Once a year we hold our Meeting of Minds for the senior decision makers from the retail banks, building societies and brands that distribute financial services. This is coming up on Thursday 13 October and one of the key challenges we are hearing from this community is around how can we use data to improve the customer journey.
The question has been posed, with customers not fitting with traditional profiles how do we personalise our message to our clients to ensure they have a great customer experience? As Todd Yellin from Netflix would say “There are 19 year old guys who watch Dance Moms and there are 73 year-old women who watch Breaking Bad!” To be able to provide a good customer experience we need to understand the data we have on our clients. Most of the companies we work with tend to have massive databases but it is key to know what is in them – get to know what you have on your customers and use in a way to benefit them.
Once you understand the data you are collecting you then need to address how you are collecting it in the first place? The traditional ways have been to overload the customer with questions but what customers really want these days is for you to understand them with minimum effort, when reducing customer effort it means you are more likely to win or retain more customers.
Another factor to think about is what are the customers getting back from sharing information with you as a brand? Within financial services one of the biggest frustrations is when a bank calls a customer and then is asked to prove who they are, and then they get put through to another department and then get asked to prove themselves again. We need to start thinking about how we can solve this issue!
It has been proven that financial services currently aren’t great at taking information effectively as they require cryptographic evidence i.e. utility bills etc. to verify the data of individuals. But, if a customer can give you ‘data’ in the most efficient format it reduces the issue/hassle for the customer and increases the efficiency of the supplier within the same risk assessment model. Adobe have a ‘digitally signed portable proof system’ so everything is portable. It lets individuals ‘accumulate’ their data/info wherever they go so they can use it every time they interact with a brand/supplier that requires proof of ID. This not only serves up ‘data’ as evidence or proof of ID but because of its portability and accumulation, it also serves to provide proof of history of behaviour i.e. does the person pay on time, are they trustworthy etc. Could this be an option going forward?
To conclude there is still lots to be learnt when it comes to data but to support your customers and improve your customer experience you need to reduce the customer effort and implement transparency and consent!
If you are interested in this topic then we have a couple of events that could be for you:
- Meeting of Minds: Bank and Brand Distribution of Retail Financial Services and
- Be Mindful of the Client
For more information check out the links above or please do call me on 01483 861334 or email me on hannahjackson@owenjamesgroup.com