UX enhancement in financial services through automated treasury processes

UX enhancement in financial services through automated treasury processes

Financial services are no exception to the rule that end-user experience and satisfaction should be considered. Sometimes, if not too often, financial service providers forget about their own customers. But shouldn't it be different? It should be the top priority. If you look at the financial services industry, especially at hedge funds or family offices, it turns out that treasury services are the "poor relation" (a very weak point) that is often neglected. Not automating is not only a risk, a lack of consideration of the end customer, but also a loss of opportunity to significantly reduce costs. The mimicry of suppliers is the best way not to differentiate. So why not break with bad habits and consider treasury in its rightful place: essential?

“All the same” (Sick Puppies)

While investing in a better customer experience (i.e., UX) has proved to significantly improve business results, it has also created a sea of sameness. It is difficult to differentiate brands if all fund servicers offer the same types of services. And of course, the consequence is that without differentiators providers of services are struggling to sustain market share. Some focus more on size and make acquisitions and forget to enhance services. Even worse, by not considering bank connectivity properly, bank on-boarding can become more and more complicate over time. In financial services, it appears that the reporting is a key element. And how to best enhance customer experience? By automation obviously.

To do so, suppliers must focus strongly on improving customer experience. It mainly involves optimizing touchpoints in the customer journey, with a big accent on facilitating digital interactions. Digital trends were accelerated by the pandemic and lockdowns.

Sheep of Panurge (Rabelais)

It seems to us that it is necessary to differentiate oneself because it is the best defense to resist and keep the confidence of one's customers. Doing what everyone else is doing and not wanting to simply do better is telling yourself that the only restaurants on the street are fast foods’ and forgetting that a more traditional restaurant with better cuisine can stand out. Even though the corporate treasury industry is quite conservative and traditional, it is nonetheless dynamic and has made its digital revolution, as the importance of treasury has been reaffirmed by the crises of the past few years. If there is one sector where digitalization is virtuous, it is cash management. The same is true for family offices, hedge funds and fund servicers who should finally automate their banking connectivity and digitalize cash management, where value can be created easily. It is even more unforgivable not to do anything since Treasury as a Service solutions now exist and can make a difference. Do you want to remain the same as any other provider? Why not challenge yourself easily by increasing the UX drastically? We have the solution for you!

The virtuous digitization

Investments in an omnichannel digital solutions have largely and always paid off. We have noticed the famous phenomenon of mimesis, the so-called “sea of sameness” – user experience (UX) has become too homogenized, leaving little differentiation between brands of fund servicers. They need to look beyond. Customers should bring purpose, problem, need or question to every interaction with the supplier, along with expectations on how quickly or easily the outcome will be realized. We are moving from a customer experience towards a business experience, which is more holistic approach of doing business. to help companies to differentiate themselves and generate growth and/or sustainability. Brands face intense pressure to stand for something bigger than the products and services they offer. Companies dispose of large pools of financial data that are often underutilized and dispersed across different IT tools, including XL sheets The objective would be to consolidate this data to fulfill the unmet needs of clients. The experience of innovation is also key to sort out problem in new ways. It means going beyond the acceptation that some processes cannot be automated. There are solutions to revamp customers experience and achieve desired outcomes. To be successful, this new “experience” should become part of the company culture and an everyday habit. By automating processes around treasury, the most important issue in the whole financial chain, people can create additional value and mitigate risks and costs. The objective of resilience is also essential. Beside the mitigation of risk of fraud, automation of payments through a single bank gateway may enable to ease reconciliations (via automation) and reduce significantly costs. It is extremely virtuous.

The question to address to over-perform peers

What does business of experience mean for the Alternative Fund and Family Offices management industry, is the key question I encourage you answering to. The notion of substance, which is growing, the need not to outsource everything anymore and the need of control pushes some funds to finally consider working differently, more efficiently and cheaper. There are Corporate Finance & Treasury platforms, such as FENNECH, which allow to manage the treasury and the banking relationship as pro's or as the biggest multinationals do. Ask specialists who can present you a turnkey solution: IT tools in SaaS (in the form of rental according to use) and the team of seasoned treasurers to run them. No more reason not to be a treasury pro. Before you could have invoked it. Not anymore (I refer to previous articles covering this topic and the solutions developed). In addition, you can do a preliminary free ROI and measure the positive impacts both qualitatively and quantitatively. So why deprive yourself, I ask you.

Rethink your treasury operations for creating value

Fund Servicers, multi-Family Office service providers need to re-think the customer journey they offer by pivoting towards the business experience, leveraging innovation through progressive digitalization of their treasury key activities, personalization of reporting, and data-enabled business models that place the client at the center of the value proposition. If you could achieve this, you would be in this ocean of sameness the best in town, I promise.

Fran?ois Masquelier, CEO of Simply Treasury (see TaaS solution proposed to fund servicers)

Disclaimer: This article was prepared by Fran?ois Masquelier in his personal capacity. The opinion expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the view of the European Association of Corporate Treasurers (i.e., EACT).