The financial services landscape has undergone a seismic shift in recent years, propelled by technological advancements, increasingly sophisticated fraud activities, and changing consumer expectations.
According to recent numbers, over three-quarters of U.S. adults prefer to bank via mobile app or website. That means the way clients interact with their financial institutions is changing. Branches are no longer seen as a hub for day-to-day banking but increasingly as knowledge centers, where AI and automation streamline light-touch tasks, allowing employees to have more meaningful interactions with clients.
This rapid evolution, spurred partly by the pandemic and fierce competition from fintech entrants, has put considerable pressure on banks and community-based financial organizations, such as credit unions, which have often been exclusively brick-and-mortar establishments, to adopt digital communications and banking services.
Embracing this digital revolution requires a complete re-think of how financial institutions interact with their customers and how a myriad of technological advancements, including modern unified communications (UC) solutions, can help organizations of all sizes succeed.
Here are five key trends that stand out and will allow financial institutions of all sizes to improve the customer experience (CX), introduce new products or services quickly, ensure regulatory compliance, and manage costs.
Generative AI and Automation: The New Frontiers
Generative AI and automation are redefining operational efficiency and CX in financial services. By harnessing the power of AI and integrating it with modern business communications solutions, financial institutions can scale their operations more effectively and respond to customer needs with unprecedented agility.
For example, in marketing, AI can quickly identify trends within customer communications and automatically generate follow-up responses for review based on those trends. This could involve pinpointing customers who mentioned “interest rates” and identifying calls that either resulted in new business or transformed an unhappy customer into a satisfied one. Combined with insights from multiple systems, this constructs a more accurate customer view.
For outbound campaigns, advanced predictive dialing solutions backed by AI innovations can automate routine tasks and intelligently guide agents through complex business rules, enhancing success rates in outbound campaigns. These innovations offer numerous benefits, including reduced training times for new agents, increased consistency in call handling, support for agents during off-script conversations, and improved first-call resolution rates.
Together, AI and automation integrated into financial services promises increased efficiency and improved customer relationships.
Data as a Product: Unlocking New Value Streams
Part of that efficiency comes from increased analytical data produced from AI interactions. When properly harnessed, it can provide even more valuable insights to help make real-time, insight-driven decisions, better understand customers, and create personalized products that appeal to them.
Choosing business communications solutions that integrate analytics is essential to get the most out of customer interactions. These solutions include cutting-edge speech analytics to not only help you identify unhappy customers but also spot fraudulent activities.
Call detail reporting engines provide insight into agent communications, enabling you to make more informed decisions that lead to higher employee and customer satisfaction and retention. This includes data from call recordings, which can identify the most successful agents and approaches and those who could benefit from additional training. This alleviates the workload on quality management staff, allowing them to focus more on improvement initiatives and reducing the human bias inherent in manual call monitoring.
Removing Friction from the Customer Journey
Today’s consumers expect seamless experiences, and removing friction from the customer journey is crucial when striving for an omnichannel experience. This is often described as customers experiencing a brand, not a channel within a brand.
Fortunately, modern technologies offer financial institutions the solutions to help deliver a more human and welcoming experience. They allow clients to access information quickly and easily from their device of choice, with additional help no more than a tap away.
For example, with open APIs, you can use secure web environments, including chat, SMS, or video, that allow customers to interact with the people, products, and services through the channel or device that serves them best. AI-powered analytics engines can also further analyze data from these touchpoints, generating valuable insights into operations.
Additionally, AI-powered virtual agents or chatbots can enhance self-service by efficiently capturing customer information, validating identities, and processing basic requests. This makes call handling more efficient, ensures customers don’t have to repeat information, and allows contact center agents to spend time with customers on more complex tasks.
Combined with modern UC solutions, these technologies allow financial institutions to simplify processes, from account opening to transaction execution, and build loyalty and trust by making every customer interaction as smooth as possible.
Private Cloud and Managed Services: The Security and Efficiency Imperative
The move to the cloud is not a new topic for financial organizations. However, ensuring the right balance between private and public cloud deployments is now more crucial than ever from compliance and cybersecurity viewpoints.
Although public cloud services may be convenient for some applications, the multi-tenant environments and shared resources do not make them ideal for sensitive customer and operational data. It is best to keep such information protected behind corporate firewalls.
This is why partnering with technology providers offering both public and private cloud solutions is crucial. These providers should have the trusted in-house expertise to address deployment challenges while catering securely, strategically, and sustainably to operational requirements.
It is more important than ever that financial organizations have access to experienced technology experts who specialize in their unique needs and can develop customized, fully compliant applications and workflows that meet specific requirements. Choosing wisely ensures that your organization’s critical data is always safeguarded and compliant.
Core System Modernization: Laying the Digital Foundation
The modernization of core systems is at the heart of the digital transformation in financial services. While it may seem like a good idea to stick with what’s working, you could miss out on critical advancements that could take your business to the next level.
Core system modernization is not merely an IT upgrade but a strategic investment that positions organizations to capitalize on new opportunities and meet the evolving needs of their customers. It provides integrated solutions that support real-time processing and data analytics. This shift enhances operational efficiency and enables financial institutions to deliver more personalized and responsive services.
Even traditional phone systems can be transformed into powerful tools with the right modern UC stack. Secure, automated processes can be built into desktop IP phones or mobile DECT solutions, connecting staff with customers and stakeholders in flexible and integrated ways.
But it’s not just about phones. A centralized platform incorporating voice, messaging, and video provides all employees with advanced communication and collaboration capabilities that help streamline business processes.
Prioritize Modern Business Communications Investments
In today’s digital age, financial institutions must embrace modern communication tools to stay ahead of the competition and provide exceptional customer experiences. By prioritizing investments in these tools today, leaders can transform their operations and deliver a renewed customer and employee experience that supports growth beyond tomorrow.