Great progress has been achieved on bank ubiquity and User experience, but selling through digital channels is still the next step for most banks
As most automation processes on all industries, ATMs and digital channels arose to minimize costs. Serving customers from the branch is expensive in terms of infrastructures and human resources. Making usual services available through automated systems is less expensive for the bank and more convenient for customers in terms of geographic coverage and time availability.
For the last decades, almost all banks have made big improvements in terms of services available through self-service systems, security applied to such systems and focus on User Experience. Complex requests managed through Internet Banking systems, ATM cash collections or real Mobile applications, designed from a Mobile first approach and not just a new version of already existing Internet applications have been addressed by most banks and such solutions keep improving.
But most improvements on this area are based on the approach “one size fits all”. On the old times, branch employees and managers used to know their customers, both from business and personal perspectives. It created some kind of mutual confidence that was a natural way to achieve cross selling and upselling, based on a human intelligence customer’s segmentation. It made the difference between the branch just as cost center and business generator profit center.
What about customer knowledge and business generation through self-service channels? Probably between small to nothing. Most banks are already on the stage of showing ads and banners according to active campaigns and customer segments. And such segmentation is based on information coming from other sources than self-service channels. The next big step of self-service channels is to become a similar source of commitment and personalized selling that branches used to be and sometimes are still being.
Which are the key points to address such shift? Mainly, the same used in branches: customer knowledge and customized proposals at the right time. But the way we address both is absolutely different in digital channels.
First step is obtaining additional information about our customers. For sure, all banks have more or less sophisticated DWH and CRM applications providing global information about customers. But channel related information in this case is no more than a couple of flags stating he’s using Internet or Mobile banking.
Digital channels can provide much valuable information about customer behavior: how many times he/she have checked his/her account at the end of the month? Maybe running short in cash? How many times we’ve shown an ad for a certain product and how many times he/she has clicked it? Is there any application process for such product at CRM? Has he/she been navigating through information pages for a certain category of products?
Second step is about selling and campaigns. Campaigns should be enriched considering channel related events and information. In addition to bank’s segment, campaigns can include filters as “show to customers who visited these pages on the last X days” or “show when customer visits this page” or “show when customer enters a geofence”. Also rules about how many times such ad should be shown and the minimum time between two consecutives shows.
And a critical success factor for campaigns is application. Linked to every campaign, customer must have the option to apply for a product, regardless the full application process can be finalized online. For sure, selling on the fly is the best result, but just knowing the customer has arrived to the application form is a valuable information about his/her interests.
Third step is analysis. This is based cross analysis among all customer known information, both at bank level (age, sex, incomes, products,..) and channel (preferred channel, navigation pattern, ads seen, ads clicked,..). It involves both big data techniques and advanced reporting tools, and final result is a multidimensional analysis of customer behavior and dynamic segmentation.
Discovering new segmentation criteria is a key point to support marketing team. How channel information combines with other bank’s data to identify the most successful target for previous campaigns? Which relevant trends can be obtained from such analysis? What did it happen with similar campaigns on the past? What if I remove some parameters from the scene?
This interaction combines big data techniques, advanced reporting and human knowledge to remove spurious correlations. For sure, result is a major feedback for steps 1 and 2, what makes it a loop of improved customer knowledge and selling opportunities.
And last but not least is the third party integration. Financing is a key point for any product selling process. Allowing simple integration (“want to finance this?”, mobile payments, geofences and beacons at brick & mortar stores,..) with any kind of partner, from travel agencies to car dealers or real state agencies is a win to win relationship. For sure, direct loans are a first opportunity, but also knowing that a customer is interested on some product is a valuable source of information for the bank.
Interested on next generation banking? Contact us at Innofis to study your case and see the best way to benefit from it.
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