• Joshua Hendon, District Sales Manager at NICE


• 17.11.2022 12:30 pm
#data

Financial Services organisations are entering a trying time. Business leaders are being kept up at night by an abundance of challenges: increased competition from digital banks like Monzo and Revolut, economic uncertainty, evolving regulatory scrutiny, and new expectations from digital-savvy customers.  

Thankfully, every challenge is also an opportunity for differentiation, transformation, and innovation. In this climate, those that can adapt quickly to meet customers’ digital needs will thrive. 

Differentiating Through Exceptional Customer Experience 

How you make your customers feel can help you to stand out from the crowd as a business. For FinServ organisations, offering an exceptional digital customer experience is the ideal place to differentiate in the minds and hearts of consumers. 

Sadly, CX has typically been at the bottom of the priority list for most traditional FinServ organisations. Limited competition meant little motivation to differentiate through a more personalised customer service. 

Today, FinServ organisations must put CX at the heart of their digital transformation strategies if they hope to compete with their digital-first challenger competitors. But get this right, and there will be a direct knock-on effect on sales, conversions, and customer retention rates. CX is where transformation turns into bottom-line impact. 

So, what does this look like? And how do you give digital-savvy customers what they want without compromising security and compliance? 

It’s All in the Data 

The starting point for any FinServ organisation should be data. 

With such widespread access to customer and interaction data, FinServ organisations already have an asset that’s ready to be leveraged for competitive advantage. But, be warned, it’s not enough to just collect it.

Organisations operating in silos won’t be able to keep pace with those that rigorously capture, analyse and, crucially, share data across the business to be acted upon. It takes insight and understanding to turn known customer behaviours and preferences into decisions that translate into bottom-line growth.

What does this look like in practice? Customer expectations aren’t just changing, they are changing fast. The only way to keep up is real-time access to customer data that can identify new trends across all digital touchpoints. For example, data will tell you that most consumers now flock to ‘Search’ when trying to resolve an issue. Why not leverage these insights to understand what they are searching for and serve them content that helps resolve their issue with your banking service? 

Smarter Self-Service that Empowers Customers 

Over the past few years, FinServ has seen sharp rises in demand, supported by mostly flat budgets. Consequently, automation is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – it’s essential.

However, while investment in automation is vital, this is just one part of a wider interlocking digital transformation strategy. It’s not just a case of finding new ways to scale up and meet demand. FinServ organisations must simultaneously meet this demand in the right place and at the right time.

Self-service is the perfect example of this. Customers don’t always want to speak with an agent. Today’s customers are educated and looking for speed and ease so they can resolve issues themselves. Smart self-service offers them exactly this and, as such, is becoming an important first point of contact for FinServ organisations. For example, AI-powered self-service gives your customers the ability to solve problems on their own by making the right information available on demand at their point of need – be that within search, social media, your website, or app. 

Crucially, the experience must be frictionless. This is because while 84% of consumers are more willing to do business with companies that offer self-service solutions, only 61% say these solutions are easy and convenient. Those organisations that offer self-service, which feels like a seamless part of the customer journey, will see the best results in both boosting customer satisfaction but also in reducing operational costs caused by friction. 

Don’t Compromise on Compliance and Security 

We can’t talk about digital CX within FinServ organisations without mentioning compliance and security. Unlike many sectors undertaking digital transformation, FinServ organisations face unique pressure in terms of security, privacy, and compliance. Over the past decade, these pressures have only intensified, with organisations rightly being held to account by lawmakers and prosecutors alike. Therefore, any strategic changes need to account for a complex web of rules and regulations. This can result in a more disjointed, and dissatisfying, customer experience for consumers. And it is here that technology really can help.

For example, AI-powered platforms can be used to monitor and detect compliance gaps such as audio loss, customer deletion requests, and recorded sensitive authentication data. Alternatively, dedicated agent apps can be designed to gain compliance insights, triggering real-time information on things like recording assurance or audio loss.

Digital Customer Experience: The Time is Now

Over the last decade, FinServ organisations have worked hard to accelerate digital transformation projects and keep pace with evolving customer demands, ever-changing rules and regulations, and the innovative services offered by challenger banks. 

But good customer experience is not a destination, it’s a journey. CX must now be placed at the heart of a digital transformation strategy – it cannot simply be an add-on. Those that use their data to truly listen to customers – and act upon their requests – will be the ones to beat over the next few years.