Putting customers first in the financial services sector

This article first appeared in the Autumn 2017 issue of The Record.

The way people buy products and services has fundamentally changed, so the usual methods of doing business no longer work. Today’s customers are mobile and always connected to their social networks, using these platforms to find their own solutions to solve their problems in minutes, not days or weeks. Consequently, today’s winning financial institutions are the ones that put the customer at the core of their business.

The increase of technologies such as smartphones, wearables, artificial intelligence and advanced analytics – has enabled companies to personalise customer engagements. Being able to tap into the social conversation and leverage personal networks and data across the entire company gives financial institutions a proven advantage when it comes to improving customer satisfaction.

To develop a better customer experience, financial institutions must start by understanding why and how customers interact with their company, a process known as mapping the customer journey. The relationship between customer experience, trust and engagement has an impact on consumer attitudes to sharing more personal information. According to EY’s Customer Experience: Innovate Like a FinTech report, for example, 36% of customers said they would be willing to provide more personal information if it meant that banks could anticipate their needs better and increase their customer experience.

Based on our understanding of the priorities of financial institutions, VeriPark sees an opportunity to help them sell products, solve problems and serve customers using a single solution to gain a competitive advantage while improving efficiency. Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a comprehensive business solution that provides marketing, sales and customer care personnel with rich information about individual customers. This enables financial institutions to build a better customer experience and thus, enhance customer loyalty.

In the modern competitive world, it has never been more important for financial institutions to deliver differentiated customer experiences. VeriPark’s VeriTouch solution, built on top of Microsoft Dynamics 365, helps banks and insurance companies tap into the information they need so they can create amazing consumer experiences across their sales, marketing and customer care teams. This directly affects the amount of revenue generated for all lines of business, including retail banking, corporate banking, private banking and insurance.

It can take companies months, or even years, to implement new pieces of customer relationship management (CRM) technologies and fully roll them out across all departments. However, one of the key success factors of VeriPark’s certified VeriTouch solution is that it tailors Microsoft Dynamics 365 to fit financial institutions’ needs. VeriPark’s solution provides built-in industry best practices with higher adoption rates and faster time to market. A specific financial services data model, product catalogue, role-based dashboards, out-of-the-box financial services processes, back-end integrations, extensions and reports make it much easier for a financial institution to implement a CRM solution. In addition, VeriPark Next Best Action, built on Microsoft cloud technology, enables financial institutions to address each customer individually and deliver intelligent interactions by recommending the next best action in real time. This increases the likelihood of a positive response – both for inbound and outbound channels – with scoring algorithms leading to an improved customer relationship, a boost in customer satisfaction, and an enhanced omnichannel experience. The combined structure also helps financial institutions to move from expensive assisted channels to cheaper online channels.

Although the lines between marketing, selling, and delivering exceptional service are more entwined than ever, the VeriTouch CRM solution enables financial institutions to gain cutting-edge insights into customer buying behaviours and expectations, and better manage real-time services so they stand out from the competition. The solution helps financial institutions to acquire and retain customers, increase their loyalty, and develop actionable customer insights. By using the solution, some of VeriPark’s clients were able to acquire 27,000 new customers in one month, sell 25,000 extra loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, and decrease call duration by 17% in the call centre.

Financial institutions usually think they will need more than one year to implement new CRM technologies and achieve such a return on investment. However, VeriPark’s flexible and customisable platform can be implemented in a short period of time, and can easily be scaled to support new product or service solutions. One recent customer, for example, was able to use the VeriTouch CRM solution for 2,000 users within four months of starting the project.