Systematic evaluation of banking sector customer trust building and maintenance strategies

Posted: Sep 05, 2008

• Avery Nguyen
• Charlotte Jones
• Chloe Young

Abstract

The banking sector faces unprecedented challenges in establishing and maintaining customer trust in an era characterized by digital transformation, increasing regulatory scrutiny, and heightened consumer expectations. Trust represents the fundamental currency of financial relationships, yet traditional approaches to trust measurement and management have proven inadequate in capturing the complex, multi-faceted nature of trust dynamics. Current literature predominantly focuses on either transactional metrics or survey-based satisfaction measures, overlooking the temporal evolution and contextual dependencies that characterize trust formation in banking relationships. This research addresses critical gaps in understanding how trust develops, sustains, and erodes in modern banking contexts. We propose that trust in banking relationships operates through three distinct but interconnected dimensions: transactional reliability, relational connection, and institutional credibility. Each dimension follows different developmental trajectories and responds to different strategic interventions. Traditional banking institutions have struggled to adapt their trust-building strategies to the digital age, often applying analog-era approaches to digital contexts with limited success. Our study introduces a novel computational framework that integrates natural language processing, temporal pattern analysis, and behavioral economics principles to create a dynamic trust assessment system. This approach enables real-time monitoring of trust indicators across multiple customer interaction channels, providing banks with unprecedented visibility into the health of customer relationships. The framework represents a significant departure from conventional trust measurement methodologies by capturing both explicit and implicit trust signals across the customer journey. The research addresses three primary questions: How do trust dynamics evolve over time in banking relationships? What are the most effective strategies for building and maintaining trust across different customer segments? Can trust erosion be predicted and prevented through early intervention strategies?