
• · We want to get up and running as soon as possible.
• · We want to ensure that future upgrade costs and total cost of ownership are minimized.

While 2023 is certainly starting off in an unexpected way, focusing on clients, innovation and simplicity will help any organization win the day.