FOUR PILLARS OF DIGITAL BANKING

Banks are aware of the fact that they are no longer serving the traditional customer base, they are in dire need to transform their business models and stay relevant in the industry. Here are the four pillars that could help the banks in realigning their business models either with a handshake with fintech firms or revamping themselves.

Omnichannel banking not only helps one in smoother transactions but also optimizes customer experience. And if one thinks that Omnichannel is just about providing ‘n’ number of options for clients to interact with the customer, then they are under a wrong impression. Omnichannel is all about seamless and consistent interaction with one’s client. Or as The Economist quotes–

“Omnichannel as a strategy that allows customers to shop with smartphones, tablets, laptops and even in stores as if waited upon by a single salesman with an unfailing memory and uncanny intuition about their preferences.”

On adopting to Omnichannel strategy, banks would allow anywhere, anytime, any device access with steady experience across channels. Omnichannel also enables interactions across several customer touch points, deriving insights, optimizing and personalizing conversations.

Omnichannel presence, when integrated with excellent UX design, is like magic on one’s customers. As per stats, 78% of the time that customers spend on offline banking services is wasted. As most of the UX design lack appeal and usability, many customers are not able to experience pleasant banking digitally.

As pointed out by experts there are seven fundamental principles of UX design that need to be included, and they are – Simplicity, Mobile First, Transparency, Aesthetic, Personalization, Self-service,  and Holistic.

Yes, Banks and Banking was evolved to act as an intermediator between the buyer, seller, investor, and investments. But banking could help in addressing the social challenges of the society as well.

While to start on ethical banking, the first step is to enable banking for people who lack KYC or do not have branches near to them, or for people who find it hard to pay for banking services that imply enabling Financial Inclusion.

Next step is to provide affordable loans at minimal charges to help community members sustain, that means the ability to start their own business, ability to acquire new skills or even execution of entrepreneurial skills.

Good Banking could also mean caring for the environment that means usage of mobile wallets, electronic fund transfer, using a renewable source of energy such as the sun, paperless bills and statements KYC, etc.

API’s are the gateway for contextual, innovative solutions. With its expansion it is more comfortable to offer extensive options to clients customizable needs, that may not be an option with legacy organizations. APIS could help banks in pursuing new distribution channels and also in improving the customer’s digital banking experience. Even the product development process could be quick and TTM[Time to Market] could be reduced with modular or API architecture. That means your application could respond to rapid changes, that is the need of the hour. According to the WRBR, 78.3% of banks are counting on APIs to help them improve the customer experience, with fintech firms agreeing. API’s are indeed opening up newer revenue streams for the banks and fintech.

Data and analytics are enabling banks and fintech firms to understand customers better, identify business opportunities and reduce costs. With Analytics on board, the financial institutions could anticipate on the loan defaults or pinpoint the consumers who are taking advantage of overzealous discounting and restructure the price of the products and services.  Diving deep into the analytics allows companies to compare an individual client product details with the average, that could help in enabling personalization and customization thereby deepening -firm-client relationship.

Data mining another aspect of Data Science can help effectively in finding better prospect and clients. Prioritizing leads and establishing a connection with the existing and potential client is another benefit of data mining. One could also combine behavioral analytics to identify consumers who are a flight risk and then create individual action plans to keep these consumers loyal.

Teknospire that is well equipped with the four pillars,i.e., Omnichannel, API architecture, Social Good [i.e., Financial Inclusion] and Analytics could help your bank in being the DIGITALBankthrough its flagship product FINX 360degree. FINX 360 degree offers modules of Agent Banking, Payments, Mobile Money and Analytics. For further information on how to build a digital bank on four platforms, please contact us here.