My colleague, Elizabeth Dias, recently pointed me to a white paper from Akamai, the global leader in content delivery network (CDN) services, which discussed eight considerations for enabling digital transformation in financial services.
For those not familiar with digital transformation, the trend revolves around using newer technology to improve the overall customer experience. It’s about giving customers what they want, when they want it, wherever they are. Financial services companies can no longer expect customers to stick by their side, without upgrading their engagement methods. It’s simply too easy for customers to switch to a competitor. The need to adapt to the digital world is more important than ever.
- Embrace SMAC — think beyond the web page | Use Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud (SMAC) technologies to drive innovation and create an immersive user experience.
- Use expertise to attract, engage, and retain customers | Offer rich content that engages visitors and makes you a destination, not just for products and services, but for industry trends and expertise.
- Defend against commoditization | Give customers a reason beyond products, services, and rates to bank with you, such as the ability to connect with other customers.
- Enable seamless processes across channels | Customers want to be able to move seamlessly across channels and devices. Their experience with you on a mobile device should be at least as good as on a laptop.
- Bridge the digital and physical | While digital banking is increasing in popularity, brick-and-mortar branches still play an important role. It’s critical for the two channels to complement each other.
- Personalize engagement | Give customers exactly what they want, and motivate prospective and existing customers to increase engagement through methods like gamification.
- Get data smart | Frequent, multi-faceted interactions result in more data that can help you drive and retain business.
- Reward loyalty — uniquely | Increase loyalty by rewarding customers in ways that they perceive as valuable. For example, you can offer lower interest rates to customers who engage with your organization through social media.
Digital is one of the top six priorities financial services organizations must have in mind in order to spur and sustain growth. To read about the other five, fill out the form below or click here.
