The rise of the digital customer
Retail FI’s have a tremendous opportunity to capture new value and drive their own disruption through digitization. With the right technology investments, financial institutions can streamline operations and compliance, while offering customers the real-time financial advice and convenience they increasingly expect. The problem is that most FI’s aren’t ready to invest in the technology needed to support these needs.
Imagine a banking experience so compelling that customers simply can’t look away. A financial institution with personalized interactions and advice available anywhere, anytime on mobile devices. Branches that blend video, interactive touch screens, and data-empowered associates for a new dimension in convenience and service.
Digitization is not an option for the banking industry, rather it is inevitable because every industry is being digitized and the banking sector is no exception.
Some of the top benefits of digitization are:
- Productivity will be increased as technology reduces human error.
- Convenience will result in an increased number of customers.
- The rural and urban gap will be bridged.
- Increased analytics will provide FI’s with the information needed to improve and respond to their process.
Using digital technology to build a boundary-less FI’s will require strategic partnerships. A customers’ need to spend, transfer, and money in a secure environment remains unchanged; however, their behaviors are changing radically. Customers are looking for their interactions with their FI to be effortless. They are increasingly comfortable using the internet to seek advice and gather product and service information before stepping foot in a branch. They expect to be able to choose the channel most convenient for them—whether that’s a branch office, browsing the FI’s website or using a video-enhanced call center—and they will insist that all channels work together harmoniously. They expect all of the companies they do business with (including their FIs’) to know them as individuals, anticipate their needs and actively involve them in coming up with tailored solutions.
Unless a digital strategy becomes a top priority that is pushed by a FI’s senior management, it will easily lose momentum. To build a roadmap for digitization, you need a clear sense of the potential value of specific investments that create digital business capabilities. Incumbents only have a short period to adjust to new technology or they risk becoming obsolete.