A competitive interest rate has always been key to winning business in the hotly contested savings space, and never more so than in today’s times, when cash strapped consumers are grappling with a long running cost of living crisis.
While the stress may have begun to ease a touch of late, cost of living pressure continues to weigh heavily on Australian consumers, according to the NAB Consumer Sentiment Survey Q2, 2025 [1]
As a result, they’re cutting back on outgoings – everything from treats, streaming services and holidays to health practitioner visits – and stashing their cash into savings or offset accounts.
Rates and relationships
But offering an extra fraction of a point on Australians’ nest eggs or buffer funds isn’t the only way for your institution to keep them on the books and, over time, attain the coveted position of primary bank.
Customer loyalty is as much about connections as returns. That’s why engaging with customers at a few key milestones on the savings journey can enable you to turn transactional interactions into long term, lifecycle-focused relationships.
In the past, doing this cost effectively and at scale would have been an impossible ask but, in 2025, that’s no longer the case. AI-powered engagement banking technology is enabling institutions to adopt a strategy that’s been dubbed ‘intelligent orchestration’.
It’s a data-led approach that focuses on optimising the customer journey when it matters most.
Do it well and your institution will be top of mind when customers with savings accounts find themselves in the market for other financial facilities and services.
Proactive lifecycle management and engagement
Dispensing with the set-and-forget approach and replacing it with a proactive lifecycle management strategy is the best way to start building stronger bonds with your savings account customers.
That can entail using data analytics to identify customers who are nearing the end of a bonus interest period, or whose term deposits are close to maturing.
Sending an automated but personalised message via their preferred digital channel, highlighting the importance of sustained savings and identifying the range of facilities and rates available to them is an easy way to add value.
Similarly, utilising a unified customer view, coupled with real time behavioural analytics, will enable you to understand an individual’s saving pattern and deploy timely ‘nudges’ to help them stay on track and achieve their goals sooner.
For someone whose balance is static or shrinking, that could take the form of a prompt encouraging them to get back on track or suggesting a series of micro-challenges that will allow them to see success. A customer who’s really hitting their stride, meanwhile, may be a good contender for information about home loans or other investment vehicles that could potentially offer greater returns.
Taking the next step together
An orchestration engine can make identifying the moment when savings customers are ready to take that critical next step a straightforward matter.
It can be utilised to analyse an individual’s entire financial profile, including their transaction history, account balances and stated financial goals, and identify relevant cross-selling or upselling opportunities.
Presenting those opportunities as logical next steps in the financial journey, rather than mere product promotions, is an effective way to strengthen deposit relationships and cement your position as your customers’ financial partner of choice for the long haul.
Staying transparent, trustworthy and responsive
Providing clear and timely communication and responding quickly to queries and concerns will help you stay in that coveted spot, possibly for decades, if you do it well.
Orchestration technology can be used to automate messages and announcements regarding changes to interest rates, conditions and account features, and deliver relevant digestible content to help customers maximise their earnings and returns.
It can also enable you to embed real time feedback mechanisms into the digital experience and identify customers whose behaviour indicates they may be preparing to defect to another provider. Once they’ve been flagged, you’ve the option of triggering a personalised outreach campaign to address any concerns and encourage them to remain with your institution.
Transforming transactional interactions into lifetime loyalty
In 2025, product and price are not enough to create and sustain the decades-long banking relationships so common in days of yore.
Today’s businesses and consumers have abundant options and increasingly they’re choosing to deal with banks that can credibly position themselves as trusted financial partners that offer consistently excellent customer experiences.
Investing in intelligent orchestration technology will enable your institution to join their ranks. If you’re committed to nurturing the enduring relationships on which healthy, sustainable profits are based, it’s mission critical technology that should sit at the heart of your martech stack.
[1] https://business.nab.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NAB-Consumer-Sentiment-Survey-Q2-2025.pdf