Financial services firms have invested heavily in customer portals, yet many clients still ignore them.
The gap is not always the technology itself. It is often login fatigue, weak ongoing value, and engagement plans that do not match how people actually use long-life products.
With the rise of digital portals, companies hoped to streamline interactions and give customers a single place to manage documents and services.
Portals are widely implemented, but only a small fraction of users stay active on them month to month.
In the bonus episode of Regulated DigitalAdam Byford explains why portal engagement stays low and what firms can do to improve it.
Watch the full episode above, or listen on Spotify or YouTube.
The episode covers portal fatigue, login overload, lifecycle-led engagement, Consumer Duty pressure, and how firms should measure return visits rather than registrations alone.
Created from episode transcript
The Portal Dilemma
Despite heavy investment in digital portals, user engagement numbers often remain low.
Only 7% of people prefer receiving documents via a portal over more traditional methods like email or post, and fewer than 20% of portal users are active in any given month.
That gap matters for firms that treated portals as the default document route without checking whether customers would return.
"Everyone had the same sort of idea [about portals], and the sheer volume of those portals we've all been given access to means we either have to split our time across several different places, or we don't engage so much."
A study by J.D. Power found that only 32% of retail bank customers are classified as "digital-only" in their interactions, with many requiring additional guidance and support.
According to Keypoint Intelligence's transactional communications research, nearly three-quarters of respondents want to decide which channels their financial service provider uses to communicate with them.
Customers want channel choice, not a single default route imposed by the provider.
Overwhelming Choice and Fragmented Attention
Managing multiple portals and logins gets harder as customers collect more digital accounts.
The average consumer has 119 logins for various services, which spreads attention thin and makes occasional portal visits easy to skip.
Research by LastPass found that the average business user manages 191 passwords, adding friction to everyday digital tasks.
"People are really voting with their feet by not engaging with all those portals. The question is, 'are service providers listening?'"
Propello notes that fully engaged banking customers can bring 37% more annual revenue compared to disengaged customers.
"Companies need to add more value to their customers if they're going to attract them. It doesn't necessarily mean pushing more products; it's about adding services that save them time or money."
Many financial services portals are built, launched, and then left unchanged while customer expectations move on.
Tech firms tend to run regular refinement loops on digital products. Financial services firms often do not apply the same discipline to portals after go-live.
"What we see a lot with financial services companies versus tech companies, for instance, is that those loops of refinement don't happen often, not often enough."
McKinsey reports that banks that successfully personalise customer experiences can see a 10-30% increase in revenue and a 20-30% decrease in customer churn.
Accenture adds that 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations.
Tailoring Engagement to the Customer's Lifecycle
Customer needs in financial services change over years, not weeks.
A one-size-fits-all engagement plan rarely works for products with long life cycles, such as pensions or insurance.
"If I have a pension product that I can't touch for 40 years, it's unrealistic to expect me to engage with it on a monthly basis."
Understanding the customer lifecycle helps firms time communications when a decision is actually due.
Lifecycle-led engagement beats a fixed monthly cadence for long-hold products.
Personalised content that matches changing priorities is more likely to earn a return visit than a generic monthly nudge.
The Role of Regulation and Technology in Driving Change
Regulatory frameworks like Consumer Duty push firms to show that digital channels deliver good outcomes, not just more touchpoints.
The FCA's Consumer Duty expects firms to use data and metrics to understand customer needs across digital channels and improve the services behind them.
Sending Important Documents At Scale?
Learn how Mailock Automated helps organisations protect high-volume customer communications without forcing every recipient through a portal.
Advances in AI and machine learning can help firms tailor portal content when the underlying data and consent models are in place.
Accenture predicts that AI will add £1.2 trillion in value to the financial services industry by 2035.
"Through personalisation comes greater appreciation and engagement, because it feels like it's content that is talking to me and not just delivering generic information."
Firms need to offer channel choice without turning every interaction into a menu of options.
Accenture reports that 65% of consumers prefer a mix of digital and human interactions with their bank.
Offering choice matters, but too many options can push customers back to simpler channels.
Salesforce reports that 76% of business-to-business (B2B) customers expect consistent interactions across departments, which supports a coherent omnichannel approach.
"Offering choice is important, but not to overwhelm your customer with too many options."
User acquisition numbers should not be the North Star for portals.
Return visit rates, task completion, and feedback on the quality of interactions when customers log in give a clearer picture of whether a portal is working.
"Simply registering a customer to use your portal is not enough. What's important is understanding how often they return and what they're doing when they're there."
AI and machine learning are likely to change how portals personalise content and reduce repetitive admin for customers.
A survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit found that 85% of financial services executives plan to increase AI-related investments through 2025.
Continuous Refinement
Customer portals can support engagement in financial services, but only when firms keep refining them, reduce friction, and match contact to the customer's lifecycle.
Focus on delivering value, simplifying access, and using technology where it makes the portal feel relevant rather than generic.
FAQs
Why Do Financial Services Portals Struggle with Engagement?
Customers may face too many logins, unclear value, and little reason to return after the first interaction.
What Helps Improve Portal Adoption?
Show clear value, reduce effort, time prompts well, and keep improving the journey using real customer behaviour.
How Should Firms Measure Portal Success?
Look beyond logins to completion, repeat use, customer outcomes, and whether the channel reduces avoidable service friction.
Sam Kendall works on digital marketing at Beyond Encryption, helping build B2B marketing activity around research, first principles, and sustainable growth. He writes about marketing effectiveness, positioning, customer communications, and digital culture, with longer-form work published at ATNL.
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Sam Kendall
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