Marktanalyse Archive | Pragmatica AG

Digital Onboarding in Banking

Dominik Weber — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 13:03:00 +0000

Digital Onboarding in Banking

Mystery Shopping: What Swiss Retail Banks Reveal

Set up quickly, never used: Why digital onboarding in banking doesn't begin until after the deal is closed

Pragmatica analyzed leading Swiss retail banks as part of a mystery shopping study:

The analysis covered cantonal banks, major retail banks, as well as challenger and neobanks. The analysis is not a scientific study, but rather a practical assessment from the perspective of customer expectations and the customer experience.

Digital onboarding at many banks is significantly better today than it was just a few years ago. Opening an account, receiving an IBAN, activating online or mobile banking, and using a card: What used to take days or weeks can now be done almost instantly with several providers.

But this is precisely where the real challenge lies.

Just because a customer relationship has been established doesn’t mean it’s an active one. The crucial moment comes after the deal is closed:

Is the bank’s clientele provided with clear guidance?

Do customers know what to do next?

Do they experience initial, tangible added value, and is that momentum leveraged to highlight relevant service offerings?

What the Market Analysis Shows

The good news: 14 out of 15 digital onboarding processes deliver a successful customer experience.

Many banks today guide customers smoothly through the account-opening process, adopt a “mobile-first” approach, and provide key services such as IBAN, banking apps, or cards relatively ready in no time.

The figures clearly show the progress that has been made:

IBAN: Available immediately in most cases
E-/M-Banking: Available after 1 business day, on average
Card: Available on average after 3 business days
7 banks offer instant enabling and e-/m-banking activation
3 banks offer instant card issuance

At the same time, significant differences remain. The timeframe for providing an IBAN ranges from immediately to 8 business days; for e-banking and mobile banking access, from immediately to 10 business days; and for the card, from immediately to 12 days. More than half of the banks still rely on physical mail—and thus fail to meet the expectations of many new customers for a fully digital onboarding process.

Even more importantly: After opening an account, many banks go quiet—with the only interruption being physical letters containing the card and login information. There is often no clear strategy for guiding new customers toward their first active use of the account. Neobanks like Revolut and Neon show how it’s done.

How does your bank rank in the onboarding comparison?

We analyze your customer journey, identify gaps, and prioritize quick wins. Get in touch for a no-obligation session!

Where banks are wasting potential

No bank is entirely convincing throughout the entire customer journey. Often, the onboarding process itself is solid, but the transition to active use remains weak.

Common fractures include:

Switching between multiple apps and having to log in repeatedly slows customers down
Physical mail interrupts digital journeys.
The next steps aren’t always clear.
Welcome messages provide information but do not engage
True “WOW” moments are rare.
Feedback is rarely sought after onboarding—potential for improvement remains untapped

However, positive examples show what is possible:
An IBAN that is immediately visible, structured welcome emails that guide customers through the first few weeks, seamless app activation, well-designed mobile journeys, or a high-quality card presentation. Moments like these build trust and increase the likelihood that customers will actually use their new banking relationship.

The First 90 Days Are Crucial

Three archetypes emerge during the activation phase:

Strong Enablers Without Follow-Through Momentum

They make the account, app, and card available quickly, but then hardly capitalize on that momentum to encourage further use or offer relevant promotions.

Aggressive Activators

Frequent reminders about making a first deposit or using the service can draw attention, but they can quickly come across as intrusive.

Constant Companions

This group uses regular newsletters or app notifications. However, personalization is often still lacking. Generic communication is no substitute for a customer journey that is based on the customer’s actual behavior.

“Best-in-class” doesn’t mean more communication.

It means more relevant communication: at the right time, through the right channel, and with clear benefits.

From Onboarding to an Active Customer Relationship

Banks should not view digital onboarding as a completed process, but rather as the starting point of the client lifecycle.
Key questions include:

Which activation triggers are missing: login, first card use, first payment, or receipt of pay?
How much communication is “just right” —and which communication is behavior-based rather than generic?
How is the transition to the self-service catalog managed (CLM events)?

Those who systematically use these signals can better support new customers, reduce drop-offs, increase self-service usage, and tap into cross-selling and upselling potential in a more targeted way.

Pragmatica supports banks precisely at this intersection: digital onboarding, self-service and client lifecycle management, multi-experience and channel management, as well as CRM and consulting.

We combine market analysis, user journey analysis, UX optimization, and implementation experience.

A good place to start is with an Onboarding & Activation Quick Check:
In 2 to 3 weeks, we’ll analyze your customer journey, identify gaps, and prioritize the most important quick wins.

Act now

Opening an account is an important step. The real value comes afterward.

The quality of this initial experience serves as a calling card for your firm and significantly shapes how it is perceived as a confident partner for its clients’ financial needs.

Schedule a no-obligation session with Pragmatica and take advantage of our service offering, experience and expertise.

We’ll show you how your bank stacks up against the competition, what potential still exists in your onboarding experience and in customer activation, and which measures will yield quick results.

