NextGen Communications – the future of customer experience

By Andrew Beatty, Head of Global Next Generation Banking at FIS

As software development increasingly resembles push updates in services, how can financial institutions best take advantage of their investments? The answer is leveraging today’s technologies to empower institutions to elevate their customer experience with personalised and integrated communications.

Long a staple of the British market, digital banks are expanding worldwide. The pandemic played to the strengths of these organisations. With branches closed or restricted, the accessibility and flexibility of these banks were major assets.

To better understand just why digital banks succeed, we need to look at their operating models. Using Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) operating models rather than more traditional and slower alternatives allows them to supercharge development.

These new technologies can elevate customer experience (CX), with a specific focus on customer communications – an area often neglected in favour of purely aesthetic upgrades to flashy-looking front-end systems.

Communicating effectively

Every minute of every day, institutions globally generate 18 million texts, 188 million emails, 511,000 tweets, 232 VoIP calls and use 4.4 million GB of internet data. This colossal amount makes it difficult to provide a consistent experience that meets ever-higher customer expectations across all communication interactions and devices. Banks need to be accessible and provide a seamless experience through any and all of the channels their customers prefer, be that Native App Push, email, SMS, print, social media, Call Centre or bots.

FIs typically lack an integrated experience. What’s needed is enabled by a consistent data schema and workflow foundation that elevates the communications experience. Customers may not know to specifically request these, but they will notice their absence. Fundamental to these capabilities are application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable banks to pick and choose best-of-breed technologies, allowing banks to focus on improving the CX and increasing Operational Efficiency and Governance.

Loyalty matters

Banks succeed on the backs of loyal customers. What inspires loyalty in customers is a banking relationship that includes both listening and speaking. Research shows that 63% of customers would consider switching banking providers if communications don’t meet their expectations. For customers who said that their banks did not proactively offer them personalised services, the customer satisfaction experience rate fell to 39%.

Research shows that more than 70% of CX leaders struggle to design projects that increase customer loyalty. Contrast this number with 75% of enterprises aiming to beat their competitors by offering the best digital consumer experience, and we can gain a sense of just how crucial communications are; a seamless CX is more important than ever to meet these goals.

These last few months have been a testing ground for banks old and new. Every email, every statement about actions taken during the pandemic is a chance to prove (or disprove) that a bank has a robust, customised communication solution. Integration across all interactions is critical.

Questions to ask

Here are six questions executives who want to improve CX at their banks need to ask when evaluating infrastructure improvements:

1. How will capabilities evolve without requiring extensive development to support new data schemas, workflow, communication types and new channels?
2. Will the new solution allow accelerated change management (business user-enabled) of all communications to meet internal and external demand, or will we be handcuffed to an internal or external software release for these updates?
3. Will our middle/back office and call centre benefit from this solution by having the capability to send ad-hoc communications from a previously approved library?
4. Will we have end-to-end tracking of all our as-delivered communications for all stakeholders (call centre, back office, etc.)?
5. How is delivery remediation handled? (e., failed email delivery to SMS)
6. Are all required delivery methods supported in one centralised platform?

Consider these questions before embarking on a major project. This should help ensure the selected solution results in improved Customer Experience, superior Operational Efficiency, and better Governance for your financial institution.

FIs must take advantage of emerging technologies and investment in core technologies by considering service options for all key elements of their CX. A robust data integration and workflow layer along with API integrations allow the different components of technology infrastructure to have seamless real-time integrations with third-party Customer Communication Management technologies. This can accelerate existing digital transformation initiatives and take full advantage of a modern core transformation investment – putting technology to work for FIs and their customers.