In the first of my three-part blog series on reinventing the origination process, I discussed how digital transformation has reshaped consumers' expectatiosn from the companies they do business with – which means that leading financial institutions must transform their customer experience as well if they wish to remain competitive.
In the second part of my series, I want to focus on improving the customer experience, through customer information management focusing on speed, efficiency, and customer engagement.
Develop a Holistic Approach to Customer Information Across the Organization
There are few things that irritate a customer more than providing the bank with information they already have. Nothing screams “you are not important” more than having to provide my address to the very institution that helped me secure a mortgage to buy my property in the first place. Connecting legacy systems can be a messy and expensive venture, but the benefits of implementing a holistic customer information approach across the entire organization can be well worth it.For example, one leading Canadian bank has been able to reduce its online application process by 60% simply by streamlining and connecting it to internal customer data sources to significantly reduce the amount of information customers need to manually enter. As a result, customers can complete the application process in a matter of seconds rather than having to submit page after page of information.
This doesn’t mean that streamlining the application process will result in less personal data on current or prospective customers the bank can analyze. Today, banks have a multitude of third-party data sources to leverage to gain insights into existing and prospective customers – from identity verification to checking how much the person makes each pay period. Used in the right way, the insight can radically improve the data collection and decision making process.
Speed & Efficiency
Today’s customers live in an “instant world” and expect content and digital experiences to be delivered anywhere, at any time, and on any device. These changing customer expectations have transcended the digital world and consumers expect the same level of instant and personalized service across all channels.Success for banks will lie in their ability to deliver an outstanding experience to each and every applicant, while streamlining operational efficiency and scalability. As such, more and more leading banks are utilizing intelligent automation to reduce the rate of manual underwriting while still demonstrating full, consistent compliance with regulations.
Leading solutions are empowering business users to directly configure and manage business processes and decisioning strategies, enabling them to quickly and continually implement changes to streamline the origination process. For example, a leading fintech FICO is working with saw dramatic improvements to their originations process after implementing automated solutions. Not only were they able to provide 95% of all applicants with a 100% automated experience but borrowers could also create accounts in less time than it takes some competitors to make a lending decision.
We Can’t Talk about Engagement without Talking about Digital Engagement
Whether it’s ordering a pizza or purchasing concert tickets, customers want some confirmation of their purchase. In the financial services arena this need for confirmation is even more important. Leading institutions are increasing the level of engagement that consumers feel throughout the origination and new customer onboarding process.To keep up with the shifting customer expectations, banks are utilizing automated communication capabilities that proactively reach out to applicants to keep them updated on the status of any requests, enlist their help where necessary, and welcome them as new customers.
Once they’ve opted in, consumers can be engaged throughout their journey with the financial institution, whether it’s alerts for offers that customers qualify for, or receiving reminders for payments and other collections activities.
One leading retail finance organization was able to contact 65% of the people who had been approved for credit services but had not used them - without human intervention, freeing up associate time to help the customers that needed assistance.
How businesses interact with customers has dramatically changed in the last five years. For financial institutions, customer engagement today means creating the ideal experience for each current and new customer. These experiences have to be delivered quickly, efficiently and most important, digitally. In my third and final blog in this series, I will be discussing best practices for improving the decisions that drive the customer experience: analytics for offer determination and decision accuracy.
