Blog: How To Deliver Meaningful, Personalized Financial Interactions

Gone are the days of mass production and mass communication. We are living in an era of “the segment of one.”

Consumers are seeking an ideal banking experience, and personalized interactions are more imperative than ever. Each consumer is unique, and each experience they have with a brand should be unique as well. Influenced by industries like retail, they expect customized offers and interfaces, personal services and targeted messaging. Consumers want their primary financial institution to know about their personal financial goals, lifestyle, major life events, etc. in order to receive more tailored advice and offers. That’s why today, we must view consumers and their needs as a segment of one.

With the right tools, you can create a more personalized banking experience no matter what channel your consumers choose. Here are three ways your organization can start delivering on the promise of personalization:

Enable seamless transactions anytime, anywhere by integrating channels.

Consumers must be able to easily transition from digital to physical, and back again. According to a global study from EY, an omnichannel experience is important to 62% of customers. Channel integration is essential to allow consumers not only to select their channel of choice, but also to shift between disparate channels – such as mobile and ATM – in a single session.

Giving your consumers the ability to pre-stage transactions, for example, splits the interaction into an “initiate” phase and a “finalize” phase, enabling consumers to start their transactions on a mobile device in advance and finish at the ATM or in the branch with less waiting time, and whenever they decide to complete the transaction. Supported by contactless technology such as NFC and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or one-time PIN, the interaction between the digital mobile channel and the physical ATM can be very seamless.

To further drive channel integration and advanced capabilities, we recently announced a new, strategic partnership with Kony, a world-leading mobile app developer. Our open-API approach to application and platform development can empower your organization to more quickly and easily offer new solutions to your consumers, with solutions including contactless ATM transactions, alerts that can warn consumers of upcoming scheduled payments, even a tool that directs consumers to a nearby ATM if the one they visit is out of service.

Create an individualized consumer experience by harnessing the power of data.

Recent data from KPMG found that personalization accounts for nearly one-quarter (23%) of the overall consumer experience and continues to have a profound impact on net promoter score (NPS) and loyalty. Moreover, a new paper from The Digital Banking Report noted that 62% of consumers say they’re not confident their financial institution understands their specific needs and preferences[1].

You can use the vast amount of consumer data you have to improve the experience of your consumers, and offer targeted, relevant products and services. In addition to personalized user interfaces, the evaluation of consumer- and channel-specific data such as channel health, profitability, utilization, fraud and consumer happiness can help drive decision making, and thereby improve your customers’ experiences. Tracking trends and anomalies over time and locations can enable you to predict consumer behavior and other parameters, such as terminal congestion, that have a big impact on consumer satisfaction.

Armed with actionable data, your team can move past a “one size fits all” marketing approach, and create targeted marketing campaigns with individualized offers and messages designed for a specific subsection of consumers. You can even integrate campaigns with your CRM system to ensure that relevant products are being presented at the appropriate time, rather than potentially annoying consumers with irrelevant and generic ads. If a customer responds positively to a campaign on their ATM screen, an alert can be sent to a teller tablet so your employees can engage with the customer on a more detailed level, or help them make an appointment to discuss the offer. Even a follow-up text via mobile phone to your customer soon after they complete a transaction at the ATM is possible. In each instance, the customer is in control of how and when they interact with your marketing campaign.

Empower your employees to provide expertise, assistance and concrete solutions. 

Even as the use of online channels increases, consumers still value a human connection and personal support. Answer their expectation for personal service by becoming an advocate for your customers rather than just a service provider. It is not the frequency or quantity of contact that matters, but rather the quality and personal relevance of each experience.

Enhance and humanize connections with consumers in the branch by empowering your staff to roam the branch and be more available when help is needed. Branch staff equipped with tablets can offer personalized services whenever needed in real time. Alerting and context software providing immediate information about the consumer enables the teller to engage in cross-selling activity. Session data even can be carried across channels and literally follow the journey of the consumer – for example, if the consumer browsed your website for consumer loans, and then comes to the branch, your teller already knows at what point in the sales process they need to engage.

Get more information on how we can help you drive consumer-centric experiences at your organization.

[1] The Digital Banking Report 2016, The Power of Personalization in Banking.