Humanise Digital Engagement to Craft Refreshing Client Experiences

Reena Sukha, Chief Information Officer, Investec

Reena Sukha, Chief Information Officer, Investec

Digital services and transactional capabilities no longer serve as a competitive differentiator in the financial services sector – digital enablement across the banking spectrum and beyond is non  negotiable in our post-pandemic digital-first society.

Clients across the spectrum have embraced more self-service functionality, using apps and online platforms to pay and transact, view balances and transactional histories, access new products, and invest.

Evolving client preferences around the user experience and service delivery due to their lived experiences, coupled with shifting client demographics and behaviours, and unrelenting technology-led disruption from digital-native fintechs and digital-first challenger banks means that clients today expect nothing less than ease of use and always-on engagement.

Clients also expect their financial services to engage with context they have about them and relevance across all channels while anticipating what they need in the moment.

In meeting these behavioural shifts and evolving preferences, process and transaction digitisation has largely become commoditised across the banking sector, and client experience and engagement have now emerged as the new battleground for the hearts and minds (and share of pocket) of digital-savvy consumers.

Facebook and Netflix are prime examples of leaders in the client experience space and learnings from them as well as the broader industry – as well as those who did not get it right - are strong reminders for the financial services industry to continue to understand the importance of CX to remain relevant. The majority of retail banks already understand this importance and are actively working to enhance their customer experience. For instance, 87 percent of marketing teams within the retail banking sector surveyed for Gartner’s 2021 Marketer panel stated that they believe client engagement is a strategic priority.

While investing in omnichannel, big data, predictive analytics, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions lie at the heart of this of level of digital enablement, simply implementing the underlying technology is no longer enough to differentiate your business and offering.

“ While investing in omnichannel, big data, predictive analytics, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions lie at the heart of this of level of digital enablement, simply implementing the underlying technology is no longer enough to differentiate your business and offering.”

Instead, conjuring up the magic that will attract and retain today’s discerning digital client lies in a bank’s ability to humanise the resultant digital client experience. As Maya Angelou famously said, “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.

Humanising the digital client experience starts by understanding what a client wants and needs, often before they do, and using these data-driven insights to create tangible value and bespoke experiences for the client at every step along their journey with a high-tech, high[1]touch approach.

This functionality includes helping clients save time with simple functionality like automated on-boarding, pre-populating application forms with existing information to streamline new applications and simplifying administratively onerous tasks such as regulatory compliance as far as possible which used to take ten minutes or more to complete, down to 3 minutes and within 3 clicks.

Furthermore, crafting more intuitive interactions via apps and online banking platforms goes beyond just saving time. By analysing client data, we can also identify the next best action and make recommended suggestions all within the confines of applicable legislation. For example, if we have seen a specific deposit in a current account, we can then go on to recommend a product that could be beneficial depending on their financial goals and leverage open API to create an ecosystem of services that a client may need. This not only streamlines services, but creates a frictionless banking experience as well.

These technology-enabled services serve to create the refreshingly human experiences that can differentiate your digital banking experience and creates the platform for the hyper-personalised financial services that will characterise the next evolution in client[1]centric digital banking.

With these digital capabilities, the bank becomes a client’s lifestyle enabler with the ability to analyse a client based on their current life stage while leverage purchasing histories and real-time transactions to predict, recommend and offer the personalised products, services, information or advice that is most relevant to them in the moment. And that’s refreshingly human.

Financial

Big Data

Retail

Artificial Intelligence

Predictive Analytics

Machine Learning

Customer Experience