Shaping the future of customer experience (CX) in financial services
What are the key points to building a smooth customer experience in financial services? And how does this work across different aspects of financial services business operations, such as compliance? Read on to find out.
What is customer experience in finance?
Customer experience (often abbreviated to CX) in the finance sector refers to how clients perceive the interactions with their bank, broker or insurance company, at every stage of their customer life cycle. This includes every single touchpoint, from signing contracts online and in-person interactions at branches to phone support. Each exchange or encounter clients have with their financial institutions impacts the way they feel – and whether they will want to keep doing business with them or move their accounts elsewhere. Leveraging technology to drive positive customer experiences in financial services is key.
Why customer experience matters to financial services
The bottom line is straightforward: in a competitive financial landscape, customer experience wins business. Satisfied customers are loyal customers. A positive experience not only builds trust, but also makes clients less likely to jump ship to a competitor. At the same time, an exceptional customer experience in financial services might even turn clients into advocates – driving new business through positive word-of-mouth.
In a service-driven industry, customers expect their experiences to be seamless and highly personalised. There are four critical components of a positive customer experience for finance end clients:
- Convenience. Customers expect easy access to their financial services across all channels, including mobile banking apps, website, phone support and in-person branch visits.
- Personalisation. Tailored services and communications have become the norm – including personalised product recommendations (in line with regulatory demands from banking authorities) and compliance information requests on an as-need basis.
- Efficiency. Customers expect streamlined processes and short feedback and waiting times for all of their communication and support enquiries.
- Security. Robust security measures ensure full protection of customers’ sensitive financial information and transaction, building trust and confidence in the process.
Improving customer experience in compliance: the Harmoney example
Providing a consistent experience across all channels that seamlessly combines online and offline touchpoints is important in every aspect of your business operations. The same applies to compliance – the core of what we do at Harmoney. Our compliance orchestration platform covers all compliance-related interactions from all angles, while building a more extensive data profile in the process and saving your financial institution’s teams time. Two key examples:
Operational efficiency and integrated customer experiences
Retail banks often prefer to move their onboarding and KYC/AML updates to online processes whenever possible, which significantly improves their operational efficiency and cost-to-income ratios. At the same time, managing relationships entirely remotely isn’t ideal for every financial institution. Private banks, for instance, typically favour in-person branch visits with local personal asset managers. The Harmoney platform supports both approaches. Integrated workflows enhance flexibility and overall customer satisfaction across various scenarios. For example, retail banking customers can complete their in-branch onboarding from home, while corporate clients can streamline their onboarding with pre-filled information from previously submitted documents and online ID validation for multiple UBOs.
Championing straightforward client life cycle management and successful remediation campaigns
Digital identification tools make it easier to manage, review and carry out KYC and AML campaigns. A digital platform like Harmoney allows banks and brokers to send remote requests on an ad hoc or recurring basis to specific customers and clients. These can either be to comply with periodic review obligations or to carry out targeted digital AML and KYC updates of customer files. This is crucial in delivering a customer experience in finance that reaches out to clients at the right time, for the right information.
The Harmoney platform stands out for its response rates in traditionally time-consuming and labour-intensive processes and flows like remediation campaigns. For example, validation-related end customer data update campaigns for clients like Baloise have achieved response rates as high as 90%. We do so through foolproof questionnaires, multichannel response options and multi-technology solutions for potential hiccups like identity verification (e.g. through a seamless combination of PC and smartphone ID validation flows). This way, we’re uniquely positioned as the leading platform for customer-friendly and effective remediation, ensuring maximum return on every client file.
Harmoney offers a cutting-edge digital platform that streamlines intricate onboarding and compliance procedures, featuring automated screening functionalities. Interested in discovering more about our innovative solution? Reach out to us for further details!