5 Trends that will shape tomorrow's omni-channel banking landscape

There was a time when you would go to your bank branch or work with a loan broker in person for every transaction. In the past 2 years, that has all been flipped on its head. But will it stay that way? 

In this post, we look at how the current trends in the financial services landscape will shape the future of customer engagement in 2022 and beyond. 

More and more consumers intend to leave their mega bank.  

To remain their customers’ Primary Financial Institution (PFI), banks need to become part of their lifestyle.

The rise of Open Banking represents one of the most significant challenges for Financial Institutions (FIs). It provides greater flexibility to users by allowing easier access to data. Customers are now less loyal than ever. They have the capability to easily transfer payment instructions, accounts and even switch their banks. They can move away to competitors, offering propositions addressing their specific needs, at the push of a button.

The net promoter score (NPS) in the financial services industry, which is a way to customer loyalty, is relatively low compared to other industries, with an industry average between 0-10s according to Forrester. And this is bad news since the performance of customer service channels is measured in customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately revenue. Hence the need for FIs to create ecosystems and applications that can deliver extensive services in order to become their customers’ PFI.

The Banking as a Platform model allows FIs to securely expose their platforms to fintechs and developers in the cloud via open APIs. Trusted third parties can access and build on top of existing FSI platforms and FIs can augment their services with third-party offerings and make these new services available to customers through their Super Apps or channels. It's all about becoming part of their customers' lifestyle rather than simply being a banking app.

Banks need to get better at delivering personalized customer service and combine the best of in-person and digital interactions.

Financial institutions with a heavy branch network now find out consumers prefer using digital tools to communicate with their banks where face-to-face transactions were once the norm. Self-service digital banking has seen widespread adoption, and users appear to love it. 

However, customers are more aware than ever of their financial health and will be looking for strategic advice in addition to just selling products. They'd welcome the opportunity to speak to a trusted advisor, either via a video call or in branch, especially when planning for significant life events or making complex decisions (such as purchasing a car or a house or starting a pension plan).

What customers expect from banks today is a channel-agnostic experience integrating self and assisted services.  Regardless of what channel they choose, they would like to have a unified user experience that offers the same features and functionality as is available in branch.

A study by the technology consultancy Capco found that 63% of 1,008 bank customers indicated a desire for one-on-one personal conversations with bank representatives, while 72% of respondents rate personalization as “highly important.”

To meet their complex financial needs, some will always want to speak with someone, no matter how advanced technology gets. However, they don't want to wait in a contact center line for 20 minutes or an hour for this.

And they want to tell their story only once. When customers make a query or start a dispute in a channel of their choice, they don’t want to answer the same questions multiple times as they switch between channels. They want their bankers to act as universal bankers who can cover a wider variety of roles, pay bills, make payments, transfer funds and perform lots of other transactions on behalf of them.

Consumers expect faster service, better overall experience, and they want it all now.

In today's increasingly digital marketplace, consumers expect organizations to have the flexibility to be responsive and provide these types of experiences.

Financial institutions can add a human touch, speed up and personalize the digital experience by facilitating access to real-life interactions via technologies such as dedicated direct connect buttons, video, and front-end chat.

An outbound proactive approach for customer engagement can play a pivotal role for banks in fulfilling customer expectations.

If your customers don’t want to go to or simply don't have time to visit the branch, you can still offer the convenience of digital technology with a friendly and reassuring human touch. Simple solutions such as having automated outbound communication strategies and streamlined support processes will go a long way in enriching your outbound customer engagement.

Outbound engagement is no longer restricted to phone conversations in today's digital environment. There are more avenues than ever before to communicate with your customers in a meaningful and relevant way, thanks to chat-driven experiences, video calls, and direct connect applications, or even doorstep banking (see the case of Vakifbank, for example). This is definitely a key financial services trend that will be prominent in 2022 for banks, and consumers.

Banks will need to support long running or more complicated transactions in digital channels.

One of the key problems is that there are too many service request types in a bank and many banks’ digital channels cannot cope with them all.

A typical bank has around 600 service request types that they can fulfill in a branch setting but digital channels only cater to only 25-30% of the service requests. Service requests that are currently being served off-line need to be brought on-line.

If customers are beginning to treat digital channels as mainstream options rather than alternative mechanisms for customer service, they will expect support for more complex transactions to be available by default through banking apps or online. This will be one of the biggest challenges that awaits banks in 2022. 

For this, VeriPark offers solutions that enable financial institutions to run long-running processes like purchasing insurance plans and completing loan applications in self-service digital channels, which are orchestrated by Dynamics 365 workflows. These are becoming the bread-and-butter services that any customer would expect from a bank.

The future of the omni-channel world will be flexible payments, instant origination, and instant disbursements. 

“Buy Now Pay Later” plans have become increasingly popular for consumers. Financial institutions are now partnering with retailers and merchants to compose new payment strategies. To compete in this environment, FIs need omni-channel, omni-product origination in order to provide loans “in all ways or places.” 

This requires pulling the complete relationship with the customer to offer an effortless, hassle-free experience from start to finish. So, customers are provided with greater flexibility for their purchases. They can set up instalment payments seamlessly, skip the necessary yet routine ID checks and complete a credit application online using their credit card. And they receive immediate response.

This leads to improved transaction services which means instantly capturing loan request data from all origination channels for a quick response. This is possible through a high level of integration between CRM, origination and channel solutions.