The best client experience in financial services is fast

Jumping from the world of Fintech in London to New York, we were excited to explore the scene and community, so we joined the Future of Digital Onboarding and CX Summit for Fintech, hosted by Group Futurista, Telesign, and FF News | Fintech Finance!

We boiled our findings into actionable and practical next steps. Check them out.

Key takeaways

1. Create a seamless onboarding process
   A pivotal learning is from Brazil, where disruptor Nubank proved customer onboarding could be done in 5 minutes, much to the surprise of the market leader who had complicated the process until now.
   
   Why make customers wait longer than necessary to access your services?
   
   A great onboarding experience leads to better retention and a more prosperous relationship. Unhappy ones mean high abandonment rates and possible negative reviews, which have a long-term effect on reputation and future customer adoption.
   
   Why this matters: Forensically audit your experience to increase the speed from prospect to happy customer.
   

2. Be customer-obsessed
   The business mission is to create a virtuous loop of growth, loyalty, and lower costs. This is achieved by meeting customer needs and driving value and innovation.
   
   To do that, you must go deep and develop a rich understanding. How? By ingesting various resources, from Reddit to feedback forms. Then, be smart about understanding, classifying client types, and translating feedback into action.
   
   Why this matters: Continuously evolving your understanding of customers — and their different contexts — will help you avoid being exposed and unequipped to grasp new opportunities.
   

3. Decide the optimal relationship
   Organisations need a clear position — and to hold themselves accountable— on their ideal customer relationship and how that changes across the customer journey.
   
   Human interaction in the branch still has value, but the branch will cover more complex, deeper-quality interactions with more knowledgeable staff and the possibility of co-creating new products. 
   
   Why this matters: As more customers self-service, the flip side is less contact. How do organisations stay close to customers and know what they want? Research, research, research.
   

4. Have a solid Omnichannel strategy.
   Too often, organisations split people across different touchpoints without considering different relationships and how the experience fits together.
   
   Firms must be consistent about branding and interactions. Different behaviours, validation, and interactions can cause confusion and frustration.
   
   Why this matters: Develop a clear omnichannel strategy, principles, and measures to keep team focus and foster collaboration as the customer becomes the uniting force.
   

5. Invest in the Design System and Design/UX
   Design and UX can solve problems and bring fresh solutions to the customer experience.
   
   Furthermore, robust design systems —with reusable components — ensure consistency, efficiency, and flexibility for internal teams to launch new initiatives.
   
   Why this matters: Constantly invest and innovate accross the customer experience. When in doubt, think like your competitor. What would they do?
   

6. Have a robust authentication process
   Speed is king. The job is to reduce the time for KYC, RFI, SLA, etc. You must also monitor and anticipate the second—and third-line questions that speed up the onboarding process.
   
   Ensure the KYC process is built into your application and platform to eliminate mass data entry and avoid transcribing it to a standalone form, e.g., Google Docs. Build Macros and hotkeys to start analysing and reduce manual errors.
   
   Why this matters: Use a fine-tooth comb to ensure you're hitting key targets and heading in the right direction. 
   

7. Use AI to enhance the onboarding and digital experience 
   AI is predicted to be in every touchpoint, from your bank card to your fridge. People will depend more on these technologies, just as we depend on things like Google Maps.
   
   AI and Biometrics will have the most significant impact. AI is already being used to score applications and speed up the process.
   
   Why this matters: Develop a clear AI strategy with principles, politics and ethics in place.
   

8. Invest in your back-end systems and customer data
   What's one thing no competitor or even GEN AI has? Data and knowledge about your customers.

   Furthermore, delivering a first-class experience is impossible when what you promise can't be delivered backstage. Strong back-end systems also make it easier to innovate in the long run.
   
   Why this matters: Invest in and mine this data and unite it with customers' views on products. Too often, organisations don't, and at their peril.
   

9. Have a strong fraud policy to manage bad actors
   Fraud departments are ultimately involved in an evergreen cat-and-mouse game using various technologies, such as Causal AI, to detect fraud.
   
   Empathy and imagination are essential. Firms must invest in an intelligent fraud detection policy and build solutions to counter Fraud and ID thieves.
   
   Why this matters: The team must put themselves in the criminal's mind to identify stories, subplots, and features to catch fraudsters and make models more robust.

⚡️ To see how these insights affect your organisation

🙌 Thanks to Vanessa Fernandes (Zup Innovations and a former Global head of digital experience of BNY Mellon.), Chase Burton (Anchorage Digital), Debanjan Chatterjee —(PayTM Payments Bank), Group Futurista, Telesign, and FF News | Fintech Finance!