Digital banking acceleration is certain in these uncertain times

Last year, the Guardian reported that a third of UK bank branches had closed since 2015. But, COVID-19 has just made things worse. Many employees are ill or unable to work from home (WFH) due to limited infrastructure or effective WFH policies and processes. In addition, many are unable to handle the increased amount of customer inquiries related to the current situation.

As a result, digital adoption should be a high priority for banks as unprecedented times always act as a catalyst for change. Customer behavior is evolving fast, which means digital agility is needed if banks want to respond quickly to their customers’ needs. But where should they start?

Digitize now – not tomorrow

Research suggests that roughly 45% of branch transactions and interactions come from customers being told they have to physically sign a piece of paper. But challenger banks have shown this is no longer necessary. As a result, the current situation has accelerated consumer expectations as challengers continue to provide more unique innovations and customer experiences.

In addition, most incumbents continue to be stuck in the past, only seeing digital engagement through a transaction or self-service lens, and most still rely on face-to-face interactions to build customer relationships. But this is no longer good enough, as challenger banks are far better at building superior engagement, relationships, and loyalty through real-time digital customer interactions.

This is demonstrated clearly in traditional banking apps, which are mainly transaction based and not designed for daily engagement. However, the current situation shows us that cross-generational digital adoption is now the “new normal,” so only an app that provides every banking service will do. But how can this be achieved?

Capgemini and Salesforce have the solution

Capgemini and Salesforce have two solutions that could help. Salesforce’s unique platform delivers a market-leading, omnichannel customer experience across self-service and assisted channels. It helps banks build, expand, and improve digital engagement, self-service, customer service, AI, service and analytics, and field services capabilities.

Meanwhile, Capgemini’s FSC Banking Premier Service solution leverages Salesforce’s Service Cloud and Sales Cloud, in addition to our customer communities, to combine self-service capabilities with an end-to-end customer service solution.

Our solution leverages our extensive knowledge base, online application flows, and Einstein bots to give banks the ability to self-service, drive efficiency and reduce demand on other service channels. In addition, it enhances the employee experience by leveraging our internal knowledge base, CTI integration and soft phone capabilities, machine learning/AI expertise, and extensive knowledge-implementing, guided servicing actions to significantly improve productivity.

Both of these solutions ensure banks are able to future-proof their Salesforce environment and save time and money during their next Salesforce implementation. They also ensure their approach is more personal and comprehensive– giving banks a full 360º view of their customers, for the first time in many cases.

We have the experience needed

When a leading French telco wanted to launch a challenger bank – with an emphasis on mobile – Capgemini and Salesforce stepped in to help.

The scope of this project involved retail banking functions such as savings and personal loans. So, we created a customer-focused online banking portal that included a real-time overview of transactions that worked across both web and mobile. This portal had a 60-second onboarding time and covered key banking functions, such as signing, authentication, payment, and PFM, digitally. It also had complete Apple Pay and Android integration, and was built leveraging Salesforce technologies, Service Cloud, Backbase SAB, Genesys CTI, and IBM Watson.

As a result of our efforts, 30,000 accounts were opened on the portal in the first 10 days and it became a rich sales application across many key banking functions. It also provided a complete 360º customer view by leveraging customer data from multiple LOB applications, and enabled this fledgling challenger bank to run an end-to-end onboarding process – entirely through mobile. Finally, it enabled the client to offer 24/7 support through an AI-based chatbot that is constantly being improved.

What’s next?

There’s no doubt that the current situation has forced traditional banks to accelerate and expand their digital offerings, and has exposed the widening gulf between incumbents and challenger banks in regard to customer experience.

The times and the technology are changing, but help is at hand. If you would like to know more about how Capgemini or Salesforce can help you adapt to changing customer needs or how they can improve your customer experience , feel free to reach out to salesforceleadership.fssbu@capgemini.com at any time to discuss how we can begin your digital transformation journey together.

Author

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Mahender Nagunoori

Seasoned Customer Experience, Digital & Cloud practitioner in strategy, business case, innovation, solution proposition, pre-sales and delivery transformation.