21 May From Indifference to Engagement
Why 74% of Banking Customers Are Ready to Leave and How Directlink Helps Financial Institutions Win Them Back
The headline in Capgemini’s 2025 World Retail Banking Report is unmistakable: 74% of banking customers are either indifferent or unhappy with their current banking experience. That statistic is a call to arms for community financial institutions to rethink how they engage and retain their customers. Silent attrition, the gradual shift of customers to digital-first alternatives, is accelerating, and the root cause is a lack of personalized, seamless experiences.
Traditional banks are being outpaced not by their size or product offerings, but by their inability to create human-centric digital experiences. As Kartik Ramakrishnan, CEO of Financial Services at Capgemini, shared on the Banking Transformed podcast, customers are no longer loyal to banks but to convenience.
So, where do community banks and credit unions go from here?
Enter Directlink, the Conversational AI platform designed exclusively for community banks and credit unions. Let’s explore how Directlink addresses the core friction points identified in the Capgemini report and turns digital indifference into lasting engagement.
Conversational AI Platform
The Shift from Product-Centric to Customer-Centric
Capgemini’s report highlights that traditional banks think in terms of products, while digital challengers design around customer needs and experiences. This misalignment results in friction, long wait times, fragmented support channels, and repeated requests for information that banks should already have.
Directlink’s Conversational AI changes this paradigm. From Virtual Banker to Virtual KYC, each solution is built to streamline routine tasks like balance inquiries, transfers, or fraud alerts while delivering personalized, always-on support. Directlink automates over 50% of routine customer calls while achieving a +95% rate of recognition for in-domain requests, ensuring frictionless interactions at scale.
Eliminating Friction in the Customer Journey
Ramakrishnan notes that the onboarding and servicing experiences at many banks are disjointed. Customers must often repeat information across departments, a byproduct of legacy systems and siloed operations.
Directlink solves this by offering an integrated, omnichannel conversational platform that understands customer intent across voice, web, and chat. Institutions like United Bank of Georgia used Directlink to automate over 35% of all “banking-as-usual” calls within the first year while maintaining their personal community touch.
Rethinking the Role of the Contact Center
Only 24% of U.S. banking customers are satisfied with contact center experiences, according to Capgemini. Why? Long hold times, impersonal service, and redundant questions.
With Directlink, financial institutions can turn their contact centers into engagement hubs, not just cost centers. Solutions like Virtual Operator and Virtual Voice allow banks to greet customers with a consistent, branded, and human-like voice — and then route them intelligently based on real-time needs. As a result, banks using Directlink have seen hold times reduced by 30% and call escalation times drop significantly.
Securing the Digital Frontier with Smarter Authentication
Security remains top-of-mind as digital-first interactions grow. Traditional multi-factor authentication (MFA) often adds friction without meaningfully improving safety. Capgemini reports that 76% of consumers would abandon a brand due to account takeover (ATO) fraud.
Directlink’s Virtual KYC elevates authentication with risk-based, passive, and step-up methods, protecting both users and institutions from sophisticated fraud schemes — all while maintaining a smooth user experience .
From Indifference to Advocacy: The Directlink Advantage
At its core, the Capgemini report calls for a fundamental shift — from outdated banking infrastructure to proactive, personalized customer journeys. That shift is exactly what Directlink enables, helping community banks and credit unions deliver modern, secure, and meaningful service without abandoning their values.
The Bottom Line
74% of banking customers are ready to leave. Don’t give them a reason to. Instead, meet them where they are — digitally, personally, and securely. With Directlink, financial institutions can turn potential attrition into enduring loyalty.
