Banks can do as the bookstore downtown does!
Your customer may be attracted by the convenience and speed of online banking but will want to meet your rep to apply for a loan. Her approach to channel transaction is additive, not substitutive. And banks must transform their channel strategy around the idea of ‘channel chains’, where a combination of channels performs complementary roles for customers. Now, did I hear you scoff and mutter “Easier said than done”? Of course you would! Times are tough, resources limited, competition fierce and customers demanding. Yet, these are just the reasons why you’d want to realize the 10% to 25% annual cost savings in IT and operations that multi-channel integration promises banks. And that’s not all.
Today, the customer hops between different channels, depending on her convenience, location, time of day and the transaction. The quality of her experience is impacted by the consistency of service her bank provides. By ensuring that each channel offers the same experience, channel integration creates user delight, and loads the odds in favour of the bank, when it comes to retaining customer patronage. Integration also introduces much-needed intelligence and empowers the bank to strengthen its cross-sell and up-sell agenda, thereby increasing profitability.
Now, where banks can score one over my bookstore is by aligning their business plan with the right kind of technology. Banks can leverage the advantage of Service Oriented Technology (SOA). It supports integration, while vastly simplifying the IT landscape, making the business more responsive to dynamic business challenges.
And speaking of responsiveness to business challenges, there’s this retailer at the mall who has his act truly perfected. But then…that’s another story…another post perhaps…
