As we emerge from COVID induced lockdowns, and restrictions start to ease up, the world as we know has changed fundamentally. People are living differently, thinking differently, and in many ways, buying differently. Even as the lockdown restrictions are eased, the focus on social distancing will gain even more prominence as public spaces start to open. As more and more people begin to venture out, they are at an increased risk of contracting the virus and consequently transmitting it to their family, friends, and colleagues. This health risk, coupled with the expected acceleration of digital citizenry in India, means that the demand for at-home products and services is expected to keep rising. Nowhere is this more applicable than the BFSI industry.
UI/UX Will Be Kingmaker
Banks have slowly but surely been investing in digital banking solutions over the past few years, but 2020 has created an express need to overhaul the digital banking stack and move from a product-centric approach to a customer-centric approach. Customers seek experiences, not products. With apps like Uber, Airbnb, or Facebook, customers are used to supreme digital experiences and expect at least something similar from their banking apps. The next-gen urban customer will choose a banking app, not a bank.
With smartphone penetration and mobile internet access soaring, the BFSI industry has a golden opportunity to onboard unbanked customers. The primary challenge for banks here is to help potential customers overcome digital and financial literacy barriers. Another obstacle that the banks need to remove is establishing trust with potential customers. Trust is a core communication issue for banks and financial services institutions today, as millions of people rely on their services to live their lives. The value customers place on ease of use can easily outweigh their loyalty to a particular provider. And if financial brands provide excellent user experience, they are in a great place to build trust and establish a fruitful long-term relationship with their customers.
A simple, clean, and intuitive user experience allows banks and customers to overcome the challenges mentioned above. One stone, three birds.
BFSI Hyper-personalization
Nothing makes a customer spend like being made to feel special and one of a kind.
Placing customers in segments defined by demographic data is not enough to deliver this type of experience anymore. Taking another page out of the Big Tech playbook, banks need to start looking at hyper-personalization of user experience.
Hyper-personalization takes advantage of real-time data and cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver more relevant product or service information to users. It is an approach that takes personalization as we know it, a step further. Such solutions integrate customer data from multiple sources to create comprehensive profiles that are then used by predictive analytics tools to generate the most relevant recommendations and products.
Hyper-personalization goes a long way in making products and services much more accessible and eliminates the problem of choice overload. Some customers, especially first-time customers, may feel overwhelmed with a wide range of options. Personalization tools provide them only with the options they are looking for.
At Decimal, using our home-grown RAD platform Vahana, we are reimagining digital banking solutions with a laser-sharp focus on building uncluttered and enriching user experiences to help banks and customers foster a fulfilling long-term relationship.