Elly Yates-Roberts |
In many industries, the customer onboarding process is simple: download an app, input a name and e-mail address, and click to accept terms and conditions. But how would your customers describe the process of opening a bank account with you? It’s an important question for every bank to ask because customers can be won – or lost – during this first interaction.
Customers now expect to be able to conduct fast and flexible interactions with their banks at any time, regardless of location or channel. Yet, many say onboarding is a frustrating experience because they’re often re-routed to different channels and they’re required to provide physical identification or answer the same questions several times. In fact, research shows that these experiences cause 38% to drop out during the onboarding process.
As a bank, the way you onboard new customers sets the tone for your ongoing banking relationship. If you get it right, you increase customer lifetime value, reduce churn and turn new customers into brand ambassadors. Most banks already recognise the operational efficiencies and cost savings associated with using automated processes but creating a digital onboarding experience that delights customers can add much more value.
In a frictionless and engaging onboarding process, a single platform can serve different customers via their optimised channel. Let’s look at how VeriPark’s VeriChannel digital onboarding solution can make that work.
Tech-savvy customer Andrew is happy to download a mobile app and upload all the required identification documents digitally. He’s comfortable for the bank to use a liveness detection solution that asks him to make random facial movements for identification, as well as with digitally signing contracts.
Zoe’s also fine with uploading documents and her digital signature, but she prefers to verify her identity with a human agent via a video call. This is a win-win for both Zoe and the bank; there’s still a face-to-face interaction, but no need for a branch visit.
However, Michel prefers a more conventional approach. Once he’s entered his personal and contact details online, he opts to present physical documents during an appointment at his preferred branch. Here, a branch representative can pick up where he left off and upload his documents.
John is an entrepreneur with a hectic schedule, so he’s asks his direct sales agent from the bank to visit his office. Once they’ve agreed on the account and services that best meet John’s banking needs, the agent takes a photo of his passport with their smartphone. This automatically populates John’s personal details so all he needs to do is digitally sign the application and the agent submits it on his behalf.
How can VeriPark’s VeriChannel digital onboard solution help banks to successfully serve all four types of customer? Industry research suggests that banks face four key challenges during the digital onboarding process: abandoned pages, account opening, uploading documents and signing documents. VeriChannel overcomes these friction points with features such as easy document generation, document signing with DocuSign, and video banking.
Importantly, VeriChannel also feeds this essential customer data into a back-office customer relationship management system, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365. In addition, the solution works closely with Microsoft Cognitive Services, which provides artificial intelligence-powered identification technology to help banks reach a broader set of new customers while increasing revenue.
The platform works in a similar way with corporate customers. Microbusinesses and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can input their details and complete an assessment to receive recommendations for suitable products and services. The system can also instantly check credit ratings and blacklists – a process that traditionally takes several days.
ING Turkey used VeriBranch (VeriPark’s integrated branch automation solution) to transform its customer onboarding experience and it now takes just six minutes to onboard a retail or SME customer, rather than 25 minutes. This means ING Turkey’s employees can focus on delivering personalised services and offers.
According to banking surveys, 38% of customers said user experience was the most important criterion when choosing a digital bank. That’s why it’s crucial for banks to eliminate paperwork, branch visits, overnight mailings and repeated data requests. This is how they will improve customer satisfaction, boost loyalty and gain better insights into customer preferences, all while reducing costs and enhancing regulatory compliance.
Wim Geukens is the managing director of VeriPark Europe
This article was originally published in the Winter 2019 issue of The Record. Subscribe for FREE here to get the next issues delivered directly to your inbox.