As customer experience becomes the new battleground, banks can personalize customer journeys and deliver greater engagement value to customers by leveraging customer behavioral insights and applying predictive analytics.
If you’ve never heard of the ‘OTT effect’, you’re clearly living under a rock. Few companies have managed to permanently change and reshape global industries using the largest OTT platforms. What Apple did to the music industry in the early 2000s, much-watched OTT platforms are now doing to the TV and entertainment industry: they are leading a phase of absolute and incredible disruption, with the customers in the driver’s seat. And thanks to companies like these, digitally savvy customers now seek (and demand) “aha!” moments and instant gratification. They make choices based on which service provider can proactively predict their needs and adapt intelligently to their preferences. And why should banking be any different for this modern millennial customer? Today, rich, personalized experiences and simple, intuitive, and resourceful interactions drive customer engagement and loyalty.
But what exactly is the OTT effect and what does it have to do with banking? In an era where global brands are leaving no stone unturned to accurately assess and predict what their customers want, OTT platforms are raising the bar by creating hyper-personalized experiences and AI-driven recommendations. It gives customers absolute power and flexibility to decide what type of content they want to watch and makes recommendations based on their viewing pattern. The recommendation algorithms leverage each visit to the OTT platforms to improve the accuracy of their predictions based on what a customer is likely to view. By analyzing vast amounts of available customer data, they can accurately predict and influence customer behavior, the winning formula for success.
Banks need to take technology and insights to the next level
Traditionally, banks operate and compete based on their product and account characteristics and interest rates. Not anymore. Today, it is banks that are actively using data to provide personalized services. And like Netflix, the more the bank adopts technology to mine customer data, the more they learn about their customers’ transaction data and spending patterns. Offers based on customer behavior are likely to be picked up faster by customers.
The new generation, dynamic and digital-only approach to banking is not hard to imagine, and a day will soon come when banks will offer services to a significantly larger customer base. But to do this, they will need to aggressively deploy the massive digital toolkit and undertake a full, inside-out digital transformation. New-age technology, including data-driven marketing, robotic process automation, AI and machine learning, cloud, APIs and apps, and many other tools, is now available to take a vital step towards the digital transformation of banks.
Banks and financial institutions are notoriously slow to adopt new technology and combine engagement channels to provide their customers with a streamlined and seamless experience. Banks often find it challenging to aggregate single customer data across disparate systems. The key lies in establishing incremental and short-term goals that will drive more profound change through the organization. And then partner with a strategic partner who can help the various technologies, data sets, and products work together and maximize customer value. The right partner will play an important role in achieving faster speed-to-market, innovation and being ready for the future. And all while gaining a richer, deeper understanding of customer engagement and journey, and making them happy when they least expect it.
Leveraging the banks’ most valuable assets: their customer data
The banking industry may sit on one of the richest customer data sources based on years and decades of customer transactions, interactions and behavioral insights. However, they have been slow to take advantage of this precious asset, sometimes due to sluggishness or digital ineptitude and even a myopic focus on products towards the customer. Banks often use the available data to focus on how to up-sell or cross-sell their products to the customer, when the question they should be asking is, “What does my customer really want?” And that’s where customer data can make a remarkable difference.
As customers expect a higher level of in-person interactions from their banks, minimal personalized insights will become table stakes for delivering minimally viable products. Given the plethora of customer channels available today, banks must actively use them to identify customer needs based on transaction data and access relevant information through digital channels. As customer experience becomes the new battleground, banks can personalize customer journeys and deliver greater engagement value to customers by leveraging customer behavioral insights and applying predictive analytics.
For example, by applying AI and machine learning to past transactions, financial institutions can predict when a customer is looking for a new home and proactively offer a loan at a low interest rate. As banks and financial institutions embrace digital transformation and invest more in technology to serve the ever-active customer, data will be the key driver for success, and how it’s leveraged will help stay ahead.
(By Runki Goswami, Chief Marketing Officer, Xebia)
This post The OTT effect: is your bank ‘binge-worthy’?
was original published at “https://www.financialexpress.com/money/the-ott-effect-is-your-bank-bingeworthy/2463904/”
