Customer experience plays a crucial role in any business. However, many companies worldwide fail to prioritize the customer at the center of their operations. Instead, they focus on leveraging new technologies to streamline processes and cut costs.
To truly transform the customer experience, it is essential to gain a deep understanding of customer preferences and priorities. The recent economic downturn, triggered by the pandemic and resulting financial shocks, has compelled businesses to reevaluate the fundamental aspects of customer experience.
The lending industry faces similar challenges. Merely offering low interest rates is no longer sufficient to attract and retain clients. Lending firms and banks must actively personalize the customer journey at every stage, encompassing initial interactions, onboarding processes, loan origination, and more. The lending industry can build strong relationships and drive sustainable growth by taking proactive steps to enhance customer engagement.
How can businesses successfully transform their customer experience to get results?
Tech-savvy customers today expect convenient access to funds anytime, anywhere. They demand streamlined processes and have little patience for time-consuming, manual procedures. However, many lending firms still rely on outdated legacy back-end systems built decades ago. These systems result in inefficient, paper-based workflows that significantly impact the customer experience.
To improve customer loyalty and drive growth, businesses must go beyond traditional services and embrace digitization. By digitizing their operations, lending firms can meet customers’ needs for convenience while unlocking numerous opportunities for growth, both in terms of revenue and cost savings.
Research indicates that 35% of business executives credit digital transformation for better meeting customer expectations, while 40% acknowledge improved operational efficiency. Additionally, 38% of executives plan to increase their technology investments to gain a competitive advantage.
By actively embracing digital transformation, lending firms can enhance customer satisfaction, optimize processes, and position themselves as industry leaders in a rapidly evolving landscape.
Here are 4 steps in which digital transformation needs to happen to impact the customer journey in a positive way.
Define digital strategy: The business world is face-paced due to rapidly changing technologies and innovations. Even established companies are being disrupted every year by evolving and advancing technologies. Companies need a plan that not only outlines which technologies need to be adopted but also protection from digital disruption. That’s why understanding your core systems and processes to identify opportunities is critical before harnessing the potential of digital transformation.
Re-imagine customer journey: With customers gaining control over the way companies deliver experiences, it’s time to build new experiences that meet their demands. Businesses looking to improve customer experience during the first interaction should consider collecting data and documents in digital format (digital onboarding)
Omnichannel strategy: Customer expectations are changing rapidly, and they expect to be able to transact digitally on any device and the experience to be connected across all channels. Implementing an effective omnichannel strategy is a powerful weapon for businesses to win customers who demand convenience and simplicity irrespective of the kind of electronic devices or physical channels they use. Firms need to introduce a single platform that manages most (if not all) of the channels
Personalization: Today’s customers actively look for relevant inputs that might either improve their financial health or help them make smarter decisions, causing wellness programs for finance and financial management tools to increase in popularity. This has led to the integration of data sources to reduce documentation, personalize pricing, and make the overall process experience more effective.
In fact, lenders are now using digital tools to unlock varied forms of customer interactions and services previously not accessible to borrowers. Customer data, combined with machine learning, helps personalize the offerings and delivers effective customer-centric communication at the right time.
Top benefits of adopting digital mode
a. Improve operational efficiency
b. Meet changing customer expectations
c. Improve product quality
d. Increase design reuse
e. Reduce product development cost
f. Introduce new revenue streams
Digitization isn’t just doing the same thing in a better way, but rather creating something new. It implies an end-to-end process of developing and delivering data-driven financial products that are applied for, disbursed, and managed through the digital channel.
The new, digitally conscious customer
Truly understanding customer needs may help firms improve not only the buying experience but also their bottom line. In an environment that becomes increasingly globally competitive, service quality is an important measure of customer satisfaction, which ultimately leads to customer loyalty. Today’s customer has zillions of alternatives, and bad customer experiences will certainly make him switch to better avenues to serve his needs.
Hence, retaining your loyal customers and attracting new customers can only be possible by providing seamless and personalized experiences, and making them a top priority every time. The need for an intuitive, frictionless digital borrower experience is increasingly becoming the key to lenders’ success.
Through digitization, you can potentially expand your business, likely increase the number of customers who will stay with you, and help ensure your business is profitable long-term.
Have you started digital transformation yet?
Find out how Insight Consultants can help you in your digital transformation journey by Contacting Us
