Why a seamless partner experience is crucial for your organisation 

Friso Geerlings on the importance of partner ecosystems

Date
5 June 2024

The fact that a flawless digital experience is crucial to consumers, is not new — every day we experience this ourselves when using apps or ordering things online. Less known, but just as crucial, is the partner experience (PX). Especially for financial institutions (such as banks, insurers or payment companies) a seamless PX is invaluable. Friso Geerlings, Technology Director at iO, explains why this is the case and how you can safeguard your PX. 

partnership

Consumer or partner: we all want a seamless digital experience 

In daily life, we are all consumers. We have gotten used to perfectly smooth customer journeys, and to be fair: our tolerance for poor journeys is low. 

Friso: “For years, many financial institutions have devoted a lot of attention to their direct customer experience, but too little to the experience of their partners. However, those partners also have expectations. For example, they expect an onboarding to be smooth and easy, just as they are used to as consumers. Moreover, a subpar PX leads to a chain reaction of events, ultimately resulting in a poorer experience for your end customer.” 

“A subpar PX leads to a chain reaction of events, ultimately resulting in a poorer experience for your end customer.” 


According to Friso, this feeling is only enhanced by the fact that larger tech platform players, such as Google or Salesforce, provide impeccable integrations with their partners. “As an FI, you cannot afford to operate at a lower level than those players. You have to be attractive for partners to collaborate with, and that takes time.” 

The foundation for an optimal PX: a solid partner ecosystem 

Creating a good partner experience is not something you can do overnight. It involves setting up a solid partner ecosystem that includes all elements to achieve an optimal PX. 

“You not only need to find the right partners. You also have to fit them into a well-thought-out framework”, Friso says. That framework, the so-called partner ecosystem, consists of three aspects: 

  • Engagement: including, amongst other things, branding, product information and loyalty or partner programs 

  • Onboarding: including, amongst other things, a smooth experience, scoring & acceptance (think of KYC/KYB) 

  • Integration: all elements supporting the technical integration, such as documentation, APIs, connectors and software development kits 

The partner ecosystem combines all these elements and represents the overall experience of your partners. For example, it facilitates both the people in charge of the legal onboarding and those carrying out technical integrations. 

The added value of a solid partner ecosystem 

Setting up a solid partner ecosystem requires some time and investment, but it will pay off in the long run.  

Friso: “A poor partner experience requires solid partner support, which can be extremely expensive. For example, when your documentation is incomplete or hard to find, you lose money by waiting for your partner to get fully onboarded. Additionally, this means a lot of work for your support department. However, if you ensure from the beginning that your integration is well-thought-out and all connectors are in place, onboarding becomes much easier and can proceed up to ten times faster, as experience shows us.” 

Moreover, a good partner ecosystem ensures that partners are eager to work with you. This is crucial, because the loss of partners can cost you a lot of money and customers. 

“Through your partners, you can reach specific niche markets. This is all the more reason to take your alliances seriously and provide them with an optimal service.” 


“Lastly, as an FI, you can only focus on a limited number of things. You can never do everything yourself or reach all market segments on your own. Your partners often have more expertise when it comes to their specific niche markets, so you really need them to effectively address those specific audiences.” 

That’s why it is so important to include your partners in a solid ecosystem, combining all possible building blocks to offer them a perfect service and PX. 

Building a strong partner ecosystem yourself 

Do you want to know how your FI ranks in terms of partner experience? Or are you a start-up looking to establish a solid partner ecosystem, but unsure where to begin? Our experts at iO are happy to assist you. 

Drawing from our experience, we developed the AllianceHub: a toolbox containing all necessary components to tailor-make a solid partner ecosystem for your FI. 

“Over the years, we’ve built up so many cases that we have an extensive experience and know what works.” 


Friso: “For years, we have been developing all kinds of applications and technical landscapes for financial services. We understand that FIs sometimes work with more traditional core systems that complicate integrations or involve more legacy. That’s why we always start from the customer’s point of view and create a roadmap together. Our blended expertise is a significant advantage in this regard, because we also have the necessary knowledge in certification, security and compliancy in financial services.” 

Learn more about the iO AllianceHub

Do you want to offer your partners a smooth experience and elevate both your collaboration and the experience of your end customer? Friso, along with our other experts, would be happy to explore with you how to build a solid partner ecosystem that seamlessly aligns with your organisation.  

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