In an article titled, “Why the Customer Journey in Banking will Never Be ‘Digital Only,’” in the Financial Brand Newsletter, it states, “Banks and credit unions tend to approach the consumer journey as a logical progression from point A to point B, and therefore assume that consumers want to remain in the channel they started in.”

The assumption is people stay “in-channel”—once they start in one channel they stay for the duration of the journey. But just like TV, it’s easy to change the channel. New research by ForeSee (January 2018) finds the customer journey is one of many channels and touch points.

The research found that for regional banks:

• 36% of journeys start on the web> then 73% end up in a branch> 22% end on the phone
• 5% start in a contact center > 67% end in a branch
• 40% start in a branch > 94% end in a branch
• 18% start on mobile > 59% end in a branch > 25% end on mobile

There were similar results for Credit Unions and national banks.

It’s human nature to try to oversimplify the process and point to “one thing” that makes all the difference. But for savvy marketers, who deeply understand their customers’ journeys and know that there are multiple paths and an infinite variety of complex touch points, the success and conversion rates will be much higher. Each touch point, digital and non-digital, makes “all the difference.”

When the customer does walk into a Branch, “you need to ask them about their journey.” It’s this real market research that will reveal what is actually happening in an omni-channel, digital/non-digital world.