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The tastes of this new class of customers clash with the traditional way of service that dominates the finance sector. They have grown up in a completely digital environment. Despite the wave of new technologies in business and communication, they have no attachment to the legacy systems put in place by banks and financial companies over the years.
A 2017 report by Accenture indicated that 71% of financial services consumers are open to using “fully computer-generated support for banking services”. Clearly, most consumers are ready to go completely digital.
This prospect presents a problem for legacy system-savvy companies, and adequately coping with the situation means acting decisively now. A healthy knowledge base for web live chat or automating customer support through canned responses is no longer enough. The need now is to design customer support and the overall customer experience to suit and enhance an increasingly digital customer journey. At the very least, integrating your voice communication tools and your customer records, for example Salesforce Cisco Phone Integration, will allow your customer service teams to ensure they deliver service by capturing conversation data at every customer touchpoint.
Converting the entire customer experience from traditional to digital takes a lot of time and work, but incremental changes can still have an impact on CX. Financial services providers can begin their transformation by injecting these trends and techniques into their CX strategy:
self service
The first point of customer service contact for most finance consumers is not social media, phone or email. It really is self service. More than 80% of consumers choose to use a web or mobile self-service app instead of speaking with a customer service representative on the phone. You shouldn’t expect their phone-facing team to be on the front lines of customer service. Customers only use their phone when they want to voice their concerns. Nevertheless, having a CTI solution such as the Salesforce-Cisco phone integration ensures that every customer interaction is recorded in your CRM.
Self-service is preferred by financial service consumers because it gives them more control. That is, self-service means that customers determine when and where they will interact with their provider. This gives consumers more freedom on their financial activities without disruptive ads or not-so-subtle suggestions from a CS representative. As customers demand greater independence from their providers, financial services companies are also forced to provide better self-service options through native web apps and automated CS technologies.
Chatbots and Virtual Assistants
The demand for faster, more efficient services has finally driven it: According to Gartner, 85% of customer interactions will be automated by 2020. Chatbots and smart assistants are finding their way into various verticals, serving a variety of purposes from customer support, marketing and sales. These robots, powered by artificial intelligence, are used by the world’s largest banks such as JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, HSBC (Hong Kong) and SEB (Sweden).
Chatbots enable banks and financial services companies to provide efficient, personalized and responsive service to customers at minimal cost. Chatbots are available 24/7, and are able to quickly match customer queries to solutions. Some are even programmed to collect leads, and the most advanced ones can make personalized recommendations based on past interactions, customer data, and other factors.
Opponents of chatbot technology say these devices lack the empathy of a human CS representative. While this is true, we must also recognize that chatbots improve in this aspect over time. Machine learning algorithms help these virtual assistants learn more about the art of human conversation from experience. With such capabilities, chatbots prove sufficient in handling basic customer service queries, delighting consumers with their efficiency and effectiveness.
omnichannel service
These days, consumers interact with their financial service providers across a variety of touchpoints, including online, in branch and even on mobile. Omnichannel service means connecting all these touchpoints to create a seamless, consistent and enjoyable experience for customers. Put in another way, it means allowing customers to move from one touchpoint to another without disruption or disconnection.
Creating an immersive experience for customers is not a new trend. In early 2014, a Forrester survey already established ubiquitous banking as one of finance professionals’ top five concerns for business app transformation. Yet, due to the shaky organizational and operational division between marketing, sales and customer support, many banks and finance companies still lag behind in this area.
Banks that want to overcome this problem have to change their mindset from product-centric to customer-centric. By putting the customer at the core of their CX question, they will be able to see touchpoints more clearly and accurately anticipate consumer needs in every interaction. Another important aspect of this is integrating data across teams and platforms, smoothing the flow of information across channels to ensure that customer interactions don’t break when, say, shifting activities Conducting sales inquiries to troubleshoot product issues.
Going omnichannel not only increases customer satisfaction, but can directly lead to higher revenue. The world’s top banks derive 50% of their sales from digital channels, proving the importance of digitization for success in the financial sector.
digital integration
An omnichannel experience is not possible without integration. All platforms used to interact with customers and manage their data and transactions must be connected to ensure the smoothest workflow and highest quality of service. The key here is to combine digital apps used to serve finance consumers with physical bank locations and customer communication platforms.
Digital integration has been implemented in the financial services sector, but only a few customers (16%) are satisfied with the digital experience provided by their banks. The problem here again, is that data about customers is not shared across all segments in the organization. Each team may be doing well on their own, but the tight siloing of operations affects the overall customer experience.
The solution is to ease the flow of information through digital integration. Different software and apps are now able to integrate different systems, allowing finance companies to mix software vendors if they wish. For example, a CTI solution like Salesforce Cisco Phone Integration connects voice communication devices to computers, streamlining many functions for sales and customer support. There are also specialized apps that aim to sync chat channels or even email with local banking software.
Influencing CX with new financial technologies
With AI and more mobile technology comes more opportunities to customize CX and make it more enjoyable, enjoyable and safer for consumers.
Some technologies that financial services companies can explore are:
Biometric based customer ID – Banks and finance companies can now opt to use biometric technology instead of username-password combination for customer entry and verification in their systems. Various options are available such as fingerprint, iris, retina and voice recognition. In addition to being more secure, these technologies are more efficient and easier to use for consumers.
Robo-advisors – Similar to chatbots, these virtual advisors are powered by machine learning and are a viable alternative to human investment managers. They are generally used to analyze risks and assist consumers in portfolio management.
Internet of Things – With the Internet connecting literally everything, finance transactions will become more fluid and mobile. Checking your account on your wearable? or while driving? You can do all of that with IoT.
Banking-as-a-Service
Technology companies are leading the way in digital banking experiences, and banks and other traditional financial institutions would do well to learn from them. They can emulate them and build their own, or they can get smart about it and do it faster—that is, partner with companies that offer BaaS and BaaP.
Banks working with APIs and BaaS will result in a tangible change in the way both individual consumers and business customers do banking.
For consumers, a good thing would be that all accounts can be accessed through a single app, making it easy to transact. These separate accounts can also be managed on any device as the data will be stored in the cloud. Individuals will also get personalized advice on portfolio, stocks and other finance products.
B2B customers benefit even more, as the digitization of finance translates into savings on administrative and infrastructure costs.
Partnering with the new digital platform will help banks keep up with the times and provide customers with the sleek, mobile experience that the digital age has made the norm. It might cost a little investment, but it will definitely pay off in the long run.
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Financial service providers must decisively change tack before they lose touch with their customers and get left behind in the digital age. These trends and technologies are on course to usher in a new era of financial services, which is more efficient in serving digitally savvy and mobile customers. However, this does not mean that banks and finance companies can operate without their customer service lines and human agents.
To develop productive long-term relationships with customers, it is essential to cover all bases, from digital to non-digital touchpoints. Phone calls, live conversations, and meetings with customers still have a high impact on overall CX, especially because these interactions involve human representatives of the company. Ultimately, digital experiences serve as a continuation of the personal connections financial companies make with their customers.
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