It's impossible to put my finger on the single cause of the push for digital transformation in the financial services sector. It's a complex beast. In some part, lockdowns brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have forced us to adopt digital at a rate never seen before, in another regulation is continuously seeking to manage how organisations operate, and then there's the rise of fintechs. However, what I do know, is that it has become more customer-centric than ever before. In fact, I can confidently say that creating the most personalised customer experience has become one of, if not the key battlegrounds over the last few years.
Financial services are all about trust. Without trust, the system comes crashing down. Just think of the financial crisis in 2007-09. At the time, the government’s biggest fear was that the entire banking system would collapse. This collapse would occur if everyone took all of their money out of their bank because they no longer trusted it to keep it safe. And today, it’s not the safety of their money that people are worried about, so much as the safety of their data.
It’s clear that trust plays a hugely significant role in the performance of the financial services sector. And most organisations are now realising that the best way of gaining this is through personalisation. With the digital tide changing, customers of all ages are shifting more and more to digital channels, regardless of the complexity of their requests. This means that personalisation is no longer a nice-to-have but a must-have if you are to remain successful in the long run.
But what does trust have to do with personalisation?
As you will have recognised, you can’t have personalisation if you don’t have trust. To provide your customers with a highly personalised experience, you need to know as much as you can about the person you are interacting with. And for obvious reasons, the more personal the information you have, the better. The way you assemble this portfolio of information is by carefully logging the information you capture in every interaction you have with a customer. Every time they get in touch, regardless of the channel they are using or the person they are talking to, it should be a seamless follow-on.
What can technology do to support this?
There are certain capabilities that most organisations are looking at to provide this level of personalisation. It’s generally rooted in the cloud. Again, tracking back to the beginning of the pandemic, those organisations with a cloud-based infrastructure were significantly more agile than those that didn’t. They were able to transition services and scale operations to support a remote working workforce. Ultimately it was all about consolidating data and making it accessible from anywhere. At Crossfuze, we have been helping financial services customers deliver more personalised services using the ServiceNow platform. This is how:
Integrations
As I have touched on, the key to delivering personalised service is data, and more specifically, ease of access to that data. ServiceNow is not looking to replace the bespoke point solutions that you use to deliver your services, however, it is looking to act as the single source of truth across those point solutions. This is by integrating across your technology stack to consolidate all of your data into a single data model. This breaks down data siloes and significantly improves the reliability and accessibility of the data you need to provide your customers with the best service.
Workflows & Automation
Consolidating your technology stack into a single platform gives you the visibility you need to build digital workflows across these various point solutions. In many cases, these workflows can automate tasks to eliminate the time-consuming manual swivel chair actions that plague your employees during service delivery.
Digital Workplaces
Your employees can now reside in digital workplaces to deliver services. The right information is pulled in from the right source at the right time to simplify and expedite how your employees interact with your customers.
Digital Assistants
With workloads increasing and an increasing appetite to leverage digital channels, customers expect instant digital capability to address simple queries.
Mobile
The key to creating a personalised experience is meeting the customer where they are anytime, anywhere. Mobile enablement is crucial in supporting the customer.
Smart Recommendations & Predictions
Today customers expect AI-enabled service that learns from previous interactions to provide recommendations and make intelligent predictions. They expect even better service every time they interact with you.
Intuitive UI
When it comes to personalisation, user experience is never too far from anyone’s lips. And the user interface is one of, if not the most critical factor in creating a simple, personalised experience.
Personalising financial services has now become the name of the game. Until now, most organisations have been getting away with front-facing point solutions that provide customers with the omnichannel experience they’re used to as consumers. Today, it goes much deeper than that and it’s no longer just about what your services look like but also how you’re delivering them. If you want to hear more about how we can support you achieve full-scale personalisation of your services, please reach out to us at letstalk@crossfuze.com or reach out to me personally at oliver.nowak@crossfuze.com.