An Enterprise Innovation article sponsored by HP.*

IDC predicts that for APAC banks, 60% of use cases of big data will centre around customer engagement, and mobile financial services will be increasingly important – in fact the first step – in omni-channel outreach.

In light of these customer-centred predictions, FSIs cannot rely exclusively on providing quality core services to maintain their market share. The new economy of today means that FSIs, like other players in a highly competitive environment, need to be able to meet growing customer demands to prevent them from switching loyalties.

To do this, FSIs must learn to understand and engage their customers – and key to this is keeping up with the times by being able to successfully leverage on new and existing technologies. As Ken Ching, one of HP’s Industry Experts for Financial Services Industry, Applications & Business Services, Enterprise Services, APJ, comments, “Understanding and data are the strategic and technology challenges respectively that institutions are facing to enable them to be successful in engaging new customers and expanding into new markets.”

For this reason, FSIs are now focusing more on technology as a means to understand, anticipate and address customer needs. Ching adds, “Institutions invest millions of dollars to upgrade and innovate their services, products, SOPs (standard operating procedures), people and technology in order to better understand and engage their existing customers and acquire new customers”.

Doing this is no simple task, in no small way due to the rapid changes in business and technology.

Daniel Biondi, HP’s CTO for Financial Services, Enterprise Services, in the South Pacific explains, “Banks are facing rapid change. Customer behaviour, technology and competition are all in flux. What is the most challenging part? Everything is happening at once. Moreover, the consumerisation of IT is driving end users to adopt technology faster than it is incorporated at a corporate-grade level. This is why IT and organisations in general need to start thinking less about machines and more about how technology is applied to solve user or customer’s issues.”

*Article reproduced courtesy of Rahul Joshi.

Transforming customer service in financial services.– The 10 rules.

The tide has turned in the financial services industry. It is facing pressure across the board: competition is fierce, government regulations are increasingly complex, and even the average customer is demanding to an unprecedented degree.

Add to this the hits to reputations after information leaks and financial scandals, and Financial Services Institutions (FSIs) such as banks must now actively court the public in order to retain their customer base.

An Enterprise Innovation article sponsored by HP.* Changing behaviour

As a result of the multitude of changes both on the corporate and consumer levels, banks now have an additional challenge to grapple with: addressing changing consumer behaviours and expectations. Biondi, in describing “the new type of customer”, says that these are “people who know what they want, when they want it, and expect superior service and products. These highly savvy customers will increasingly insist that services meet their individual needs without incurring a price premium. This has to be delivered simply and seamlessly— especially when the customer is on the move. Anything too complex will be rejected.”

According to Biondi, whether or not an FSI can meet such needs will determine the success or failure of the business. “Customer expectations have the potential to negatively affect organisations too slow to change. Companies willing to embrace new digital technologies and revolutionise their traditional retail and service model have massive opportunities.”

But what exactly are these needs, and how are FSIs able to leverage on technology in order to provide optimal customer experience? Biondi, based on HP’s research for their many FSI clients, provides ten cardinal areas for excellent service:

Daniel BiondiCTO, Financial Services, Enterprise Services, South Pacific, HP.

Customer expectations have the potential to negatively affect organisations too slow to change. Companies willing to embrace new digital technologies and revolutionise their traditional retail and service model have massive opportunities.”Daniel Biondi, CTO, Financial Services, Enterprise Services, South Pacific, HP.

*Article reproduced courtesy of Rahul Joshi.

SimplicityA requirement for

acceptance

MobilityNo gaps allowed

ImmediacyNow or not at all

Multi-ChannelAnywhere. Anytime.

Any Device.

PersonalisationUnderstanding the individual

SecurityCreating customer

confidence

ParticipationEmergence of the active customer

SustainabilityEnvironmental

awareness

IntegrationCapitalising on

connections

QualityFailure not tolerated

Ten cardinal areas for excellent service.

1. Immediacy – Now or not at all

Customers expect near-instant delivery—first on information and service and later on physical products. They have become accustomed to sub-second availability of price and quality content, and now are demanding instant analysis and decisions. Customers who are let down will quickly move to another option that respects service excellence and adapts to rapidly changing requests.

The Internet has quickly become the first-choice sales channel for new-age customers. To remain viable and competitive, businesses must respond accordingly with an effective e-commerce strategy.

2. Mobility – No gaps allowed

To “Generation Y”s, digital life flows seamlessly into real life. They are continuously connected to whatever they want, wherever they are, whenever they want it. Next generation applications will further improve in sophistication and capability to enhance the interaction between mobile users and their physical and digital environment (e.g. augmented reality).

