From adopting AI for personalising customer experiences to chatbots responding to customer queries, banks and financial institutions are turning to new technologies to streamline their operations and keep up with the changing customer landscape. At the same time, customers also want more than these new technologies. For certain queries, customers would still want to interact with a human adviser, so they expect that when they navigate away from digital channels and speak to someone, that this experience can be as frictionless, seamless and personalised, as possible. So, how can financial firms deliver on this customer expectation in the near future?  

Before the pandemic, many business leaders were already seeing the future of the finance sector becoming more ‘automated’. Financial firms were seen investing heavily in their apps, online services and into automating services, as they prepared for a new era of banking. Now with the pandemic accelerating this transition, business leaders are left facing two fundamental questions – how can they continue to deliver great frictionless customer service online and how can they encourage the continued use of these digital services post-pandemic?

Maintaining momentum

According to Deloitte, “The promise of digital banking was never fully realised, largely due to customer reluctance and/or a lack of attractive digital solutions. But the pandemic turbocharged digital adoption across products and demographic segments.”

However, despite spending millions on digital transformation projects, many financial organisations find themselves facing a very real threat that the use of digital services will plummet when we return to the ‘new normal.’ As professional services firm EY point out “a mere 16% of consumers across Europe expect the way they bank will change over the longer term because of COVID-19,” adding “customers have not come on the journey for a more permanent transition and need more persuasion to make digital adoption the norm.”

The challenge now for banks is to ensure this adoption doesn’t drop off in the years ahead. A key factor in this will be ensuring that customers can ‘self-serve’ easily and effortlessly across a range of different platforms.

Today’s customers want interactions to be simple and available via multiple channels, and they want to have instant access on any device when buying online or managing their financial affairs. In essence, a seamless, frictionless omni-channel experience with quick response times and personalised products is now the customer’s minimum expectations.

This means that online FAQs must be updated constantly to answer the questions that matter most to the consumer at the time, online chatbots are armed with all the information they need to deal with basic customer queries, and customers can get in touch with the organisation across a variety of platforms. Where possible, banks should also look to deliver personalised online services to help customers feel valued.

Machine learning technology such as Robotic Process Automation will also have an important part to play. By streamlining customer service and automating processes throughout the ecosystem, teams can focus on providing an excellent frictionless customer experience. This is particularly true in finance and banking, as real-time, personalised products demand vast amounts of data instantaneously, adding burdens in terms of time and resources which AI applications can help to alleviate. 

Amplifying the human voice

Despite the growth of digital, the human contact centre agent will still have an important part to play in delivering a great customer service. Due to the growth of customers self-serving, contact centre agents will often be left to deal with more complex enquiries that may need an added human touch. However, due to the complexity of the issues likely to be faced, it is imperative that contact centre agents have all the information they need at their fingertips so that they can best advise the customer. It is also essential that organisations not only ensure that their contact centre agents are providing responsible and correct advice to customers to comply with regulatory requirements, but also that they are considering the personal and mental wellbeing of their agents - particularly when they are having to handle complex and emotional customer situations. Failure to do so could severely impact the customer experience and lead to a rise in agent attrition.

This means that contact centre agents must be empowered with all the details on the customer; their previous interactions with the business, both online and in-person, and be given the right tools so they can quickly offer personalised, responsible and compliant advice to the customer. In the contact centre, AI will also become a must have. It brings consistency that customers crave and enables agents to handle customer issues faster, accurately, and more efficiently by routing conversations to the right agent at the right time.

Banks must also leverage technology to identify when a customer may be becoming frustrated with digital services, like chatbots, and quickly act and give them an option to speak to a human agent where required. 

Despite the industry becoming increasingly more ‘automated’ – the human voice may, arguably, become more important when it comes to CX. This is the option many customers turn to when others don’t work or when they have an emotionally driven concern and want to speak to a person. Voice channels also consistently rank highly with customer satisfaction, so financial organisations must not neglect this. 

As Deloitte points out, “banks should be sure to maintain the human touch. Digital interfaces are essential, and desired, but customers tend to need person-to-person experiences to boost loyalty. For instance, educating consumers on better debt management and being empathetic in debt collection efforts could help strengthen banks’ customer relationships and engender more trust.”

The key to keeping customers happy

The pandemic has, without a doubt, accelerated the transition to online. This makes now, the perfect time for the finance industry to double down on their efforts and persuade customers they can deliver a frictionless customer experience across multiple digital platforms that will keep them happy. While the sector continues on its race to digital and becoming more automated, financial firms must also reassure customers that their human touch is not lost and is here to stay in the long run.