Why a centralized communication strategy is key
The digital shift in banking continues at an accelerated pace, spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic and evolving customer preferences. Customers who previously conducted their banking at your physical branches or offices have now taken their banking online. Financial institutions are prioritizing the transformation of their approach to banking, to meet the expectations of a customer base who are accustomed to 24/7 omnichannel service from other sectors, and who expect to bank at any time, through their preferred channel.As futurist Brett King indicates, “banking is no longer somewhere you go but something you do”
Customers are also very aware that they share their most sensitive data with their banks and credit unions. In return, they expect service experiences that reflect a trusted use of their information and an understanding of them as a valued customer. But most banks and credit struggle to consolidate data and support a single view of customer, which is necessary to power and drive personalized, omnichannel customer experiences. This situation is further compounded by the fact that many bank and credit union staff members are intermittently working from home as the pandemic continues to evolve. To succeed, banks and credit unions must now provide a seamless digital experience for customers, and all the tools necessary for staff members to provide that experience – from anywhere. In other words, they need to boost customer experience with centralized communications.We can help boost customer experience by centralizing your credit union or bank’s customer communications. Connect with a Doxim CCM expert today
Roadblocks to Seamless Customer Interaction
Banks and credit unions recognize the need for an omnichannel communication strategy to enhance CX. But putting such a strategy into place without the right technology to underpin it can cause serious and unanticipated secondary issues for your financial institution. Consider, for example, a customer service representative dealing with a customer who prefers to communicate through SMS. The staff member handling the interaction may not have access to a corporate phone and may prefer not to use their own device to converse with a client. This creates an inconsistent experience from staff person to staff person. Alternatively, if texts are sent on a personal device, they may not be secure and will not be recorded in a CRM system to be referred to later. Then, consider that customer preference for communication channel may vary depending on the type of communication occurring. For instance, basic questions and answers about a product or service may be handled through SMS, while the customer may prefer that more complex conversations (like discussing a mortgage renewal) take place through email, or even in person. In the absence of a holistic customer engagement management solution to track interactions, this approach completely siloes conversation management and history in a specific staff-persons mailbox, or on their mobile device. Creating a 360-degree view of the customer, their interactions, and any historical conversations becomes virtually impossible to do. When staff leave or take on new roles; the customer conversations go with them, making it impossible to maintain consistency in the relationship. Effectively, in attempting to create an omnichannel customer experience, the financial institution has instead created operational challenges that impact both staff performance and customer experience. But, with the right technology, these pitfalls can absolutely be avoided.How Centralized Communication Technology Prevents a Disjointed Customer Experience
Many banks and credit unions are currently using a combination of corporate mobile devices, personal mobile devices, and standalone tools to provide customer service across all channels. These cobbled-together systems only answered an urgent short-term need, they are incapable of providing a consistent communications experience for customers. To solve the problem of disjointed communications and siloed customer data, banks and credit unions must use integrated technology that allows them to both understand how a customer wants to communicate, and makes those communications possible, while documenting interaction data in their day-to-day systems of record (which may include CRM, loan origination systems, or banking core systems).Benefits of a Centralized Communication Strategy
Top benefits of a centralized approach to customer interactions include:
1) Customer engagement and satisfaction. To build strong, long-term relationships with customers, banks and credit unions need to focus on true engagement of the sort that increases loyalty and enables better business outcomes. This can be achieved through the creation of a uniform, 360-degree view of the customer, and the adoption of technology that allows your financial institution to act on those insights. With centralized Customer Engagement Management (CEM) technology, you can drive targeted product recommendations, improve customer service and response times, as well as personalize customer communications across all touchpoints. The result is customers who feel understood, never have to repeat their story more than once, and trust that your financial institution has their best interests at heart. 2) Improved staff experience. Finding and retaining top tier bank and credit union employees is more challenging than ever. Providing employees with technology that makes their lives simpler, can help set your financial institution apart.In fact, a recent study by Samsung suggests that 69% of employees would switch jobs for technology that would help them perform their jobs better.
By implementing centralized customer communication and engagement management technology, your bank or credit union can help make the jobs of your valued staff members easier, whether they are working from home or from the office. A CEM platform acts as a central location to manage all incoming documentation, as all documents get uploaded automatically to the relevant interaction. Without such technology, staff members who are processing complex applications like mortgages may have to sift through lots of back-and-forth emails to find attachments, or even ask colleagues where the documents have been stored and whether they are using the most recent version. 3) Improved process flow. By tracking customer interactions centrally and managing processes like customer onboarding securely, through a centralized and automated workflow, you can improve the process flow of many customer conversations. This will provide a positive outcome for the customer sooner. It also boosts productivity, standardizes processes, and reduces both error rates and the time to complete many routine banking tasks.HOW DOXIM CAN HELP BOOST CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE WITH CENTRALIZED COMMUNICATIONS
Exceptional service is a hallmark of financial institutions but providing consistent omnichannel engagement is challenging. To deliver on this promise, banks and credit unions need a scalable, automated, and data driven approach to customer engagement. Doxim’s suite of customer communications and engagement solutions include secure in-app business messaging through CRM, so all customer interaction data is stored in a single place.This approach offers a complete picture of all customer engagements and communications to your sales and support teams, so they can provide personalized, seamless, and efficient service as well as build meaningful connections.
