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The pressures of the ongoing shift to a digital-first strategy force financial organizations to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and provide a best-in-class customer experience (CX). Decision makers have moved toward unified communications, collaboration, and contact center technology to quickly meet the challenges of shifting economics, customer needs, privacy, and compliance requirements.
Those who have been the quickest to adopt a future-forward digital CX strategy have realized the potential gains of a customer engagement solution to attract and retain customers while optimizing their technology stack.
The result has made switching financial institutions much more accessible, with competitors offering new benefits daily and customers continually demanding more services, attention, and programs. It’s no longer enough for a communications system to just work. It must be updated, run smoothly, and be easy to use.
The new “bank” isn’t a place; it’s an experience. Customers weigh the importance of a modern, seamless experience ahead of other factors. Digitally innovative financial services institutions are adopting high-performance, all-in-one unified communications, collaboration, and contact center solutions to get ahead.
What Does CX Mean for Banking?
Today’s financial customers expect frictionless, personalized banking and investment experiences on their terms. That means self-service money management through apps and digital portals on their phones, computers, or other personal devices and excellent service when they choose to visit branch locations.
Customers who contact their financial institution want to be recognized, resolve their questions quickly, and seamlessly transition between channels. If they begin a text chat with a virtual assistant but transition to a phone call with a live agent, they don't want to start the conversation again. The human representative needs to have the full context of the customer's history and be prepared to offer personalized recommendations just for them.
The good news is that moving to an all-in-one communications, collaboration, and contact center solution is easier than ever. A state-of-the-art collaboration solution can help your financial organization modernize internal collaboration and create a winning, future-proof customer experience by:
- Transforming traditional financial services business models with disruptive technologies like AI and machine learning
- Personalizing the omnichannel customer experience
- Establishing agile, innovative communications solutions
- Meeting compliance and regulatory requirements
Eight Innovative Ideas to Revolutionize Financial Services CX
Financial institutions need to embrace disruptive innovation if they want to offer clients superior customer experiences. Here are eight suggestions for revolutionizing your financial services CX and future-proofing your business model.
1. Transform Traditional Models of Business Communications
Banks and other financial services organizations have traditionally been slow to adopt new technology because of inflexible infrastructure and complex, outdated tech stacks. However, adopting an open communications ecosystem significantly increases service value by creating scalability, supporting revenue growth, and laying the foundation for innovation – all without the traditional overhead costs of custom integrations.
To deliver an optimal customer experience in today’s digital environment, businesses must transition from independent communication silos to an integrated digital framework, funneling all interactions to one central location or facilitating easy collaboration between customer touchpoints and subject matter experts.
2. Create Differentiated CX with Personalized Self-Service
Even with digital transformation, a personal touch is still essential to maintaining trusted customer relationships and loyalty. With Mitel financial services solutions, you can meet customers where they want to be, delivering a consistent CX across all platforms. You’ll be able to offer customers self-service options for the answers they need, when they need them, without sacrificing the value of personal interactions. For years, the only way to make deposits and withdrawals was to visit the bank and stand in line to talk to a teller. ATMs Introduced early self-service to the financial experience; today, customers have 24/7 access to their accounts through online banking and mobile apps.
Consumers like the convenience these options offer. They don’t complain about how much more impersonal the service is than interacting with a live teller during business hours. They recognize that these alternatives allow them to get things done more efficiently.
As a result, customers are more likely to be loyal to the bank that offers the most convenient self-service. Banks get a boost to their reputation and a dramatic drop in operating costs when they offer personalized, digital-first options to clients.
3. Develop Valuable Digital Advising Services
Even the most digitally independent customer is bound to seek financial advice occasionally. Banks can harness their virtual platforms to provide guidance tailored to clients' needs.
Integrating unified communications, collaboration, and contact center solutions with customer relationship management technology allows banks to build detailed, up-to-date customer profiles that advisors can use to provide insightful, personalized recommendations. Clients can log on and receive tips catered to their financial situation or contact a live agent for even more in-depth discussions.
Clients are more likely to trust financial institutions with their money when they know they can receive expert advice whenever needed, leading to more robust, more loyal customer-bank relationships.
4. Establish A Platform for Innovation and Business Agility
Employee work styles and customer expectations are shifting as we speak. As the next generation of analysts, brokers, relationship managers, and advisors gravitate towards more flexible working environments, competitive companies must accommodate new modes of collaboration.
In this new working environment, employees need to connect easily to share knowledge and experiences to develop innovative ideas in financial services. All-in-one communications, collaboration, and contact center solutions create a platform for digital innovation and business agility for financial organizations.
Employees can launch sessions quickly and seamlessly while communicating with clients, coworkers, or business partners. Quickly moving to a video call from a text chat to share screens and files in real-time enables faster decision-making, improving customer and employee experiences and outcomes.
5. Affirm Trust Through Transparent Digital Financial Services
Banks must collect large quantities of information to provide innovative digital customer experiences. Clients are highly concerned about the privacy and security of their finances, especially considering high-profile data breaches.
Many institutions are also moving away from the use of third-party data, focusing instead on data volunteered by users. Banks must be transparent about their practices for collecting, storing, and processing sensitive information to maintain customer trust and compliance with regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
This means financial services organizations should only collect data with user consent and be clear about how they use the information. Easily accessible terms of service, opt-out choices, and regulatory guidelines show that banks take customer privacy seriously.
6. Meet Compliance and Regulatory Needs
Mitel ensures financial institutions are protected by helping them comply with key regulations in the financial services industry through product features and partnerships with providers like SecureCo and Sycurio. Mitel's solutions build customer trust through compliance with major regulations, including:
- Dodd-Frank Act
- Markets in Financial Instruments Directive 2014 (MiFID II)
- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) for personally Identifiable Information (PII)
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
7. Extend CX Capabilities with AI and New Technology
Institutions must integrate technological advancements into their CX capabilities to innovate in the financial services space. Many banks already use AI to manage fundamental customer interactions and elevate chatbot functions, lowering resolution times and human resource costs.
Machine learning can make these processes even more efficient and customized, giving chatbots more engaging personalities and using sentiment analysis to react appropriately to customer emotions. Predictive analytics, AI, machine learning, and natural language models make every customer experience hyper-personalized, providing banks with opportunities to connect with their clients individually.
8. Maintain a Human Touch
Finally, even the most innovative financial institutions shouldn’t let digital transformation interfere with customer relationships. Even though today’s clients prefer digital self-service functions, they still want the option to talk to a real person when they need more help.
Unified communications, collaboration, and contact center solutions seamlessly connect customers with live agents directly from in-app chats. AI can summarize the client’s profile, an analysis of the conversation history, and suggestions for resolution so representatives can confidently handle any interaction.
Banks can use technology to tailor their customer experiences, but they shouldn’t lose sight of the importance of human interactions. Offering users a balance of customized self-service with high-quality personal relationships will give future-focused banks the edge over their competitors.
Find Innovative Financial Services CX Solutions with Mitel
To continue improving the customer experience in this new age of flexibility and choice, financial services organizations must move toward adopting all-in-one communications, collaboration, and contact center platforms.
Learn how Mitel can be your communications partner for innovative digital financial services.
