By Uthaman Bakthikrishnan, Executive Vice President, ClearTouch India
The past few years have changed the traditional way banks function, they are in a rush to transform. There is no denial that banking institutions that have embraced modern and agile banking are much more advanced in terms of addressing challenges and meeting customer expectations seamlessly. In today’s day and age, it is crucial for banking institutions to create new/innovative universal, smart, and user-friendly digital experience for their customers.
Moreover, smart devices have made it possible for banks to come closer to their customers by providing them with an array of products and services through their banking apps. A report by PWC and FICCI states by 2030, 80% of traditional financial firms will cease to exist, and traditional banks who have yet to adapt will be left behind. Hence, to accelerate the transformation and remain ahead of the curve, banking institutions will have to differentiate themselves based on customer experience rather than on their products and services in the next few years.
Let’s take the example of a customer looking for a home loan. He checks out multiple banking websites offering home loans and comes across an attractive offer that a bank is offering at 6.5% interest. He sets up an appointment for 10 am the next day with a home loan expert by interacting with the web chat option on the bank’s website. At 10 am, the next day, when he reaches the local branch, he is greeted by the loan expert. The loan expert gets him to fill out basic information about themselves on his tablet. These details are sent to their backend, and they create a basic customer profile.
The customer gets his doubts clarified, and walks away from the bank satisfied. An hour later, he receives an email from the loan expert in the bank summarizing their conversation and all the details related to the home loan offer, including his eligibility to avail the loan. The loan expert also leaves them with the customer service number if they need further information or clarifications.
He decides to shortlist the bank for the home loan and knowing how much loan he can avail himself, starts hunting for a house. Meanwhile, they call customer service and get help filling up the online application for the home loan, and they get it approved. He finds a place within ten days, and with the pre-approved loan and finish the formalities in the next ten days. The customer service platform seeks feedback from him through an automated voice messaging system. After this interaction, the customer gets an email listing the input provided and how to reach customer service quickly.
Here, we saw how banking will increasingly become more digitally entwined in the lives of consumers than ever before. Banks will have to leverage digital technologies to provide seamless personalized banking experiences to their customers and this trend is here to stay. Some aspects that will further drive innovation while shaping the competitive landscape of the BFSI industry are as follows.
• Integrated systems: Banking systems have close-fitting integrations, which allows them to capture every customer interaction and create a 360-degree view of the customer. This further enables the system to comprehend customer’s need and all their interactions at every touchpoint – both digital and physical.
• Onboarding the right cloud contact center platform: BFSI sector is growing at a rapid pace and to sustain the momentum, it is important for the providers to ensure customer satisfaction at every touchpoint of the customer journey. This could be as simple as acquiring a new customer or retaining the existing ones. A cloud contact center platform can help for providing quality customer service and experience. They will be available 24/7 as the platform allows their agents to work from anywhere, anytime, and using any device.
• Security standards in contact center platform: This is one of the most important aspects when it comes to protecting customer data and privacy. It is important for banking institutions to ensure that their contact center platform meets all the compliance requirements. For instance, a contact center platform must be PCI compliant to ensure safe practices for handling credit cards and other payment information. Similarly, SOC 2 certification is important to deal with privileged financial information of clients.
• Self-service capabilities and availability of live agents and experts: It provides customer self-service options for regular tasks like searching for information and setting up appointments. Using self-service systems, clients can check on their financial account information, loan details, payment status and book new cheque books instead of going to visit a branch. Clients can also utilize a self-service system to find out more about recommended prerequisites they will need to meet in order to apply for loans.
• Automated interactive voice messaging: In the example, we can see that the bank used an automated voice messaging system to seek feedback from customer. It is integrated with the mailing system to update the customer and record their inputs in the backend. This further helps to gather critical customer insights from the conversations between the bank and its customers.
• Omnichannel banking: All the channels are integrated to provide one view of the customer. Inbound contact center services, outbound contact center services, web chat, website, physical meetings, automated messaging, and self-service worked together to provide the best possible customer experience to the customer.
AI is already helping banks gain a better understanding of their clients’ preferences, allowing them to deliver customization at scale and improve overall customer experiences. An environment where customers will be able to access banking services anytime, anywhere, without having to depend on anyone. COVID-19 has further accelerated the shift towards online banking and the evolution of how banking institutions manage relationships with their customers.
New data points acquired from customers are affecting how financial institutions do business. Providing customers with relevant information they need is allowing financial institutions to tailor the experience for their customers. With more people adopting a digital medium of accessing an account, it’s allowing these companies to have that one-on-one connection with customers in meaningful ways. They possess integrated systems within the products and services they use which help provide a seamless customer journey.