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Competition between modern banking & fintech
Modern banking is in direct competition with fintech because regulations such as PSD2 have given new players easy access to financial products.
Fintechs and challenger banks are focused on delivering simple products and processes that allow customers (especially Generation Z and Millennials) to bank from the comfort of their couch. The main battle between traditional banks and new players is all about delivering smoother customer services.
If a bank wants to reduce customer frustration and increase satisfaction, its teams must be fully focused on the business process and customer journey. For example, let’s take a typical situation with an advanced financial product – a mortgage. A customer starts the mortgage application process by filling out a website form but runs into a technical issue while uploading her documents. The customer tries to work around the problem, but fails. She picks up the phone and calls the Contact Centre seeking help. An advisor picks up and tries to understand the problem and find solutions.
Benefits of cloud-based banking solutions
Time to identify a problem
But now, let’s imagine a different scenario. Instead of picking up the phone, the same customer clicks a button on the website to connect with an advisor – who already knows which form the customer was interacting with. The time to identify the problem and answer the customer’s questions is shortened significantly. This easier experience also means that the bank will see an increase in submissions.
This simple example illustrates the power and beauty of merging business processes and customer service. It is all possible because cloud solutions allow for more flexibility in building business processes and, thus, customer journeys. The customer journey can be changed in a matter of minutes, not days.
Integrations
Another benefit of using cloud-based software solutions is the ability to integrate with different applications to build 360-degree customer profiles.
In the classical approach, data about any given customer is separated into different databases, one for each system. Cloud software allows banks to pull information from many applications into one space and get a much clearer picture of individual customers. Thanks to data aggregation, advisors have a powerful tool at their fingertips and are able to identify and present relevant, personalised products to banking clients. This also allows them to handle customer requests on the fly.
And bank advisors and customer support representatives aren’t the only ones to benefit. Customers who fill out the survey receive real-time feedback afterwards. In addition, customers feel that they can have a real influence on service. According to our data, the average percentage of completed surveys is 20-25% on digital channels. That means banks are receiving several thousand insights each month. This “free” data includes a net promoter score, satisfaction and comments that help banks continually improve their services.
Remember that by adding new services, banks are also adding new functionalities for customers, such as screen sharing, co-browsing, file sharing, or chat services that allow multitasking. All of these have the potential to streamline work and increase productivity in customer service and advice.
Bank advisors currently spend much of their time looking for information or directing clients to specific areas of the website. Cloud-based customer service shortens this work significantly. For example, if a client calls customer service and wants to download a financial product’s “Terms and Conditions”, the advisor will help him navigate to the right place. If, however, this interaction takes place via chat, the advisor can send the correct file or a direct link. Both customer service representatives and customers save time. Forrester analysed one of our clients and found that the productivity of advisors using LiveBank was 20% more than that of phone advisors.
Flexibility
Flexibility is yet another benefit of customer services in cloud computing. A few years ago, if a bank planned to add new services, its team would spend a lot of time (days or weeks) developing changes. Now, the same changes can be carried out in a matter of minutes. This enables banks to create content and model workflows in real-time. This is a huge change in the grander scheme of planning for maintenance and upgrades. Ideas can be implemented, adapted and tested very quickly – banks can experiment in short periods of time. This is especially important in times of disruption or volatility. Banks can respond to a crisis by adding a new channel at the top of their web pages and increasing conversions from this channel. On the other hand, in the Contact Centre, bank representatives can create a crisis team that will attend to customers’ needs as the crisis plays out.
Summary
Banks can maximise the benefits of cloud banking with a digitally-focused service vision and goal-driven strategy. Banks can succeed with a roadmap that sets out and prioritises digital initiatives. With a flexible strategy and cloud technology like LiveBank, banks can quickly adapt to changing customer expectations. And if you are looking for IT solutions for banks, be sure to check out what Livebank has to offer!
