Transforming the Customer Experience
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Collaboration, social interactivity and productivity are key drivers in today’s information landscape, and many businesses are struggling to stay ahead of the curve.
We are generating, storing and presenting more information than ever. So how can we meet the expectations demanded by our customers, yet maintain stringent policies around security, high efficiency, storage, mobility and presentment?
The last few years have seen a flurry of activity around online presentment within financial services, mainly driven by the recent recession experienced throughout the globe.
It’s all about trust, while maintaining governance.
Fifteen or 20 years ago, while there were well over 10,000 financial institutions in the US, most had called for a major consolidation which would reduce this number to well below 2,000. While it has not happened, the opportunities have clearly shown there are returns to be made, and a change in the landscape has now occurred. National banking institutions have come to the forefront, with small community banks driving the lower end and little opportunity for anyone to be in the middle. These national banks have to deal with major infrastructure and technology challenges, while simultaneously maintaining customer experience, and trust.
With little to no product differentiation, focus is now turning to delivery models and self-service. Retaining customers and understanding competitive offers and models become keys to understanding our customer’s behavior and preferences. No longer is it good enough to simply provide a static snapshot in time of one’s financial information. Clients want choice, and the ability to see their information on-demand in an intelligent, customizable way.
Segmentation is key. Customers expect the online world to deliver personalized information where and when they need it, in the format that supports their preferred device, whether it be a PC, a mobile device such as a smartphone or, in the case of the visually impaired, a screen reader.
Why are you presenting the same financial statements to your high-income customers as those who may be considered the opposite end of the scale? By segmenting your customer base, you can start to analyze and provide a better experience to them through customized offerings based on their spending patterns and history.
When one looks at markets, it’s clear that we need to understand the financial services organization and its competitive stance, in order to craft business plans that can drive long-term growth.
Technology needs to drive high volume to scale, and optimize delivery on a 1:1 basis. Responding to mass-market needs can address a number of issues at the front end, but as business processes become more complex and drive deeper into the organization, gaps emerge and challenges arise as the scope of a project can grow well beyond its initial plan.
Post-processing composition. In post-processing composition, previously produced and archived documents are manipulated in real time based on changing customer preferences and advanced analytics. In an online world, customer profiles are constantly updated and what was true at the time of document production may no longer hold true at the time of presentation. Since documents are re-composed, assembled and presented online in real time, each reflects the latest possible customer information and can take advantage of up-to-the-minute analytical trending reports extracted from corporate data warehouses. Online documents also reflect the most current marketing messages and offers that are personally relevant to the consumer to support cross-selling and up-selling.
Dynamic content consolidation. With dynamic content consolidation, multiple related pieces of information are merged, or linked together, to provide an expanded and/or supportive view of a single transaction or holistic customer position. An example would be a personal bank statement, where all relevant check images are appended to the end of the statement or hyperlinked within it and then made available online.
By allowing users and corporations to manipulate the content in real time and extract to “re-purposable” formats, companies can save their consumers tremendous time and effort and offer a truly exceptional customer experience beyond what their competitors could deliver.
Repurposing static content. As an industry, we are starting to realize that our structured data formats provide a wealth of information that can be re-used in a number of ways. A good example would be a telecommunications provider of multiple services—wireless, phone, cable and Internet. Rather than viewing individual statements, you can provide clients the ability to consolidate them into a single flexible interface to easily sort and aggregate the data.
Adding interaction to statements. Deploying enterprisewide interactive statements can be a challenge, to say the least. What is often overlooked is that organizations do not need to invest in expensive, complex business intelligence tools or updated front-end interfaces in order to give customers a truly interactive statement. Why not simply add interactivity to your static statements?
A great time to invest. With valuations running at low levels compared to earlier this decade, it is a great time for enterprises to review their online presentment strategies and invest in new technologies. Now is the time to seize the opportunity and focus on driving two-way communications between customers and their institutions. Mergers and acquisitions will continue to increase. Larger institutions will look for ways to cut costs, increase margins and grow an already saturated customer base beyond traditional services.
Actuate’s Xenos Group transforms enterprise information into intelligent content by providing high-performance solutions that optimize your ECM investments. Our solutions, based on the scalable, and award-winning Xenos Enterprise Server, load, transform and present high volumes of data and documents of numerous formats across multiple channels. The result is superior storage, real-time access, personalization, online presentment, PDF accessibility, printing and delivery for high-volume transactional output (HVTO).
For more information, visit www.xenos.com.