In fintech, the instinct is almost always the same: Build more. A new feature, a new tool, another integration. The roadmap is endless. But what if the real key to growth isn’t your product at all?
What if it’s how you engage the people using it?
The feature fallacy
It’s tempting to believe that innovation means building. After all, fintechs live at the intersection of technology and financial utility. But here’s the reality: Many of the most feature-rich fintech apps are the same ones struggling with activation, engagement and retention.
Chances are, users aren’t leaving because you’re missing a feature. They’re leaving because nothing about the experience made them want to stay.
The real growth ceiling
One industry benchmarking analysis found the average CAC for fintech (B2B) to be about $1,450 per customer, the highest among 22 SaaS industries analysed (First Page Sage). At the same time, OneSignal reports that only 8.03% of finance app users remain active 30 days after sign-up. That’s a brutal drop-off—and it reveals the problem clearly: you can’t afford to lose users after they arrive. And you won’t keep them by just building more stuff.
You’ll keep them by delivering experiences that feel personal, timely, and intuitive.
Customer experience is the real differentiator
Personalisation used to be a ‘nice to have’. Now it’s survival.
Our research found that companies that excel at personalization generate 40 percent more revenue from those activities than average players.
McKinsey & Company
What separates successful fintechs isn’t their product catalogue. It’s how quickly and intelligently they respond to user behaviour. Whether that’s sending the right nudge after a failed transaction or recognizing the signs of dormant accounts before they churn, the experience layer is the new battleground.
But ‘experience’ isn’t just UX polish or marketing automation. It’s the orchestration of data, decisions and messaging in real time. That’s what makes it meaningful.
What most fintechs get wrong
Most fintechs are data-rich but context-poor. They collect enormous volumes of user data – transaction logs, login behaviour, balances, device types – but struggle to turn it into real-time, relevant action.
Why?
Because the tech stack often isn’t built for real-time decisioning. CRM and analytics teams are siloed from product. And journeys are pre-built flows, not dynamic, event-triggered experiences.
That’s where growth gets stuck.
The shift: From product-led to CX-led growth
Let’s be clear: Your product matters. But its success depends on how well you guide, personalise, and react to your users at every moment.
- Detects key user behaviour (e.g., app install without onboarding, large deposit, payment failure)
- Decides how to respond instantly based on rules, AI models or business logic
- Delivers the right message, through the right channel at the right time
It’s that orchestration that turns a passive tool into a platform people return to.
A quick illustration
Two fintechs offer identical savings tools.
- Fintech A launches the product and sends users a one-time welcome email.
- Fintech B detects when a user sets a savings goal, then:
- Sends a motivating message within 15 seconds
- Offers a progress tracker with milestone nudges
- Re-engages after inactivity with relevant, personalised messages
Fintech B wins – not because of the product, but because of the journey.
Final Thought: Growth isn’t a feature. It’s a feeling
When fintechs start thinking less like infrastructure and more like living, breathing customer experiences, growth follows. The real opportunity isn’t building more.
It’s building smarter, faster, more personal.
And that’s a CX problem worth solving.
