My First Savings Account was the Beginning of my Financial Services Fascination
I opened up my first savings account when I was 9 – I was told I needed to save money in an account. So, I went to the bank and opened a very basic savings account and it really made me feel like an adult. But as I grew up and began to be educated in the world of finance I became even more influenced by the factors affecting insurance, investing, venture capital and of course banking. The 2008 financial crisis, low-interest-rate environment, and the current coronavirus issue are factors that affected my perceptions of the Financial services sector.
All of these experiences have led me to one important conclusion: engaging with your customers in the digital world may be the most important factor in your success with customers. Look at today’s situation where so many people are virtual, working from home more so than ever. How are we able to connect with our customers? More than a third of UK bank branches have closed in the last five years, there were a staggering 3,303 bank branch closures in the UK between January 2015 and August 2019 — equivalent to 34% of the overall branch network in the country. The branches that remain open are now operating on a limited schedule and are open four days a week or less.
The shrinking branch network is making it difficult for consumers to get banking services more than ever. Customers do not want to visit bank branches. Opening hours are inconvenient for the customer, people simply don’t have time. Most financial firms are thinking how do we engage and interact with our customers at times that suit them?
I will never forget when I had to personally take a day off work, to visit multiple bank branches to apply for my first mortgage. If only I had the option to visit branches and apply for mortgages during times that suited me and was able to have the full in-branch experience from the comfort of my home? Now think about it. That would be a complete game-changer for both the customer and banks, financial firms will be able to take customer experience to a whole new level!
Customer experience is an overused term that covers many concerns in a company. Creating an environment where a bank, insurance company or investment firm can easily interact no matter where or when the customer wants to engage may be the most important to your customer experience approach. Being able to provide a VIP like an experience, online, that distinguishes you from your competition is critical going forward.
That is really the reason I joined Vee24. It is a company that is in the middle of live engagement with your customer – it is an Intelligent Conversational Experience platform trusted by the world’s leading consumer-facing brands. Featuring live voice, video, text chat, and co-browsing for web, mobile, and kiosk-based customer engagements. Vee24 is the most broadly and successfully deployed solution proven to advance the customer experience, dramatically increase online account openings and investments and significantly improve the customer service experience. Vee24 is truly providing the online VIP experience.
With the Vee24 solutions set a company can easily answer basic FAQs that reduce significant calls to banks or branches with an Intelligent ChatBOT. This approach drives efficiency and effectiveness and provides 24 hours service with much of the need for information occurring between 6:00 pm -to-10:00 pm. This will allow experienced personnel the time to provide real customer-facing questions with the answers they deserve in a timely fashion using tools such as live chat, video chat, and co-browsing. Finally, once the customer has what they need, scheduling an on-line appointment via a live video chat provides a truly personalized approach to meet and finalize the transaction. This type of collaboration has driven an NPS or CSAT score of over 90 for many of our companies, allowing them to stand out from the competition.
Over two-thirds of British adults used online banking and 48% used mobile banking in 2018. This is a key set of metrics indicating the trend to the future, as many bank branches are closing in the United Kingdom. More and more customers will demand a digital engagement solution on any digital channel they want to use, or they will go elsewhere. From providing face-to-face interaction with your mobile application to BOTs that answer the easy and more mundane questions, this is the direction consumers are expecting support to be. Call centers and physical branch offices will not completely go away, but there is a better way to meet and delight your customers in the digital world. Gone are my early days of walking to the local branch and opening up a savings account. Here are the days of online support wherever and on whatever device I want. I decide the level of service that stands out best for me.
