Industry · BFSI

BFSI

Financial services are bought on trust and kept on experience. As digital rails, fintech competition and regulation reshape the market, banks, insurers, NBFCs and fintechs need a clear view of how customers choose, where journeys break, and which propositions will win.

Discuss Your Market 8 ways we help

Last reviewed 2 October 2026 by the Hoog research team

What is BFSI market research?

BFSI market research studies how individuals and businesses choose, use and switch between banking, financial services and insurance products. It covers customer journeys, product and proposition testing, digital adoption, satisfaction and loyalty, brand trust and competitive dynamics, within the confidentiality and conduct expectations of a regulated sector.

How research creates value

Earn trust. Design products customers choose — and keep.

Financial products are often low-engagement until a moment of need — a loan, a claim, a market fall — and then intensely emotional. Customers’ stated preferences and their behaviour frequently diverge. Research helps institutions understand the real drivers of choice, trust and switching, beyond what transaction data shows.

Hoog supports retail and commercial banks, insurers, NBFCs, wealth and asset managers, payments companies and fintechs. We research retail customers, MSME owners, corporate treasury and finance teams, advisors, agents and partners — with confidentiality and compliance designed into every study.

Segments we cover

Retail & commercial banking
NBFCs and digital lending
Life, health & general insurance
Wealth & asset management
Payments & cards
Fintech & embedded finance
MSME and supply-chain finance
Insurtech & distribution partners

What’s changing

Forces reshaping BFSI

The shifts our clients most often ask us to help them understand and respond to.

Digital public infrastructure

Rails such as UPI and India’s Account Aggregator framework lower switching costs and enable new entrants, making customer experience and proposition design decisive.

Fintech and embedded finance

Credit, insurance and payments are increasingly offered inside non-financial platforms, changing where and how customers first encounter financial products.

Regulatory focus on conduct

Regulators are emphasising fair lending, transparent pricing, grievance redress and data protection — raising the bar for customer communication and journey design.

Underserved segments

MSMEs, first-time borrowers, gig workers and under-insured households represent growth — but require products and journeys designed around their realities.

Trust in an age of fraud

Rising digital fraud makes security, reassurance and service recovery central to customer trust and loyalty.

How we help

Research and strategy for BFSI

Each engagement starts with a business problem and ends with a decision. These are the questions we are most often asked to answer.

Customer journey mapping (onboarding to claims and servicing)

“Our application drop-off is high and customers complain about servicing, but we don’t know exactly where and why journeys break.”

Questions we answer

Where do customers abandon onboarding, KYC or application journeys?
Which servicing or claims moments create the most frustration — or trust?
How do journeys differ across digital, branch, agent and call-centre channels?
What do customers expect at each stage that they are not getting?

How we do it

We map end-to-end journeys using customer interviews, mystery shopping and staff interviews, overlay drop-off data where available, and prioritise fixes by customer impact and feasibility.

Customer IDIs
Mystery shopping (digital & branch)
Frontline staff interviews
Journey mapping workshops
Drop-off analysis

What you receive

— End-to-end journey maps by product
— Pain-point and moment-of-truth analysis
— Channel comparison
— Prioritised improvement roadmap

Decision it enables

Which journey fixes will most improve conversion, satisfaction and cost-to-serve.

Product & proposition design and testing

“We’re launching a new card, loan, insurance or investment product. Will customers want it, and how should we position and price it?”

Questions we answer

Which unmet needs does the product address, and for which segments?
Which features and benefits matter most — and which are nice-to-haves?
How should the proposition be named, priced and communicated?
How does it compare with competing offers customers know?

How we do it

Exploratory interviews shape the concept; quantitative concept testing and conjoint analysis measure appeal and feature trade-offs before launch.

Needs-exploration IDIs / FGDs
Concept testing
Conjoint / MaxDiff
Price sensitivity research
Competitive offer benchmarking

What you receive

— Concept scores by segment
— Optimal feature bundle
— Pricing guidance
— Positioning and messaging recommendations

Decision it enables

Whether to launch, what to include, and how to position and price.

Customer pain points, attrition & switching

“Customers are moving balances, policies or investments elsewhere and we don’t know what triggered it.”

