What separates a well-designed customer journey from one that actually works? In this interview, Joaquin Dimas argues that most banking CX problems aren't design problems at all – they're ownership problems. Discover why trust is built through consistency, why more data rarely means more relevance, and why "operational readiness" – not the journey map – is where most banks quietly fail.
Included in this collection:
Open collection
Interview with Joaquin Dimas about the art of modern customer experience
Interview with Joaquin Dimas, expert & senior consultant for customer experience, msg for ba
SEK, DKK, NOK: How ISO 20022 connects Nordic payments to your ERP
The art of modern banking: Why creativity is shaping the future of banking
A "European regulation-ready CRM" as key success factor for modern banking in Europe
Interview with Christoph Prellwitz about the art of modern banking
Interview with Christoph Prellwitz, Member of the Executive Board, msg for banking ag We s
We spoke with Joaquin Dimas, Senior IT Consultant for customer experience at msg for banking, about the art of modern banking and why art and customer experience are such a natural fit.
Customer Experience is often associated with technology, automation, and efficiency. Where do creativity and emotion come into play, especially in banking?
(Joaquin Dimas) JD: Honestly, if you only look at CX through the efficiency lens, fewer clicks, more automation, you end up reducing banking to a transaction machine. And banking just isn’t that. Financing a home, planning for the future, dealing with uncertainty. These moments carry real weight for people.
It's about designing for the moment that actually matters to the customer, instead of just the next process step.
Joaquin Dimas Senior IT Consultant, msg for banking ag
That’s where creativity comes in for me. Not in the sense of making things prettier. It’s more about designing for the moment that actually matters to the customer, instead of just the next process step. Technology can make things faster. But deciding which moment deserves that attention, that’s a human, creative call.
We chose shades of red as a colour code for Customer Experience. Shades of red stand for activity, energy, and seamless interaction. What does that mean in practical terms for the design of meaningful customer journeys and digital experiences?
JD: I like “activity and energy” as a metaphor, because CX really isn’t static. It’s movement. A journey is never just one screen or one campaign.
In practice though, that doesn’t mean more notifications or louder design. It means something simpler. When a customer switches from the app to a phone call, the conversation shouldn’t start from zero. The advisor should already know what happened. That’s what “seamless” actually means once you take the marketing language out of it.
Where do banking customer journeys today still feel too functional, fragmented, or internally driven and where is fresh thinking most needed?
JD: Pretty much everywhere banks are organized around products and departments instead of around situations. A customer doesn’t experience five internal teams. They experience buying a home, or dealing with a problem.
For me, the more interesting question isn’t how do we fix this touchpoint. It’s who actually owns the experience end to end. A lot of these problems aren’t design problems at all. They’re ownership problems, and that’s something most banks haven’t really sorted out yet.
Many banks are investing heavily in AI and automation. Can technology alone create meaningful customer experiences or does the human factor become even more important in the art of designing customer journeys?
JD: Technology alone can’t create meaningful experiences. It can create speed and scale, sure. But meaning comes from context, and context is something AI only gets right if the foundation underneath it is solid. Reliable data, clear processes, people who actually trust what the system tells them.
Without that, AI doesn’t fix anything. It just makes existing problems louder and more visible faster.
So the human factor matters more, not less. Someone still needs to judge where speed is the right answer and where a real conversation matters. AI raises the bar for CX thinking. It doesn’t replace it.
Technology alone can't create meaningful experiences.
Joaquin Dimas Senior IT Consultant, msg for banking ag
How can banks transform customer journeys from purely functional interactions into experiences that truly create trust, relevance, and differentiation?
JD: Trust comes first, and it’s built through consistency. The bank doing what it said it would do, when it said it would. People don’t trust messaging. They trust patterns they’ve seen repeated.
Once trust is there, relevance is the next step. That means using data responsibly, at the right moment, in the right channel. Most banks already have plenty of data. The hard part is connecting it well enough to actually act on it.
Most banks already have plenty of data. The hard part is connecting it well enough to actually act on it.
Joaquin Dimas Senior IT Consultant, msg for banking ag
And differentiation only really works once those two are in place. Otherwise even a creative idea feels disconnected. This is also where something like BSI Customer Suite earns its place, not as a shortcut, but as the layer that ties customer data, journeys, and process logic together so it’s actually executable.
What can banks learn from creative industries about making complex experiences intuitive, memorable, and human, without losing the reliability and trust that banking requires?
JD: It’s not really about aesthetics. It’s about intentionality. Creative industries are good at designing rhythm and pacing. People remember how clearly they were guided through something, not just what happened.
That doesn’t mean banking should become playful or entertaining. It deals with risk and regulation, so that’s the wrong direction. What it can borrow is thinking in arcs instead of single transactions. What happens after the loan gets approved. Does the relationship keep going with intent, or does the bank disappear until the next campaign? That’s the part most banks still get wrong.
Many banks have already mapped customer journeys and invested in digital channels. Why do these journeys still often fail in practice?
JD: Because a journey map isn’t a journey. A lot of the conceptual work is genuinely done well. Touchpoints are documented, platforms are live. But the real test starts after go live.
It fails when ownership is unclear once the project is finished. When a service employee has the right script but can’t see the interaction history that would actually make it useful. The customer feels all of that without knowing exactly why. They just sense the bank isn’t quite connected.
That gap has a name, by the way. Operational readiness. The art isn’t designing the journey on paper. It’s making it deliverable in practice.
the art of modern banking
Just as art translates complex ideas into a powerful visual language, banks must redesign their systems, processes and customer journeys – making them intuitive, transparent and consistently user-centric. Whether AI, the digital euro, cross-border payments or regulatory requirements – the real challenge does not lie in the technology itself, but in how it is designed, communicated and experienced.
Our conviction is clear: Creative minds. Powerful banking.
Discover even more interesting articles on this topic.
