Customer needs and front-office technology adoption

Based on a wide survey of over 1,500 Italian customers, analyses both payment services and sales and private banking areas. In the former, human contact attributes of service prove to be overemphasized when customer satisfaction is observed. In the latter, technology seems extremely important in helping bank branch officers decide which new services to offer to which customers. In both sections customers’ clusters are identified according to the importance of different service attributes; subsequently, they are described in terms of demographic, behavioural and psychographic characteristics. Technology‐oriented unsatisfied customers seem to belong to most segments. This calls for a major shift in the approach to delivery channels the majority of Italian banks are still adopting.