Update on 03/05/2022

Towards digitalisation: Personalised videos in the banking sector

Today we are addressing a new topic with particularly relevant implications: personalized videos in the banking sector.

The spread of digital is radically changing the bank-client relationship. According to a study by the Boston Consulting Group, four out of five bank-client interactions occur through digital tools in the world’s most developed countries.

Other innovations in the banking sector, such as the development of a wide variety of digital distribution channels, the ability to serve customers on the full range of services and transactions at a distance, and the activation of new forms of communication based on new media allow effective interaction with the public and contribute to this strong change. The main benefit of digitalization is that it saves operating costs through online or mobile services. The focus is on “value digitalization,” i.e. the use of technology to:

  • Improve the customer experience
  • Personalize services for individual profiles
  • Increase customer loyalty

During this study, the Boston Consulting Group identified two starting points from which banks to begin to accelerate their digital process, namely:

  • Provide immediate access to the full range of products (including mortgages, loans and savings plans)
  • Implement technologies for the omnichannel collection of big data and its analysis, automatic customer profiling, the immediate qualification of customer requests to understand where they should be directed

It is precisely in this last point that personalization emerges.
It is not enough just to understand the needs and requirements of customers: you need to propose, in advance, the advantages that will benefit the customer, configure web interfaces with offers that are in line with his behaviors, and finally, make the best possible use of information to propose the most appropriate solutions. The bank of the future will depend entirely on the digital identity of its customers and their interactions with the bank itself.

 

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Thanks to the spread of the internet and mobile devices, in particular, the world of banking services has been revolutionized. This transformation concerns the operating model, internal processes and, the innovation of the distribution system, leading to significant changes in the methods of customer
interaction. The use of channels such as internet banking, mobile banking, and contact centers are some of the preferred methods of contact on the market. Branch lovers (i.e. those who access services through agencies or promoters) are losing ground compared to “phi-gital” and “only digital” (users who are web-only, or those who only use the ATM for example), which today represent a higher percentage of customers.

The variety of channels allows the customer to get in touch with the bank at any time. The relationship is therefore increasingly intense: this greater proximity, created thanks to the innovation of the banking structure, has made it possible to respond to the needs of an increasingly articulated, multi-channel clientele that is attentive to seizing opportunities in the finance sector.

In 2021, 1,831 branches closed and in total the number of branches in the country fell to 21,650 compared to 23,481 at the end of 2020 (source: pmi.it). As a result, the layout is renewed, in line with the change of role of this touch point: fewer speakers, increasing diffusion of new technologies with “totem”, “kiosks”, tablets to collect customers’ signatures and wi-fi spaces

The spread of digital banking has led to an increase in the number of accounts enabled for internet or mobile banking. Internet banking sites become a place where you can communicate in real time and even share documents with your bank manager.

Mobile banking is innovated with “apps.” Smartphones accelerate the growth of remote bank use and, compared to a few years ago, the customer care area is much more developed. New payment functions, such as the mobile wallet, are spreading through smartphones and tablets. Within the portfolio of available apps, the main functions utilized are for mobile payments and for managing one’s finances.

In this revolutionary perspective, the role of the Call Center goes far beyond simple assistance. Instead, they are now Contact Centers: a proactive channel (with a balance of service and sales approach) that has been transformed into a “virtual” agency, and where social dialog becomes the reality most appreciated by the market. In essence, this new “virtual” agency has several objectives:

  • Manage requests from direct channels
  •  Guide the customer through different channels
  •  Increase sales
  • Social media management
  •  Provide specialized assistance on products or business areas

Finally, we come to Social Media, which has become the best channel to strengthen a bank’s image, its business, and to develop knowledge. This is a new reality that banks must embrace.

One of the activities carried out by social media is precisely that of customer care. The presence of credit institutions on social media is manifested not only through sharing information about their products and services but also through information about the bank’s other initiatives in areas like technology and art, culture and entertainment. 

How important are customer experience and customer care in the banking sector?

Customer care in the banking sector is growing. Customers are more and more demanding: they are looking for multi-channel assistance between chat, mail, telephone, and social media.

It is true that the more employees you have, the better you can manage the number of requests, but what really makes the difference is the quality of the service offered. Speed of response, effectiveness, one call resolution, assistance from the same channel are some of the parameters on which customer service may be evaluated.