Questions we answer

What triggers customers to reduce engagement or switch provider?
Which competitors are they moving to, and why?
Which service failures cause the most lasting damage?
Which retention offers or interventions would have worked?

How we do it

Interviews with recently lapsed, dormant and switched customers identify triggers and root causes; a survey sizes each driver so retention investment goes where it matters.

Lapsed / switched customer IDIs
Attrition driver survey
Complaint and grievance theme analysis
Driver modelling

What you receive

— Attrition root-cause map
— Switching triggers by segment
— Retention priorities
— Early-warning signals

Decision it enables

Where to invest in retention and service recovery.

Digital adoption & channel strategy

“We’ve invested heavily in our app and digital channels, but many customers still prefer branches, agents or calls.”

Questions we answer

What prevents customers from adopting digital journeys?
Which tasks do customers prefer to do digitally vs with a person?
How do preferences differ by age, geography and digital confidence?
What would increase trust in digital channels?

How we do it

We combine usability-led interviews with segmentation research to identify barriers and design a channel strategy that matches tasks to the right channel for each segment.

Task-based usability interviews
Digital confidence segmentation survey
Competitor app benchmarking
Channel preference analysis

What you receive

— Digital adoption barriers
— Channel-task preference matrix
— Segment-specific migration strategy
— App experience benchmark

Decision it enables

How to migrate the right customers and tasks to digital without losing trust.

MSME & commercial banking needs

“We want to grow our MSME and mid-corporate book but our products feel generic.”

Questions we answer

What are the financing, payments and working-capital needs of target MSMEs?
How do business owners choose a bank, NBFC or fintech?
What role do accountants, distributors and anchors play?
Which pain points in credit and servicing cost them most?

How we do it

B2B interviews with business owners, finance heads and intermediaries, followed by a segmented survey to size needs and preferences across industries and turnover bands.

MSME owner IDIs
CFO / finance head interviews
Intermediary and anchor interviews
B2B survey (CATI / online)

What you receive

— MSME needs segmentation
— Provider-choice drivers
— Product gap analysis
— Distribution and partnership options

Decision it enables

Which MSME segments and propositions to prioritise and through which channels.

Related capability: B2B Research

NPS, CX & relationship tracking

“We track NPS, but scores don’t tell us what to change.”

Questions we answer

How do customers rate us versus competitors across journeys?
Which attributes drive recommendation and loyalty?
How do scores vary by product, channel and region?
Are improvements actually moving the needle over time?

How we do it

We design relationship and transactional NPS programmes with driver analysis and closed-loop insight, so scores lead to specific actions and accountability.

Relationship & transactional NPS
Competitive benchmarking survey
Driver analysis
Verbatim theme analysis

What you receive

— NPS and CX dashboard design
— Driver analysis
— Competitive benchmark
— Quarterly insight briefings

Decision it enables

Which experience improvements will most improve loyalty, and whether they are working.

Brand health & trust

“New digital players are taking mind-share among younger customers.”

Questions we answer

How do awareness, consideration and preference compare with competitors?
Which brand attributes — trust, simplicity, innovation — drive choice?
How is the brand perceived by different generations and regions?
How did a recent campaign or incident affect perceptions?

How we do it

Brand funnel and perception measurement with driver analysis, tracked over time to show change and attribute it to actions.

Brand health survey
FGDs for brand language
Funnel and driver analysis
Tracking waves

What you receive

— Brand funnel vs competitors
— Brand driver map
— Segment perception profiles
— Tracking dashboard

Decision it enables

How to position the brand and where to focus communication.

Fintech competitive intelligence & market entry

“Fintechs and new entrants are launching quickly. We need to know which moves matter — or, as a fintech, where to enter.”

Questions we answer

Which competitors are gaining ground in our segments, and with what propositions?
How are partnerships and embedded finance models changing distribution?
Which segments or geographies offer the best entry opportunity?
What regulatory and licensing considerations affect entry?

How we do it

Ongoing monitoring of launches, partnerships, pricing and app experiences, combined with expert and customer interviews and market sizing for entry decisions.