3. Multi-channel – Anywhere, anytime, any device

With todays’ society being more likely to be engaged in their daily life over the entire seven day week, and stretching this engagement over more hours, it is critical to provide consistent and effective access whenever “inspiration” strikes. The ability to engage with the customer and meet their needs irrespective of the transaction is paramount. By utilising a common customer engagement approach as the backbone of customer interactions, a consistent experience can be provided independent of the channel through which the engagement occurred.

4. Simplicity – A requirement for acceptance

Simplicity and convenience are strong elements in establishing brand value. Young customers have high expectations for intuitive Internet interaction. They have little or no tolerance for sites that fail to meet their need for clean, unambiguous interfaces. This means a simple user interface and intelligent tools such as context-aware searches. Simplicity is a never ending goal. What is simple today may be considered complex in a matter of months, weeks or even days.

5. Quality – Failure not tolerated

The power of universal connectivity makes it more important for organisations to focus on a quality product and service. Customers used to put up with product faults and service delays. Today, companies that fail to deliver can expect instant exposure of their failings on blogs, “tweets” and video-sharing websites.

People increasingly use online information-mining tools to get feedback from other customers before making a purchase. Companies are forced to minimise errors, improve quality assurance practices, and get it right the first time and every time.

6. Personalisation – Understanding the individual

To remain competitive, an e-commerce strategy is a given. But the next key differentiator is “pe-commerce”—personalised electronic commerce. Customers increasingly provide personal details on everything from the books, music, and clothing styles they prefer to technologies they own. In return, they expect to receive something for that knowledge. Such “payment” could be discounted offers to download and watch their favourite genre of movie featuring their favourite actors. And in return, companies realise lower marketing costs and improved sales.

Companies must, however, comply with the customer’s privacy requirements. Those who treat customers as individuals—not as unidentifiable parts of a mass market—will have a competitive edge.

An Enterprise Innovation article sponsored by HP.*

*Article reproduced courtesy of Rahul Joshi.

Ken ChingHP Industry Expert for Financial Services Industry, Applications & Business Services, Enterprise Services, APJ

7. Security – Creating consumer confidence

Security of personal and financial information is a fundamental requirement to create customer confidence. Customers ultimately will insist on having some control over what does and does not remain private.

Companies will not be able to use “mass-privacy” rules with default settings applicable to every customer. Customers will demand personalised privacy policies in which they choose the degree and with whom the company can share their information. Marketing databases currently sold among companies to target customers in different market segments will face increased scrutiny. Companies that overcome the technical challenges of meeting this personalised privacy will have a sizable business edge.

8. Participation – Emergence of the active consumer

Companies typically believe they understand customers’ needs and preferences and can reach 80 percent of their market with standardised products and services. This marketing approach was crafted when customers had fewer choices and zero impact on what and how they were served.

But we are already seeing customers move into a more active and participative role. Soon they will expect to have a say in product and service development cycles to ensure their needs are fulfilled. It will be impossible for companies to satisfy all the requirements that people put forward. But it is important that customers have the opportunity to participate. This will make them more receptive and understanding of potential limitations.

9. Sustainability – Environmental awareness

Customers are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of their actions. These concerns are putting pressure on companies to pay close attention to their ecological and business value chains.

Websites such as Climate Counts rank companies on their environmental record. This makes it easier for environmentally-minded customers to determine a product’s “degree of green” as they make their purchasing decisions.

10. Integration – Capitalising on connections

Using everything an enterprise knows about a customer to provide optimal service is the final customer mandate to be fulfilled. Critical information from seemingly unrelated events will integrate into each customer experience to provide the simplest, quickest, highest-quality proactive interaction. Information technology that is able to see across a customer’s actions is an invisible enabler of a fully integrated quality service.

Although customers are becoming increasingly demanding, the availability of new technologies also makes it much simpler, for FSIs to understand and address customer needs.

“How does a bank ensure that it is providing what customers really want? Involve customers in the design, listen to them, and learn to think from their perspective. If banks give customers the ability to choose the services they want and the way they want them to be delivered, the guess work disappears. In return, customers obtain what they want every time, whilst banks gain insight and a more valuable and personal connection to their customers. After all, banks want to build an emotional connection with customers that can translate into loyalty,” says Biondi.

An Enterprise Innovation article sponsored by HP.*

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© Copyright 2014 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

May 2014

*Article reproduced courtesy of Rahul Joshi.