‘In the age of AI adventures and swipe-right culture… how do banks earn their customer’s trust and transcend to provide compelling CX?

Context setting… A seismic shift is underway

Post another session on Artificial Intelligence (AI) with one of my clients in the region, he had a simple yet stirring question for me, ‘Najam help me understand, how do I build deeper ties with my customers, deeper than ever before… and beyond mere lip service, how do I get new technology trends to provide ultra-personalized, ‘special’ treatment to all my customers …’ I could see his eyes radiating excitement and a face full of anxiety. To my mind, this indeed was a brilliant question clearly epitomizing the challenges faced by any C-Suite banker… how to leverage AI technologies to provide personalized services to its customers and transform bank’s CX.

AI is ruling boardroom conversations today. Discussions are brimming with CX transformation ideas using AI led technologies. Let’s try to get a simplified perspective on CX and what its transformation really entails whilst leveraging the AI powered emerging technologies.

Pushing the frontiers forward for a memorable Customer Interaction…

When we look at digital transformation through the lens of CX, cutting–edge AI technology can be harnessed in finding new ways to deliver value, generate revenue, and improve efficiency whilst providing superior CX and infusing customer loyalty. In the quest to create a cognitive financial institution, all of us have achieved a certain degree of maturity and are trying to scale up to the next level. The following chart depicts three major CX stages (and there can be several sub-levels at each stage). Let’s explore them in more detail.

Stage 1 – Instant response to Customer’s Request: ‘Stage 1’ highlights the CX strategy where bank’s customer desires for some product/service and subsequently raises the request (through the usual channels). At this stage, bank’s objective will be to fulfill the customer’s request in a flash (literally!) and with highest surgical precision. Seamless and prompt delivery are the key success factors here.

During this stage, idea is to optimize, automate and accelerate the back end process (typically monotonous) such that the standard back-office KPIs (Key Performance Indicator) like TAT (Turn-Around-Time), SLA (Service Level Agreements) are top notch. Reduction in manual interventions, in other words, increase in process STP (Straight-Through- Processing) as well as accuracy of transaction processing are critical elements here.

Thanks to the unprecedented advancement in the automation technology, back office process virtualization has transformed the way transactions are executed today. Robotics (Process Automation) has taken the world by storm whilst AI has upped the ante by automating processes even when unstructured data or a certain degree of judgement is required. No wonder, they call AI automation on steroids.

Stage 2 – Curated solutions through top notch Customer Interface: In stage 2, the CX strategy steps up the gas and tends to transform the FO (Front Office) to BO (Back Office) experience of the customer. The idea here is simple and two folds, (a) make your external interface sophisticated and collect as much meaningful customer data as you can. (b) Have sophisticated technology solutions to derive patterns, insights & contextuality on customer’s behaviors and provide curated & hyper-personalized solutions. Experts predict, one of the strongest differentiators in the future will be the ability to deliver real-time and hyper-personalized experiences.

For a successful stage 2 CX, think technology from two dimensions. First, gain the right external orientation by implementing smooth, slick and efficient ‘Customer Interface’. From a normal FAQ based chatbot to an intuitive and sophisticated virtual assistant, getting a right interface mechanism is a pipe dream for any bank.

Second important aspect involves a combination of sophisticated technology solutions including Data & Predictive Analytics, AI and ML to provide ultra-powerful capability to understand patterns of customer’s behaviors. From reminding a forgetful customer about her/his utility bills payments or making recommendations on how much she/he should start saving every month to be able to buy the environmental friendly car next summers, deriving patterns is the key in building mass personalized solutions.

Stage 3 – Real-time Auto Execution prior to Customer’s Realization: This is the stage where Augmented Intelligence unleashes its full force and the CX strategy is to try fulfilling/executing a customer’s request even before she/he has realized it. Sounds like a sci-fi flick but this faster-than-real-time CX will become the new norm pretty soon. This is the point of convergence where several promising technologies, like IoT (Internet of Things), VR/AR (Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality), sensors juxtaposed with Social Media platforms will provide enough customer’s information enabling bank to know its customers like never before. Customers expect performance, 24*7 availability, responsiveness, authenticity, and consistency in messaging and tone and it is this seamless customer experience will separate leaders from laggards.

Appropriate Data collection from several sources (not just mobile), processing/transforming the collected data into meaningful insights and using this information to create sublime, and ultra-personalized services and experience is at the heart of this CX strategy. Far from reality, banks have to go a long way to achieve this phenomenon (sources suggest that almost 90% of banks are not able to deliver on the personalization promise).

Another set of super critical elements are getting customer’s ‘consent’ in the first place and ensuring privacy and data protection principles compliance at all levels. Easier said than done, each of these aspects is a research subject in itself with specialists looking to master the areas. (This section will be expounded in the further posts).

Right then, the point really is... what's your vision? What's your strategy to achieve? What does success look like and where to get started? (Satya Nadella in 'Hit Refresh')

Several super-critical factors will have to be considered during the journey from Stage 1 to Stage 3. From managing and securing data to the right architecture, there is science in every aspect which needs absolute serious thinking. Will hopefully try covering these aspects in the next posts.