Article
Firms are more self-aware than ever. What comes next?
February 26, 2026
Some of the most refreshing and encouraging meetings we’ve had with financial services firms, are the ones that dig deep into their shortcomings.
And to be clear, that’s not coming from us. We’re seeing more and more firms voluntarily lay it all out: what’s wrong with their apps, where their websites fall flat and how their customer journeys lose people halfway through. All the places engagement isn’t happening. All the moments where attention just slips away.
We enjoy this, not because of schadenfreude, but because it signals something important has shifted. We’re moving from “the customer just doesn’t get it” to “we clearly don’t get the customer.” The former is a dead end. The latter has a “so what?” Firms now ask: If we don’t get the customer, then what are we going to change? How do we connect better? How do we design journeys that actually resonate?
That shift, from blaming behaviour to interrogating design, is one of the most positive signals we’re seeing in the industry right now.
But awareness alone doesn’t solve anything. In most cases, it actually creates a new problem. Once a firm accepts that something isn’t working, the next question is obvious: what do we do about it? And that’s where things can get complicated.The market has no shortage of potential answers. Every solution promises better engagement, smarter journeys, deeper personalisation. They all sound compelling. Many of them are good. But they rarely look or feel the same once you start imagining them inside your own organisation. Not too even speak about how an overgrowth of these type of solutions within a single organisation can actually have a counterproductive effect. Solutions working against each other, instead of with each other.
The challenge is effectively choosing a clear direction. Choosing the right next move - the one that fits your customer base, aligns with your broader strategy, and can actually be delivered without tearing everything else apart - is no easy feat. Especially when everything claims to be transformative. It is at this stage we at Life Moments often find ourselves approached by firms.
Not because firms need convincing that something has to change, but because they need space to think clearly about what that change could look like. Through workshops and design sprints, we help teams slow the conversation down just enough to make better decisions and get an unambiguous overview of how the options we can offer them map to their strategy . We test ideas against existing customer profiles and real scenarios. We explore what “better engagement” would actually mean in practice. We bring competing internal visions into the same room and work through them.
Clarity outlasts quick fixes. And in our experience, the firms that take the time to look in the mirror and untangle the knot properly, end up building something far more durable than those who rush to the loudest solution on the market.
3 key principles for better engagement
If firms are serious about improving engagement, there are a few principles we keep coming back to.
Engagement has to feel sincere, not just transactional. Customers can tell the difference between “we need you to click this” and “we’re actually trying to help.” If every touchpoint is a prompt to buy or upgrade, people switch off. The firms that cut through are the ones where customer engagement touch points feel genuinely helpful.
Engagement has to feel relevant. Generic nudges don’t land anymore. Timing, tone and context matter. A perfectly written message at the wrong moment is still the wrong message. The more closely engagement reflects what’s happening in someone’s life, the more likely they are to lean in rather than scroll past.
Engagement has to be measurable. If firms are investing in better journeys, they need to know what’s working. That means tracking touchpoints properly, understanding where attention drops, where confidence builds, and what actions follow. Engagement shouldn’t just feel better, it should also generate insight. When you can see clearly how customers are interacting, you can refine, adapt and prove the value of what you’re providing.
