By Anna Pantazi (Managing Director)
Financial services and payments companies have never had more access to customer intelligence. Every day, insights, data, and analytics teams are producing detailed pictures of customer behaviour, from spend patterns and product usage to how people interact across digital and physical channels.
The depth and detail of this internal data is incredible – there's no denying that. It’s an amazingly powerful resource, and when used effectively, it can transform how businesses engage with their customers.
However, many insights leaders will recognise a common frustration...despite the sheer volume of data at their disposal, it can be difficult to distil it into a clear direction or action plan for the business. That’s because internal intelligence tells you what your customers are doing, but it doesn’t always explain why they are doing it or how the wider market is shaping their choices.
Without the broader, external context of changing customer expectations, evolving competitor activity, and regular regulatory shifts, internal data alone can sometimes feel, at worst, useless – and as the team responsible for turning insight into outcomes, that’s not a great place to be.
The crux of the issue is that internal data is inherently backward-looking. It shows how customers have behaved and where they are engaging today. What it doesn’t do is reveal how those behaviours will evolve in response to external forces, whether that’s a new product launch from a competitor, changing regulations, or the adoption of new technologies.
This lack of visibility creates three major challenges for insights and analytics teams:
First, it makes prioritisation difficult. When every department has a request for analysis, how do you decide which opportunities deserve the most attention? Without a clear view of where the market is heading, there’s a risk of doubling down on marginal gains rather than focusing on bigger strategic opportunities.
Second, it can leave teams blindsided by competitor moves. Your internal data might tell you that customers are steady and engaged with your product today, but it won’t show you that a competitor is about to launch a disruptive proposition that could quickly reshape expectations.
Third, it can weaken the influence of insights within the organisation. Business leaders increasingly expect decisions to be backed by evidence that looks both inward and outward. When insights teams can’t bring the external lens alongside internal data, it can be harder to justify recommendations or position themselves as true strategic partners.
The solution lies in combining the richness of internal data with the breadth of external market and competitor insights. Together, they create a more complete, forward-looking picture that gives insights teams the ability to drive real strategic value.
When viewed through this wider lens, customer behaviours begin to make more sense. For example, a drop in card usage might look concerning in isolation, but when set against market data showing the rapid adoption of a new digital wallet, the story becomes clearer. Similarly, identifying a spike in spend patterns is more valuable when you can benchmark it against industry averages to understand whether it reflects a unique opportunity vs. a market-wide trend.
This 360-degree perspective enriches understanding and sharpens decision-making. With external context, insights teams can better identify where the biggest opportunities lie, provide clearer direction on product development, and give marketing teams the intelligence they need to position effectively.
Most importantly, it enables insights teams to step into the role of a strategic partner, helping leadership make confident decisions with a rounded, evidence-based view.
Of course, recognising the need for external context is one thing, but embedding it into how an insights function operates is another. It requires a shift in approach, where internal and external sources are integrated and translated into clear, actionable recommendations.
One important step is benchmarking. By comparing internal metrics against industry norms, teams can distinguish between patterns that are unique to their customer base and those that reflect wider shifts. This helps to focus attention on areas where your organisation can genuinely differentiate.
Another is competitor intelligence. Understanding not just what competitors are doing, but how they are positioning themselves, pricing their products, and innovating around customer experience provides valuable signals on where the market is heading.
Equally vital is tracking market context, from regulatory changes and new entrants to technology adoption. Mapping these external forces against internal trends enables teams to anticipate shifts before they impact customer behaviour, giving the organisation a chance to act on them, rather than react to them.
Finally, there is the integration piece. Insights become exponentially more powerful when they are woven together into a narrative that the business can act on. That means not simply reporting numbers, but turning them into prioritised next steps. That could be refining a product roadmap, sharpening a go-to-market strategy, or identifying opportunities for marketing to tell a more compelling story.
This is where working with an experienced external insights partner can make all the difference. External specialists bring access to competitor and market intelligence that is often difficult to generate internally, alongside the expertise to translate it into practical business recommendations. This enhances the work that insights and analytics teams are already doing, providing more value to the business.
By combining internal intelligence with external context, external partners help teams build a clearer, sharper picture of the opportunities and risks in front of them. They also provide the frameworks and storytelling needed to bring that picture to life for stakeholders, helping insights teams build influence and credibility across the organisation.
Financial services and payments companies don’t lack insights or data. As we outlined at the start of this article, they are rich with data about what their customers are doing today. The challenge lies in making that intelligence meaningful and turning it into strategies that are focused, prioritised, and forward-looking.
The key is to bridge the gap between internal and external perspectives. By combining customer intelligence with market and competitor insights, insights teams can transform their role from being producers of data to being shapers of strategy. In a sector where competitive advantage increasingly depends on the speed and sharpness of decision-making, that shift has never been more important.
KAE help insights teams in banking, payments and business technology companies translate data into clear advice that informs commercial decisions and growth strategy. If you’d like to chat about how we can support you, feel free to book a call with me.