Finacle Blog:“Hello Mr. Smith! So did your little girl enjoy her birthday party yesterday?”

So asked the teller, D. Smith was connected to, when he reached his bank one grey Monday morning. No! Mr. Teller had not set eyes on Smith ever...nor had Smith dealt with him before. In fact, Smith was not even surprised. His bank always seemed to have a little window to his life open...and of course a way to quietly brighten dull blah mornings...even if only a wee bit.

Yes! It's quite likely you've heard of real-time information and humanized interaction management software. But I believe we've not all realized just how it can really redefine banking. Just think...how in a hundred ways personalization of service experience and building of customer intimacy can throw open new doors. With channels like ATM, Internet and the mobile increasingly replacing branches and effectively reducing bank's face-time with customers, the dependence on relationship management skills to manage critical customers is high. Simultaneously, competition is getting stiffer and customer preferences more fickle. Commoditization of product offerings is a real threat, on-demand access to customer information a necessity and positive impact on customer stickiness critical. In such a scenario, what can a bank do to institutionalize customer relationships?

There just may be sufficient merit in relying on technology for on-demand access to a wealth of customer information to counter all these challenges and then some more. Of course, adequate care would have to be exercised to avoid unwarranted intrusion into the customer's 'private' space. The focus would have to unerringly be on 'relevant information only. What if your staff could suggest key offers applicable for the customer based on the customer's profile without ever having met him? Or, if your bank's systems could factor in new information in real-time, adjust to prompts and intelligently participate in customer interactions, simulating real human conversation? Or, even better, what if you could arm your business with a sustainable competitive edge through the consistent delivery of ‘ first-class' customer experience, with price parity?

With technology that's actually really simple...it's all possible. And that, I think, is simply great...and D. Smith will agree.