Competitive monitoring
App and offer benchmarking
Expert interviews
Regulatory review
Market sizing

What you receive

— Competitor profiles and benchmarking
— Monthly intelligence briefings
— Market entry assessment
— Partnership landscape

Decision it enables

How to respond to competitors, or where and how to enter.

Who we research

The people behind the decisions

Retail customers

Mass and affluent customers
First-time borrowers and new-to-credit
Policyholders and claimants
Investors and HNIs

Business customers

MSME owners
CFOs and finance heads
Corporate treasurers

Intermediaries

Agents, brokers and advisors
DSAs and distribution partners
Accountants and anchors

Industry

Former bankers and insurers
Product and risk specialists
Fintech founders

What we measure

Evidence, not opinion

Journey drop-off and friction points
NPS / CSAT and drivers
Trust and brand perception
Product and feature appeal
Price sensitivity
Switching triggers
Digital adoption barriers
Share of wallet and primary-bank status

Typical engagements

What working with us looks like

Representative scenarios that show how we scope work in this sector. They are example scopes, not client case studies.

Personal loan journey diagnostic

Situation: A lender sees high drop-off between application start and disbursal.
Approach: Journey mapping with applicants, digital mystery shopping and drop-off analysis.
Output: Prioritised fixes across KYC, document upload and communication.

New health insurance proposition

Situation: An insurer plans a product for under-insured families.
Approach: Needs FGDs, concept test and conjoint on cover and premium.
Output: Recommended product design, price band and messaging.

MSME banking strategy

Situation: A bank wants to grow MSME share in specific industries.
Approach: MSME interviews, B2B survey and competitive benchmarking.
Output: Target segments, proposition gaps and channel strategy.

Relevant capabilities

Capabilities we bring to BFSI

Customer & Consumer InsightsUnderstand needs, behaviours, perceptions and the journey to purchase.Competitive IntelligenceKnow how competitors compete, where they are heading and how to respond.B2B ResearchReach decision-makers, specialists and channel partners that are hard to access.Market IntelligenceOngoing monitoring of markets, trends and signals that matter to your strategy.Strategy AdvisoryTranslate evidence into strategic options, choices and action plans.

Case studies

10 BFSI engagements

How we approach the commercial questions this sector asks most often.

View all 10 →

BFSI

Financial Services Customer Research

Understanding how retail customers choose, use and switch between digital financial products — and what drives loyalty.

Example engagementRead case

BFSI

Personal Loan Application Journey Diagnostic

Finding exactly where and why applicants abandoned the digital loan journey between application start and disbursal.

Example engagementRead case

BFSI

Designing a Health Insurance Proposition for Under-Insured Families

Shaping a new health insurance product around the needs, trade-offs and price expectations of families with limited cover.

Example engagementRead case

BFSI

Understanding Customer Attrition and Switching at a Retail Bank

Uncovering the triggers that led customers to move balances and primary banking relationships to competitors.

Example engagementRead case

BFSI

Digital Banking Adoption Barriers Beyond the Metros

Understanding why customers in smaller cities continued to prefer branches, and what would build confidence in digital channels.

Example engagementRead case

BFSI

MSME Banking Needs and Segmentation Study

Segmenting small and medium businesses by financing and banking needs to design focused propositions.

Example engagementRead case

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is customer journey mapping in banking and insurance?

It is a step-by-step view of how customers experience a product — from discovery and application through onboarding, usage, servicing and claims or renewal — across digital and human channels. It highlights where customers struggle, where they abandon, and which moments build or erode trust.

How do you research financial services customers without collecting sensitive data?

Studies are designed around attitudes, experiences and behaviours rather than account details. Respondents give informed consent, findings are reported in aggregate or anonymised form, and no confidential financial information is requested beyond what the research question requires.

How can research reduce customer attrition?

By identifying the real triggers for switching — often a single poorly handled service moment, unclear pricing or a better digital experience elsewhere — and quantifying which drivers affect the most customers, so retention investment goes where it has the greatest impact.

Start a conversation

Facing a BFSI decision? Let’s find the evidence.

Tell us about the decision you are facing. We will come back with a clear view of how research can help — and what it would take.

Discuss Your Market