Personalisation of financial services and services is one of the main trends in the market. Especially at a time when the banking sector is growing and shows an increase in its value by more than 50% in five years, but it is no longer spared by the ubiquity of digital technologies, which are becoming necessary for full integration into marketing and sales processes.
Already, personalisation in banking and the introduction of digital technologies are the main trends in retail banking in the world. In addition, among the global and local trends in retail banking is increased competition for the client and an increasing attention to improving the quality of service.
How much are banks connected to digital technologies?
Banks employ digital technology in a number of ways, including mobile and online banking and call center automation, as well as determining the characteristics of a certain client’s financial activity and producing personalised offers based on this research. In certain institutions, three-quarters of all transactions are now completed online, through computer or smartphone. In addition, banks have begun to work more closely with and invest in fintech companies. Two main areas can be distinguished:
- digitalisation in order to reduce costs (for example, transferring simple operations to the Internet – the possibility of performing them on a website, through an application, etc. – which leads to their reduction in price);
- digitalisation to create value (we are talking about primarily about using technology to improve the quality of service).
Banking sector – Complex sector
This new context is revolutionising and challenging the sector every day. While digital technologies continue to revolutionise the lives of users and the way they interact with most sectors, from e-commerce to healthcare, with software development companies like Inoxoft, the banking sector is in a complete transformation to understand these profound transformations. This is all the more important because the customers of tomorrow, the ”digital natives” or millennials, represent a very significant segment of customers today and exhibit habits that are very different from those of their parents and grandparents. Their interaction with banks is almost exclusively digital and mobile, and in the singular complicates the task of banks to offer new services: these clients do not come to the branch, they need to be contacted on a mobile phone or laptop with a relevant and differentiated offer. Another essential element that is shaking up the traditional banking sector is the growing competition from online banking that matches the habits of this new category of customers that are about to become the majority.
Radical transformation of relations with clients
Analysis and prediction algorithms, also known as artificial intelligence, are excellent ways to achieve these new goals. It can understand and analyse gigantic amounts of customer data (interactions, consumer behavior, navigation, etc.) faster and more efficiently than any human could ever do, are powerful tools for the banking sector of the future.
There are many approaches to take advantage of the digital technologies and data available in the sector to improve the relationship with its customers, such as real-time communication, the development of new interfaces, and new payment methods (i.e. blockchain). Moreover, the “gamification” of services, which is in making it interesting to interact with your customers and has great success, particularly with millennials. And also, being able to detect the real-time needs of your customers in order to offer them the best offer at the best time: this is personalisation, and this is one of the main challenges for the sector.
An important tool: Personalisation
Personalisation tools today consist of collecting customer data to “learn” from this behavior in order to be able to offer the right product at the right time to the right person. If these methods are still too often applied manually and on a very small set of data, personalisation algorithms can now implement them infinitely faster, capturing “hidden” data and thus obviously being effective and relevant. This is the key to building customer loyalty and attracting new ones.
Chatbots as a manifestation of personalisation
Communication with a client via online chat is one of the key functions of a mobile bank, which is aimed at promptly providing information, solving emerging problems and difficulties in real time. Online chats are constantly being supplemented with new functionality (for example, the ability to attach files or photos to the message text or contextual hints).
Banks are also actively introducing bots into chats – digital assistants that imitate a conversation with a real person and are aimed at an instant response to a request. Their functions mainly include informing and advising clients on frequently asked questions and situations, the solution of which does not require the prompt intervention of a specialist.
Personalisation with a consistent cloud
For example, using a unified cloud platform, you can eliminate technical barriers to collaboration during the collection, segmentation, and integration of all data. The cloud will help them homogenise their consolidated pool of data, simplifying its processing and analysis with a 360-degree view of the organisation. This integration unlocks its full potential and achieves better results in product adoption and customer retention. The critical data analytics capabilities offered by a comprehensive cloud platform can support business innovation, agility, and scalability.
Another imperative for banks is to control deployment costs. Indeed, building a highly resilient, flexible and compliant platform from A to Z can be prohibitively expensive. On the other hand, by investing in a secure financial cloud, organizations can free themselves from the burden of hosting these services in-house. This allows them to refocus on improving the customer experience without violating additional responsibilities.
So, personalization is fast becoming a paramount mechanism in banking, both in terms of customer satisfaction and economic value. Increasing personalization has also become possible thanks to modern technology. Banks may now more easily identify a certain client’s individual circumstances, as well as the idiosyncrasies of his financial activity, and make a customised offer, generate relevant advertising, or more correctly assess risks.
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