BLOGS

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

22 October, 2021

Touchpoints in transitions

BLOGS

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

22 October, 2021

Touchpoints in transitions

Touchpoints in transitions

“Digital transformation” is no longer whispered in boardrooms across the financial services sector – it’s in full flow. The critical objective of transformation is to make customers happy through best-in-class services and innovation at every touchpoint. As a consequence of expectations set by the likes of Amazon and PayPal, customers demand a seamless experience when engaging with their bank. 

Against this background, banks increasingly find themselves competing in customers’ minds not only with financial services competitors, but with players across the digital spectrum. New banking entrants such as Starling, Atom, and Monzo are becoming established, while giants such as Google and Amazon continue to expand into a broad spectrum of services. 

So, what do we mean by ‘touchpoints’? At Davies we look at touchpoints as any communication that crosses the boundary between a bank and its customers, such as branch visits,  website, chatbots, email, SMS, voice assistants, call centres, or internet/mobile banking apps. 

We always keep an eye on trends and activities in the touchpoint space and here’s what we found: 

It’s no longer one size fits all 

  • There are many methods by which a customer can contact your brand, but it is key to understand that not all touchpoints are created equal. Bain suggests that “Banks can earn greater loyalty by reducing the volumes of unnecessary transactions, making routine interactions easy and convenient, and improving the service experience of high-stakes [..interactions].” 
  • Meanwhile, Deloitte believes that “Enabled by digital technologies and extensive information sources, consumers can choose how engaged they want to be across the different touchpoints of their path to purchase.”  
  • This was echoed by Square’ CFO Sarah Friar at this year’s MoneyConf – “Customers are going to show up everywhere [..] across multiple touchpoints and we need to respond.” 

Partner up with Fintech 

Blockchain becomes part of the strategy 

  • Simultaneously, blockchain technology to streamline KYC processes is becoming a key focus of Financial Services providers. Outside of the dramatically improved customer experience – According to a Goldman Sachs Report “the introduction of blockchain in the KYC procedures could drive $2.5bn in operational cost savings.” 
  • There are exciting applications of blockchain – some use cases around touchpoints are emerging: improved payments infrastructure, securities trading, amongst others. When talking about Fintech 2.0, Santander InnoVentures stated “Blockchain technologies could reduce banks’ infrastructural costs by $15-20bn a year by 2022”. [6] 

Embracing new technology, some observations: 

So, there is a lot going on, and the whispers around “digital transformation” have now evolved into active and open discussions about how customers engage with businesses and services.  Just having a broad set of customer touchpoints is only the beginning. More importantly it’s how you manage those engagements, evolve them, monitor them and make them work both independently and seamlessly with one another that will ultimately keep customers happy. 

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