Contact

Dominik Weber

Lead CLM & Self-Services

dominik.weber@pragmatica.ch

+41 79 286 93 35

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Market analysis of video consulting for Swiss insurance companies

Pragmatica Editorial Team — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 10:38:00 +0000

What is the status of video consulting at the 20 leading Swiss insurance companies?

There is always room for improvement in video consulting and the upstream and downstream processes. Nevertheless, pioneers can be identified among the insurers.

In September and October 2023, we carried out a comprehensive market analysis of video consulting with the leading 20 Swiss health and multi-branch insurers. The study was carried out using desk research and real consultations as part of mystery shopping. It should be noted that this is not a scientifically prepared study.

Online appointment booking only possible in some cases

The market analysis showed that the option of binding online appointment booking is not yet established with most insurers. This often leads to an unwanted media disruption, as the appointment has to be made by telephone after filling out the online contact form. In the area of health insurance, three companies set positive accents with particularly simple and seamless online appointment scheduling, while only one multi-branch insurer offers such a solution – albeit without the option of a video consultation.

Lots of potential in the appointment invitation

The professionalism of appointment confirmations, invitations and reminders varies considerably. Only 25% of the insurers analyzed meet a high quality standard when sending out invitations for video consultations by ensuring that all relevant information about the advisor, the consultation and, if applicable, the technical introduction to the consultation is included and that the invitation contains correct branding and an email signature. In contrast, 75% of the invitations to video consultations appear improvised and less professional, with individual components often being forgotten.

Response times of up to two weeks

The response times from the appointment request to the written invitation to the video consultation vary considerably. For the few insurers with an online appointment system, appointments were confirmed immediately and automatically. The turnaround time was correspondingly short and, depending on availability, the consultation could be held the very next day. However, it was very surprising that almost half of the insurers required several inquiries via the contact form in order to arrange an appointment. In the worst-case scenario, this meant that a response to the appointment request only arrived after two weeks.

Our analysis and experience as a fictitious customer shows that direct online appointment booking leads to a more seamless and convenient customer journey and significantly shortens the time from the appointment request to the consultation. This can make all the difference - especially during the notice period.

Interaction with the camera needs to be learned

The professional competence of the advisors was not explicitly examined. However, this much can be said: we felt that we received competent advice throughout. The focus of our analysis was on video consulting skills and in particular on performance and tool skills (e.g. interaction with the camera, general camera settings, handling of tools such as Microsoft Teams, etc.). Our experience was very mixed and ranged from cropped heads, very blurred video images and camera angles from the side down to very distracting factors in the background.

The consulting experience was only occasionally convincing

A key advantage of video consultations is the ability to share the screen in order to explain insurance solutions in an understandable and visually supported way. Surprisingly, almost half of the insurers surveyed achieved low results, as they either did not use the screen sharing function or only shared basic information. Only six insurers were convincing in this area by providing interactive advice and using various supporting tools to visualize insurance solutions or calculate and compare different options live.

Media discontinuity when signing documents

As the customer experience does not stop at the consultation, we have also investigated the possibilities for an electronic signature. Digital signatures are offered by many insurers, but very few offer them in the form of an electronic signature that is properly embedded in the process. In the end, we were often referred by the advisor to the physical route with postal delivery of the documents and a handwritten signature. Another media disruption that we didn’t like in our role as a digitally savvy customer.

No secure channel for the exchange of sensitive information

document exchange for new customers. Sensitive or particularly sensitive data – for example health data – should have been sent by email. Alternatively, it would have had to be sent by post, which would have created another media disruption. As a new customer with a digital affinity, this physical alternative would not have been convenient enough for us, which is why, for better or worse, we would have sent our data by e-mail and at the same time run into a data security problem. This problem must be solved by the insurers.

In recent years, customer demand for video consulting services has increased significantly, offering great potential for an effective and efficient sales process and optimized customer interaction. We’ll help you overhaul what in many places began as a digital version of an analog process to create a modern customer experience and increase close rates on digital consultations. In addition, we support you when it comes to video, tool and process expertise in order to support the many years of routine, experience and advisory skills of your customer advisors. We would be pleased to offer you a non-binding exchange of experiences, during which we can already highlight initial optimization possibilities and provide more details about our services related to video consultation.

Room for improvement throughout

Our market analysis has shown that health insurers are several steps ahead overall. Nevertheless, no insurer convinced us unreservedly across all the points examined. So there is still room for improvement, even among the pioneers.

We are convinced that the advisory process of the future will require a hybrid approach, especially for products that require intensive advice. Video advice is an effective piece of the puzzle that makes it possible to experience personal advice from anywhere. However, it is not enough to simply transfer a physical consultation to the video channel. Rather, video consultations must be seen as a new form of consultation. And this requires new approaches and solutions to offer customers a personalized and seamless experience.

Legend: Dark = multi-branch insurer / light = health insurer

We are convinced that a hybrid advisory approach with the clever use of video consultations, an end-to-end omni-channel approach and smart processes is the key to efficient and effective sales.

Would you like to find out more?

If you are an insurer and would like to find out the individual results of our market analysis, including our recommendations for action tailored to your needs, please contact us at info@pragmatica.ch. We look forward to exchanging ideas with you!