Banking sector must prioritize customer experience over mere service provision

Roberto Artavia, president of the board at INCAE Business School and head of Artavia Consultoría Internacional, has highlighted the shifting landscape of financial services. During a recent industry meeting, Artavia emphasized that banks must move beyond offering competitive products and security to focus on creating extraordinary customer experiences.

Artavia distinguished between the ‘customer journey’, which is the sequence of interactions to access a service, and ‘customer experience’, which encompasses the emotions and perceptions generated during that journey. He cautioned that while automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence are key to digitalization, they must be applied with precision. Technology alone does not guarantee improvement; if innovation leads to repetitive processes or ineffective automated responses, it can negatively impact the user experience.