Given the growing needs of customers, an omnichannel customer service system becomes essential: social channels, email, and chat become the preferred means of communication for customers. The classic toll- free number and fax are now considered archaic.

Technology has changed consumer habits. Companies in general now sell customers on the basis of their experience. For this reason, the first step is to try to understand the best way to interact with the market and improve the Customer Experience.

But how to improve customer experience in the banking sector?

To avoid losing customers, banks must necessarily evolve in a way that provides what users expect while providing a positive customer experience. But how?

  1. Being where your customers are: It’s important to know where your customers are bing social. To do so, we need to implement a strategy to identify the posts where your business is mentioned. Next, you need to identify the channels customers favor, and based on that, figure out what could make their experience better.
  2. Being a source of information: Why do people contact the bank? One reason may be so that they can get information about new products and special offers for savings. Stimulating and tailor-made offers can create new customers, or for those who already are customers, such offers can increase their loyalty. Active involvement becomes a distinctive element.
  3. Customize the experience according to the profile: Through social media you can learn about people’s habits, their ideals, the events in which they participate. This information allows operators to adapt their offers to the social profiles of their customers. The process of acquiring information is long and requires a lot of attention. The crucial role of customer care services is obvious. And once your customer has arrived, you’ll be able to propose the solutions and products that they will be interested in.

Through the information collected, banks can provide ad-hoc services that further improve the customer experience, such as personalized videos.

 

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Personalized videos

The bank does not always have the skills to offer a personalized customer experience tailored to the individual customer. It is therefore essential to turn to reliable experts, able to offer innovative
personalization services, such as Doxee. A leader in the sector, Doxee has helped large companies in a variety of sectors to enrich their customer experience with, for example, a personalized video service that allows you to reach customers in a completely innovative way.
Personalized videos, in fact, guarantee:

  •  Involvement: with Doxee personalized videos, the customer can be the author of his own customer experience. In fact, the customer can choose the structure of the scenes in the video he receives. Here the customer becomes “digital” and “director” in the process of communication with the bank.
  •  High customization: Doxee Pvideo® allows you to collect a lot of information about customers. The quality of the service becomes a distinctive element; it takes an increasingly qualified staff able to find the data necessary to create videos able to convey your messages in an efficient, compelling, and memorable way.

That’s why many banks have begun to exploit the potential of personalized videos to convey their messages, provide important information to customers, and offer them new products and services.

A success story: Poste Italiane

Postal passbooks are one of the savings instruments offered by the Poste Italiane Group. There are two versions: the paper version – the Ordinary Booklet – and the digital version – the Smart Booklet. The Smart Booklet has the advantage of managing customer savings through online and mobile services. This means being able to transfer money to and from the booklet through the website of Poste Italiane and via apps for mobile and tablets. You can also transfer money through a bank transfer from your bank account to the booklet. With the Smart Booklet there are no costs for of opening, closing, or management, and customers can withdraw at all post offices and all Postamat ATMs in Italy.

To communicate the arrival of the Smart Booklet to customers, Poste Italiane chose the innovative, personalized, and interactive communication provided by Doxee Pvideo®. Personalized videos proved to be a suitable tool for the purpose. By reviewing the video, the customer can:

  • Learn about all of the features and advantages of the Smart Booklet
  • Sign the Smart Booklet in the video
  • Connect the Smart Booklet to the customer’s current account directly inside the video

The main features of Poste Italiane’s personalized video

Poste Italiane wants to take advantage of new digital technologies to increase the efficiency of its processes and in particular to improve the Smart Booklet customer experience through more innovative and effective communication.

Personalized videos were a winning choice because:

  • The data is personalized: The video that the customer receives is unique and specific for him. The video calls the customer by name from the very start
  • Cross-selling capability: The customer is shown a range of services that he may choose to activate. For example, we can find postal vouchers or the simple savings plan
  • It’s easy to make a bank transfer via the booklet: Customers can associate their IBAN to the booklet directly from the video.
  • Insertion of call-to-action: At the end of the video, a targeted call-to-action is included that addresses the customer. These include Supersmart offers, postal bonds, simple savings plan, and online services.

This collaboration has achieved very positive results. In fact, the ability to personalize the video allows Poste Italiane to involve the customer more. In addition, the analytics within the Doxee Pvideo® make it possible to monitor the actions of viewers in order to improve the efficiency of the content. The more you know your customer, the more you are able to communicate effectively and deliver the services you want.