This article was originally written by Avanade alum Tom Freeman.

Is your customer experience program fueling differentiation…or demise? Many banks – with the best intentions of matching the delightful experiences of retail, lifestyle, and hospitality companies – instead are embarking on transformational journeys that will lead to unnecessary expenditures, unscalable applications, and unhappy clients and employees. Here are seven pitfalls to avoid as you seek to elevate your brand through impeccable customer service:

1. Adopting for the sake of adopting. Are you committing to the next shiny new toy just because the fintechs are doing it? Working with a partner that has a thorough understanding of your business and strategy will keep your technology decisions intentional and value driven.

2. Stopping at high-level buy in. At Avanade, we’ve seen programs go wrong when owners get initial agreement to conceptual ideas yet retreat to silos as those ideas crystalize into designs and outputs. All stakeholders from IT, marketing, customer service, sales, branches, and more must be thoughtfully engaged at each decision juncture.

3. Underestimating the impact to your organization. Make no mistake: a digital transformation will force change to your operating model. So, consider the cultural fit for your company, keep your people at the center of the processes, and educate them about the tools that will empower them to solve customer problems and make a positive impact.

4. Believing that digital transformations have an end date. This process is evolutionary. It’s about helping your company adopt a digital mindset and instilling an innovative culture.

5. Neglecting a structured governance model. This common mistake has derailed many programs. Enterprise-wide data management establishes the guardrails that ensure the highest quality data sets and instill confidence in those relying on data insights. It also readies your organization to implement advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning.

6. Being unprepared to leverage data insights. As banks go through a digital transformation, the amount of useful data they can access will be exponential. Is your organization ready to deal with those insights? Can you respond by reshaping products and offerings?

7. Sidelining security and compliance. Work, overhead, and cost will be required, but security and compliance cannot be an afterthought. Build in security early and often to protect data as it travels across systems, and make sure your systems integrator has a global understanding of banking regulations.

As traditional banks intensify efforts to personalize the customer experience and remain relevant, they must anchor their programs in a technology roadmap, strong data governance, and a workforce ready for (and energized by) the insights this program will unlock.

Learn more about Avanade’s approach to rethinking customer care here.