Embedded finance is rapidly reshaping the financial services landscape. By integrating banking products—such as payments, lending, and insurance—directly into non-financial platforms like e-commerce sites, ERP systems, and digital marketplaces, banks and fintechs are meeting customers where they already are. This shift is not just a technological evolution; it’s a fundamental change in how financial services are distributed, consumed, and experienced.
The market opportunity is immense. Embedded finance revenues are projected to grow at over 40% annually, with B2B2C and B2B2B models leading the way. In these models, banks serve end customers through third-party partners, creating new, complex customer journeys that cross organizational boundaries. For banks, this means moving beyond traditional product-centric models to become orchestrators of value within vast digital ecosystems.
As embedded finance becomes mainstream, customer experience (CX) is emerging as the primary differentiator. Seamless, contextually relevant financial services—delivered at the right moment in a customer’s journey—can drive higher engagement, loyalty, and growth for both banks and their partners. However, the complexity of these journeys, which often span multiple brands and platforms, presents new challenges for measuring and managing CX.
Banks are no longer judged solely against their direct competitors. The digital experiences set by leaders in retail, technology, and e-commerce have raised the bar for all industries. Customers expect frictionless, intuitive, and emotionally resonant interactions—regardless of whether they’re buying a product, applying for credit, or making a payment within a partner’s platform.
Traditional CX metrics, such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), fall short in the embedded finance context. They lack the granularity to pinpoint which touchpoints—across both the bank and its partners—truly matter, and which investments will drive meaningful improvements. As banks embed their services into a growing array of third-party platforms, the need for a more nuanced, actionable approach to CX measurement becomes critical.
Publicis Sapient’s Customer Experience Growth Index (CXGX) offers a new standard for measuring and optimizing CX in the era of embedded finance. Built on the “Three Es” framework—Experience, Expectation, and Emotion—CXGX provides a touchpoint-level view of customer interactions, capturing not just what happened, but how it compared to expectations and how it made customers feel.
By applying this framework across all touchpoints—including those owned by partners—banks and their ecosystem collaborators can:
To win in the B2B2C and B2B2B embedded finance ecosystem, banks must scale CX excellence across a diverse and expanding network of partners. This requires:
CXGX enables banks to map the entire embedded journey, linking customer feedback to specific touchpoints—whether in a partner’s app, a bank’s API, or a shared service channel. This granular view reveals which experiences are memorable (positively or negatively), and which fall into the “Valley of Meh”—satisfactory but forgettable interactions that do little to build loyalty.
By correlating CXGX scores with business outcomes—such as customer retention, usage growth, and account acquisition—banks can make smarter decisions about where to invest. For example, shifting users from lower-performing channels to high-scoring ones (like live chat or mobile) can yield measurable improvements in both CX and business growth.
Embedded finance is inherently collaborative. Banks must work closely with partners to co-design journeys that blend financial and non-financial experiences seamlessly. This means understanding not just the needs of end customers, but also the business goals and technical constraints of each partner. The CXGX framework supports this by providing a common language and set of metrics for joint optimization.
Scaling embedded finance requires banks to adopt modular, API-driven architectures that can flexibly integrate with multiple partners. Equally important is building cross-functional teams—spanning technology, data, operations, and CX—that can iterate quickly, respond to feedback, and deliver consistent experiences across the ecosystem.
Banks that embrace embedded finance and apply rigorous, data-driven CX management will be best positioned to unlock new growth. The CXGX framework provides the tools to:
As embedded finance continues to evolve, the winners will be those who can deliver seamless, emotionally resonant experiences—at scale, across a complex web of partner ecosystems. By linking CXGX to embedded finance strategy and delivery, Publicis Sapient empowers banks and their partners to lead in the next wave of digital financial services.
Ready to transform your embedded finance strategy and customer experience? Connect with Publicis Sapient to learn how the CXGX framework can help you identify, measure, and optimize the moments that matter most—driving growth and differentiation in the B2B2C and B2B2B ecosystem.