Creating superior BFSI industry customer experiences in response to COVID-19
COVID-19 has shaken up the entire BFSI ecosystem and how consumers interact with financial organisations. In the era of post-pandemic, we’re witnessing an emergence of the ‘new normal’. This means prioritising and taking action on digital transformation, customer experience, use of data and advanced analytics — all of which were approached with less urgency in prosperous times.
How has COVID-19 affected the BFSI industry?
With the bleak outlook on future cash flow and immediate money requirements, customers, employees, and the world at large are expected to depend more on the industry for their financing and insurance needs. Although most financial institutions are in full business continuity mode, they’re also critical players in the pandemic, where pushing forth the right initiatives can significantly mitigate economic damage.
According to Deloitte, a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour is expected — decreases in physical visits, with immediate increases in online service and sales interactions.
It is now up to the BFSI industry to step up and ramp up their actions for increased long-term digital adoption. Although, it’s safe to say that managing the rising customer demands alongside restrictions in physical interactions is proving to be especially challenging. One way to tackle these limitations while managing demand? Taking a proactive stance in extending digital capabilities to better support customers, while building a digital-ready organisation in times of crisis.
Significance of Voice Bots in banks, financial institutions and insurance sectors
Voice technology has become a part of our lives. With its extraordinary properties, it has the ability to reach the masses, save time and empower a more intuitively engaging experience for customers. We understand that businesses now are forced to take on a more numbers-focused approach — prioritising on cutting costs and providing more profits to first address their shorter-term consequences at hand. Seeing as outlook and demands are drastically different from what was previously envisaged, being able to have full control over costs and operational adjustments would hence be placed on a pedestal.
Voice bots like Articulo Voice can engage in smart 2-way conversations with multiple customers simultaneously- for a fraction of the cost and even less of the time that would have been taken by human customer agents. Voice bots’ pay-per-use pricing allows businesses to only pay when customers call in. In other words, no more hourly agent costs. On top of that, improve business efficiency and assist the evolution toward digital-readiness — fully aligning short- and long-term goals while leaving room for scalability in the future.
Applications of Voice Bots in the BFSI sector
Voice bots in banking and insurance are not a schematic solution but rather, deliver a flexible, broad spectrum of uses that can be customised to each organisation’s specific needs. Below are some of the potential use cases for your organisation:
- Handle any inbound calls
Customers calling in for support will be able to receive answers to questions, assistance with payments, report problems, check account balances, inquire application statuses, arrange appointments, and so much more. Customers who, now more than ever, need investment tips or budget planning help can be assisted around the clock by a voice bot (taking on the role of a virtual financial advisor). Information captured can then be transferred to the sales team for additional follow-ups if needed until the sale is closed.
Customer agents would have the full bandwidth to channel their focus on accelerating short-term revenue, or on more pressing issues where face-to-face human intervention is required.
- Handle any outbound calls
With the ability to scan data at astonishing speeds, voice bots can provide the required information and personalised offers based on the unique needs/lifestyle of each prospect. Instead of telemarketing in the case of insurance sales, automated calls to potential prospects can be done — upselling new packages or helping to move them through the sales funnel. They’re able to pick up on how the person on the other end is feeling through the tone used to, in turn, carry out a two-way conversation appropriately.
As a sector where customers may require assistance at any hour of the day, insurance customers will be met with 24/7 call availability, accompanied by zero waiting time and streamlined claims processes.
Now’s the time to envision the future
As the BFSI industry grapples with the many challenges posed by COVID-19, it becomes clear that being able to embrace digital transformation is no longer optional in the current era we live in. Transformation performed right will bode well for your company, revealing opportunities to increase revenue and decrease costs, going further to eliminate friction from the customer journey and provide differentiation in the marketplace. All of which go hand in hand to continue serving you well in the years ahead.
Articulo Voice is helping the BFSI industry take charge of the pivotal role they play in supporting their customers and bringing about innovation in the most crucial of times.
