Finacle Blog

Most U.K. banks have seized the opportunity by offering a choice of non-branch channels such as the call centre, mobile and IVR, using which customers can conduct almost every type of transaction from account opening to bill payment. But they’re not the only ones to do so. The rising popularity of branchless banking has spawned off a number of niche financial service companies like Egg, Zopa and Smile which conduct their entire business online.   Although these firms have achieved quick success, they must have a strategy in place for sustaining this early advantage and differentiating themselves from the big boys of banking.

How can these small players beat established institutions at their own game? One way is to provide superior customer experience over a simple and user-friendly platform and back that up with an equally efficient complaint resolution mechanism, accessible through SMS, telephone and the internet. Equally important is to convince users that their transactions are absolutely secure, thanks to the prudent risk mitigation and security practices followed by the organisation, namely multi-factor authentication, alerts, regulatory compliance etc. They must also launch targeted marketing measures including online loyalty programs and viral campaigns to improve customer stickiness. The use of analytics to unlock valuable customer insight from raw data can enable this last objective.