Is customer experience tech challenging the status quo in banking and finance?
By Ravi Saraogi, Co-Founder and President of Uniphore APAC
Customer experience (CX) is the cornerstone of an effective, developing business – and this is nowhere more apparent than in the banking and finance industry. Traditional banks are coming under increasing pressure from fintech organisations and ‘challenger’ banks, who seek to evolve and build upon the ways that the large incumbents go about their business. CX plays a large role in that change, with a distinct move away from traditional customer touchpoints and a subsequent move towards a more digital experience.
Much of this change has been driven by consumer demand for better finance applications, more personalised online experiences, and a general demand for seamless service. However, much of this pressure also comes from challenger organisations themselves, and a desire to break down and rebuild the outdated models of customer service.
According to a recent study by Entrust, 93 percent of people in Australia prefer to conduct their banking online in some form – whether that is mobile, through a website, or an online portal. Despite this, when it comes to direct contact with their institution, most people still want to speak to somebody direct – and the vast majority of those prefer to speak to somebody local.
However, the fact remains that larger organisations will have more resources to spend on customer service, and naturally have the upper hand when it comes to retaining or winning new market share.
For those that are challenging this position and trying to gain market share in a competitive and hotly contested space, it is therefore critical to work smarter to keep up.
Technology can go a long way towards making up that competitive margin and helping fintech companies and other challenging entities remain competitive. One such example is AI-powered, automated conversational technology.
While trained and knowledgeable professionals play a significant role in supporting customer interaction, today there are CX systems that can enhance what that professional delivers to the customer. While experience, training, and passion for their job go a long way toward empowering a contact centre employee to perform, the fact remains that humans are limited by their ability to store and mentally access information on demand. An automated, AI-powered solution can present that individual with a whole raft of information – in real-time – that is highly relevant to their customer conversation and capable of enhancing that employee’s customer service levels.
Conversational AI can help a customer service agent resolve queries with speed and precision. A key component of Conversational AI is its ability to understand a customer’s real intentions, emotions, and sentiments. By picking up on vocal cues, customer service agents have access to in-call coaching alerts, which gives them a deeper understanding of how their customer is feeling about the interaction. Conversational AI can also suggest to the agent certain products or services that would be relevant to the customer, based on the conversation in which they are currently engaged.
Integrating an automation platform with Conversational AI can enable a financial institution’s contact centre to deliver a more personalised and positive conversational experience. This will drive greater engagement and, ultimately, better customer satisfaction.
In modern times, humans are challenged by the sheer depth of information that is provided to a contact centre employee. In years past, a CX professional would answer a call, then input a customer’s information into the mainframe or central computer system. The interface would generally hold basic information about that individual – their name, address, veiled payment details, and possibly their purchase history. The CX operative’s role was really to be reactive and respond to requests from the caller – primarily from a script.
If that same professional is presented with much deeper levels of insights based on the conversation they are holding in real-time, their ability to interact with the customer and provide more value empowers them to be proactive.
Further to this, an advanced conversational platform is capable of detecting imperatives within a conversation and reporting them back to the operator once the call is finished. For example, if a customer service employee makes a promise to the customer during their conversation, the platform can detect that promise and send an alert once the call is completed. This might include offering credit on refinancing a home mortgage, reducing closing fees on a loan, or scheduling an appraisal.
Other manual tasks after the call such as updating customer relationship (CRM) databases and logging call details can also be efficiently handled by RPA to improve agents’ productivity.
This is referred to as after-call work (ACW).
Conversational Automation technology can also listen to and transcribe conversations in real-time and then present the call summary to the agent for editing and confirmation once the call has concluded.
This removes the burden of note-taking during calls and mitigates one more area of customer interaction that is prone to human error. It also leaves the agent free to focus on engagement with the customer, allowing them to deliver high-quality service.
These solutions not only enhance what a specific customer interaction can achieve but help build trust over the long term. If an organisation gains the reputation of being thoughtful, considerate, and responsive during customer interactions, the corporate brand will increase in ‘value’. Happy customers are more likely to endorse the company to friends, colleagues, and across social channels.
CX is one of the most critical elements to get right in the banking and finance industries – from fintech start-ups through to challenger banks, financial services organisations, and the giant global banks that sit at the top of the tree. Positive customer service experiences generate goodwill in the consumer community and lead ultimately to increased satisfaction and positive business outcomes. Having the right technology in place will help achieve that positivity. If the business isn’t moving forward and challenging the market share of its competitors, it is standing still. Any competitive advantage should be taken seriously – customer happiness is a great place to start.
