Banking Process Improvement
Rising Churn, Eroding Margins
A regional bank with $2B in assets was experiencing a sustained increase in customer churn across its retail banking division. New customer acquisition costs were rising while retention rates were falling — a combination that was compressing margins and putting the bank's growth targets at risk.
Internal initiatives to address the problem had produced incremental improvements but had not identified or addressed root causes. The bank's leadership team recognized they needed an outside perspective and brought in IBG.
Diagnose Before Prescribing
IBG began with a six-week diagnostic phase that combined quantitative data analysis with qualitative customer and employee research. The diagnostic surfaced three primary drivers of churn that had been invisible to the bank's internal teams:
- A fragmented onboarding experience that failed to establish early product adoption habits
- Reactive customer service processes that resolved issues too slowly and without root cause elimination
- A product recommendation engine that was optimized for sales volume rather than customer fit
With root causes identified, IBG designed a three-track process redesign that addressed each driver simultaneously. New onboarding journeys, a restructured service resolution framework, and a needs-based recommendation protocol were designed, tested, and implemented over a 9-month period.
45% Lower Churn. $4M Annual Profit.
Within 12 months of engagement start, the bank had achieved a 45% reduction in retail customer churn and documented $4M in annual profit uplift from improved retention and cross-sell performance. Implementation adoption across branch locations reached 94% within the first quarter of rollout.
The bank now runs quarterly process reviews using the governance framework IBG designed — sustaining the gains without ongoing external support.