Customer Experience Analysis: 5 Stunning Insights of Credit Cards in Australia

Australian Credit Card Industry Growth Drivers

Total credit card transactions in Australia have steadily grown in the last 5 years by various factors:

1. Convenience of use, and higher reliance on card over cash for everyday transactions has led to the increased credit card use
2. Australians are looking for competitive deals when shopping for a new credit card. Higher rewards and promotions on credit cards is leading  to growth in the industry.
3. The higher number of millennials who are digital savvy are contributing to the growth.
4. Technology advancement such as the AI (artificial intelligence) is making it possible to better predict and meet consumer needs.

Customer Experience Analysis: 5 Stunning Insights of Credit Cards in Australia

Leading companies such as The Coca-Cola Company and Barclays, have constantly improved its existing products and focused on developing new products using consumer insights. The Coca-Cola Company aligns its corporate strategy of ‘refreshing everyone who is touched by our business’,  by gathering consumer insights. It conducts consumer analysis to identify the consumer preferences and expectations. Similarly, Barclays conducted customer analysis to gather consumer insights thereby enabling to better understand the needs of their target market.

Consumer insights has emerged as an important tool to improve customer experience. By looking into consumer psychology and the forces behind customer buying behavior, companies can craft new products, thereby improving customer experience. Companies should talk to consumers, watch out for frustrations, and most importantly, identify their needs and expectations!   

Clootrack analyzed 1,17,998 user conversations online and picked out 5 important factors that customers feel as ‘must-haves’ in a credit card service provider. 

Influencing user’s decision to choose a specific credit card can be challenging for retail banks and credit unions. Many users feel that the process of finding and applying for a new card is difficult or overwhelming. While most of the users value their credit cards as important financial and credit tools, their conversations clearly point at factors that they consider important while choosing a credit card. So what are consumers actually looking for when shortlisting a credit card service provider? Here are the top 5 factors that users are looking for while choosing a credit card:

1. Quick Approval 

Choosing the right credit card depends on financial needs of the user, and it can take a long time to find the perfect match. But when the financial needs become urgent, all that users want is quick approvals and access to credit immediately. Users look for the best credit card that will be approved without any hassles and offer negotiable interest rate based on credit history. 

2. Fraud Protection

No doubt it has become easier and quicker to use credit cards, but it has also become riskier as attackers can access your information to make purchases. It is obvious consumers are worried. Hence users are asking for secure features, transaction alerts, intelligent usage trackers and user driven fraud protection limits. Users want to be proactive to secure their credit card information.

3. Customer Service

When a problem arises, customers seek for a guarantee of being able to reach out to a customer support representative who can help you in a quick and efficient manner.  They ask for fast call center as well as greater dispute resolution speed. In addition customers also consider app and mobile based complaint tracking as one of the biggest factor for choosing a credit card. 

4. Advanced Features

Customers no doubt ask for the basic fraud prevention features in a credit card, but they also consider advanced fraud protection features to avoid becoming a victim of online fraud. Customers are asking for electronic chip protection, virtual and bio-metric cards, no duplicate holograms and security, anti-phishing and online fraud systems to further strengthen the fraud prevention.

5. Flexible Rewards

Rewards rank as one of the most attractive benefit a credit card can offer. Most of the consumers say reward is an important factor for them while choosing a credit card.  Consumers prefer to have rewards such as convertible points and miles, swap for banking services, convert points to cash and also to switch programs easily. 

A feel good factor is something that makes people feel happy and positive about the products and services that are offered to them. When it comes to choosing a credit card processing company, the options seem endless. We analyzed and below are top 4 factors that make credit card users feel good about the service provider:

Top 1: Exclusives

All credit card companies offer a lot of incentives and rewards for choosing their service. But how do customers select the credit card services from a whole lot of providers? Customers are happy when they are made to feel like a king by offering them exclusive benefits such as exclusive merchandise, party event invites, designer and chick wear discounts and in-store previews. These definitely stand out from the crowd thereby leaving your users a very good feeling.  

Top 2: Zero Fee

Customers feel that paying a huge annual fee on your credit card is worth it only if you get substantial rewards in return. Else they feel wise to keep credit cards with no annual fee. Customers are looking to pay almost everything with a credit card. Hence they are looking for a company that offers online discount and zero rates, foreign fee zero, zero rated purchases, conversion to installment pay, extend pay period by fee and annual fee waiver.

Top 3: Credit Limit

All credit card issuers assess the credit limit when a customer first applies for a credit card. But customers are asking for flexibility in the credit limit. Customers like the idea of being able to purchase without worrying about a pesky credit limit. They are asking for flexible credit limits, holiday expansion limits, holiday extend for free and varying limits credit cards. These added benefits go a long way in making the customer feel good about their credit card.

Top 4: Transfer and Consolidate

A balance transfer gives a customer a way to combine credit card debts so that they don’t have to juggle different interest rates and payment due dates. Customers are looking at options such as easy transfer between banks, consolidate balances, interest fee discount, upgrade cards, and free merging. Customers are expecting that credit card companies won’t charge anything for the balance transfers. This is an excellent opportunity for credit card providers to engage and attract users and create a feel good factor.