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Do your customers actually like your brand? They may use your products and services, interact at a transactional level and, most likely, trust you. But do they like you?
This article is a call-to-action for brands within the UK financial services industry to re-think how customer loyalty is currently perceived. Wider changes linked to technology, choice and audience profile means customers are much less sticky with the financial providers they use. Enticing offers do not equate to brand endorsement. The opportunity for brands to build stickiness lies in building affinity, creating a pause point when the option of flight is on the table.
If you work in financial services, you may already be challenging this opening provocation: “It doesn’t matter whether customers like us. They use us, and that’s what counts.” In a financial services industry built on heads over hearts, where products are chosen through need rather than desire, why should being liked matter?
The fact is that it does matter. The coming together of three different, but interrelated, disruptions have led to the rules of brand engagement being re-written, particularly for younger audiences.
- The disruption of the last decade and a half. The 2008 financial crisis, Covid-19, cost-of-living pressures and persistent economic instability have unsettled established habits and expectations in ways that are only now starting to show themselves.
- Choice everywhere. Tech advances, along with the entry of disrupters across the FS sector means that consumers have more choice, access and control across the services they need.
- New audiences. Millennials and Gen Z reached financial independence in circumstances earlier generations would barely recognise.
All of the above have played a role in transforming the customer x brand dynamic. However, this is not a blunt ‘then and now‘ argument. A more useful lens is one of contrasts rather than deterministic lines in the sand.
Equally this article does not claim that all financial brands have never been liked. Building societies across the country as well as some of the fintechs would rightly dispute this. However, things have shifted. Providers once held the advantage through expertise, access, and availability, and customers deferred to them. With more choice, better information, and easier digital engagement, customers now have far more control. And this comes with real-life acquisition and – in particular – retention consequences.
Brand attraction is not brand stickiness
Our research shows that Millennials and Gen Z, compared to older demographics, expect different things from the brands they choose. Promotional incentives can attract, but rarely secure lasting loyalty among these two audiences. A reason to join is not a reason to stay.
Digital money management has also changed how customers choose and remain with providers. More than half of Gen Z and around 6 in 10 Millennials say they would have no qualms about switching their financial provider. That compares with just over 4 in 10 Gen X and just over 3 in 10 Boomers.
Money is visible and movable from a mobile device, switching is easier, and the competitive set across categories within the sector feels more fluid than it’s ever been.
Financial providers also face competition as sources of information – challenging their hold on financial expertise. Around 7 in 10 Gen Z and Millennials have watched finance content on YouTube, compared with 3 in 10 Gen X and 1 in 10 Boomers. Nearly half of those younger customers take most of their financial questions to AI platforms, compared with 1 in 10 Boomers.
These tools bring greater access, alongside new risks. Customers can compare recommendations and question what their provider tells them, and they approach the relationship expecting it to work equally for both parties.
Why moving beyond transactionalism matters
When competing providers offer similar rates, features, and perks, those benefits alone give customers little reason to stay. A better offer, a smoother interface or a more helpful competitor can tempt them away.
Habit, convenience, and the effort of moving still play a part. But brands looking for loyalty beyond those practical considerations need to build emotional connection. When customers feel that a brand understands them, shares their values or is genuinely invested in their success, they have something to weigh against a competitor’s marginally better terms.
In an industry built on logic and calculation, there is an increasing awareness of the role that emotion plays in decision-making, but how to connect effectively, credibly and authentically remains a key challenge for many financial service providers across the sector.
What affinity means for financial services
This is about affinity. A connection that makes customers feel their provider understands them and wants them to do well, without overstepping into love-bombing or credibility-damaging stunts. For younger audiences, that connection develops when a brand acts as a genuine partner in their financial lives. It shows up through:
- Empowerment over instruction. Helping customers make their own informed decisions, rather than steering them towards whatever the brand wants to sell.
- Accessibility over gatekeeping. Making financial milestones understandable and achievable, so they stop feeling like the preserve of experts.
- Mentorship over transactionalism. Taking an active interest in whether customers are drawing real value from their products and services, beyond processing their money.
- Alignment over extraction. Demonstrating how the relationship benefits the customer, as well as the provider.
These behaviours make being liked a practical part of the customer experience rather than a matter of tone.
How neobanks have reset the game
We discovered in our research that older customers are more likely to value continuity and a provider that stays in the background. Younger customers are more open to providers offering guidance and taking an active interest in their financial lives.
They are used to subscriptions and apps that keep adding value after sign-up, so expecting the same from a financial provider feels natural.
Monzo and Revolut are two cases that best illustrate how that relationship can work. They’ve made superior simplicity their benchmark. Brand tone, timely prompts, and accessible money-management tools also shape the experience of what a financial brand can be. It treats customers as people managing their financial lives rather than accounts to be serviced.
Traditional providers do not need to copy their tone, but they are judged against the experience those brands offer, and the customers that are used to regular guidance will notice its absence. Trust and safety remain essential. The opportunity is to build a more useful relationship alongside them.
Making affinity actionable
For Millennials and Gen Z, these expectations are becoming harder for providers to ignore. Brands that understand the change are better placed to build relationships that last beyond an introductory offer.
Credibility and a competitive product still come first. In practice, affinity means helping customers make informed decisions, making products easier to understand, and continuing to support them after the sale. A provider that helps customers draw more value from what they already hold has a clearer role in their lives, and that interest needs to be demonstrated consistently, through service, communication, and the way products work.
The challenge is to make affinity tangible. Do customers feel understood? Can they see how their provider is helping them, and does the relationship keep offering value once they have signed up?
Financial brands that answer those questions well give customers a stronger reason to stay. In a market where alternatives are easy to find, being needed and trusted is an important foundation.
So, as a financial services brand, this is why it’s important to address the question of whether your customers like you. In an industry where choice and ease of movement are now weighted to the customer, being liked can create a brand stickiness – a crucial moment of pause – to make customers think again when the option of flight is on the table.
Generational attitudes to financial brands
While you’re here, why not take a look at our comprehensive report: How generational attitudes are reshaping consumer expectations of financial brands. This research explores Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Boomers, where their expectations diverge, and what financial services brands should do about it.
About the author
- Bri Mcintosh
- Client Director, STRAT7 Researchbods
Bri has several years of experience delivering tactical, strategic and commercial insight with several UK financial service providers, including winning the MRS Business Impact UK Award 2025 in collaboration with Nationwide. Before joining STRAT7 he was recognised by the MRS in 2023 as a Research Hero for his excellent work around DEI.
