Vad händer när relationen med kunden går från face-to-face till face-to-screen? : - En studie om hur Sveriges storbanker arbetar för att skapa lojala kunder via digitala kanaler

Sammanfattning: ABSTRACT Internet use in Sweden is among the highest in Europe. The increased availability and use of the Internet has changed people's behavior patterns. This, in turn, has made many companies choose to offer their products and services online. This means that there is less personal contact and that customer relations can be described as having gone from face-to-face to face-to-screen. Swedish banks have come a long way in terms of adapting its operations to customers’ demand in a global environment that is digitizing at a rapid pace. Today, banks offer most of their banking services via the Internet, which can be performed through digital channels such as computers, tablets or mobile phones. Current reports show that more people are willing to switch banks compared to last year and that customers perceive it as being difficult to get their needs met with just one kind of banking relationship. At the same time, it costs more for banks to attract new customers than to retain current ones, and a primary assumption behind most loyalty initiatives is that loyalty leads to increased profitability. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate how Swedish banks are working with the factors that according to previous studies are the basis for achieving loyal private customers as well as for the factors of relevance to achieving loyal retail customers through digital channels. This qualitative study has a deductive approach with elements of induction. This is the case as theory used has first been examined by us in order to create a broader approach to knowledge. This has consequently laid the foundation for our empirical survey that is based on semi-structured interviews with Sweden's major banks. The main theories used in this study are from earlier research dealing with factors contributing to customer loyalty. By virtue of this, together with the empirical data relayed by the respondents, we have been able to evaluate the factors that affect customer loyalty through digital channels in the Swedish banks. The results show that the factors, which form the basis for achieving loyal customers through digital channels are: Customer Satisfaction, Communication, Trust, Commitment, Complaint Handling and Quality of Service. It has been shown that the banks' challenge is to solve the issue of customer encounters in the absence of face-to- face interaction. Our study demonstrates that this can be remedied by offering customers online consulting instead. To be more relevant in the customer's world, banks should also offer their customers the opportunity to receive targeted messages. Social media has proven to be of great importance in terms of two-way communication between bank and customer. Negative information disseminated through social media should be addressed by trained personnel in order to avoid the spreading of negative rumors about the bank itself. This particular channel has also proved to be a good one for managing feedback. By being open to this approach to social media, banks can get rapid feedback and thus ensure that customer expectations are being met.