Digital banking boosts client experience with value added products

Lenders are adopting banking mobile to ease access of financial services. PHOTO | FOTOSEARCH 

By QUEEN MUNGUTI

Pan African bank, Ecobank Kenya, has launched a unified digital banking platform in a bid to improve customer experience.

According to a 2014 report titled, ‘Winning Through Customer Experience’ by consultancy Ernst & Young, more than half of Kenyan consumers surveyed reported having had a bad banking experience.

“In many ways, consumer banking is like other types of consumer activity. But banking customers expect more than an excellent mix of products: they are looking for superior customer experiences that fulfil basic expectations while providing added value,” reads the report.

By adopting a digital banking platform, Ecobank seeks to enable consumers conduct their transactions by phone and get help digitally. And customers highly value the service.

“The Ecobank mobile app provides real convenience for customers. It empowers them to carry out financial transactions that could only be done previously in banking halls,” says Humphrey Muturi, executive director and head of commercial banking at Ecobank.

McKinsey & Company, which conducted a survey on improving customer services and reducing costs, says: “Our research shows that 76 per cent of customers are satisfied with a customer service journey that is fully digital, compared with 57 per cent satisfaction for interactions through traditional channels.”

However, the Ernst & Young report found that the bad customer service experienced by Kenyan banking consumers was, in fact, due to the aggressive uptake of technology innovations by lenders, which created technical hitches that affected transactions.

“While some problems in the digital channels are self-inflicted, most stem from an issue with the financial service provider, another company or person. How the problem is handled matters. The survey results suggest that there is an astounding upside if customers are very satisfied with their problem resolution versus a downside spiral in trust and relationship if dissatisfied,” reported Ernst & Young.

In this, communicating effectively with customers is critical, even on phone. For example, the improved customer service achieved by US bank First Community Bank. As the lender expanded its branches in various cities, it had an effect on its customer service, because clients were unable to reach their bankers when they were relocated to other branches.
The bank decided to adopt a unified communications platform to reach their bankers regardless of the branch where they worked.

“Whenever bankers moved to a different branch, a frequent occurrence in the industry, they needed a new phone number.

“Customers count on being able to reach their banker, so changing the phone number whenever the banker moves is not good for the customer relationship,” said George Walker, chief Information officer at First Community, in a case study by technology firm Cisco titled, ‘Bank Improves Customer Experience and Reduces Costs’.

“The existing voicemail system also no longer met the growing bank’s needs. Employees could not forward voicemails to co-workers in other geographic regions.

“And mobile employees had to constantly check their office voicemail to see if they had messages, which could delay their awareness of important issues. That is why we adopted a unified communications solution that made it easy for customers and employees to reach everyone, everywhere and on every device.”

Through this, the customers were able to reach their bankers on the same number, no matter where they worked. This boosted efficiency in service delivery and created a personalised customer experience.

- African Laughter