Image Area. View Point. Mobility and its hockey stick effect on customer onboarding.

Transcription

1 Image Area View Point Mobility and its hockey stick effect on customer onboarding

2 Introduction The customer lifecycle can be divided into four functional areas acquire, optimize, retain, and retire. Nearly 75% of all cross-sell opportunities occur within the first 90 days of a customer engaging with your institution an indication of the extent to which the initial customer engagement and onboarding process is critical for your business in terms of prospective cross sell/ up sell opportunities and overall customer satisfaction. A robust onboarding approach including initial enrollment through relevant data collection, constant customer engagement and predefined onboarding metrics can go a long way in enabling your financial institution to take control of the entire process and capitalize on subsequent cross-sell /up-sell activities. To succeed, financial institutions must start with an accurate, comprehensive view of prospective customers and use high-quality data to improve the customer experience across the enterprise and via every mode of data capture and delivery. Mobility is fast emerging as a cost-effective, practical option that can help your financial institution greatly improve the customer onboarding process for the benefit of both, the customer and your business. This paper seeks to delve upon the details of mobile opportunities for customer onboarding/ account opening process across various customer and business segments and evaluate their practical feasibility. The current landscape Customer onboarding is closely associated with expanding customer relationships and increasing the sales of a bank s products. It is also directly associated with gauging the risk of the incoming customers as measured against the enterprise s thresholds. With a growth in the product portfolio as well as increasing complexity of products, it is indeed a challenge for the financial enterprise to have a consolidated 360-degree customer view and provide consistent customer service across the lines of business. As a result, importance of an efficient and optimized customer onboarding system can never be underestimated. But the reality is that the customer onboarding procedure of today remains a highly disjointed and manual process within most banks complexity is high, multiple overlapping processes exist and there is no unified, single view of the customer. The issues with customer onboarding are particularly profound in developing countries, where most customers are based in rural areas and banks have logistical constraints in reaching out to them. In Africa, for example, banks are still in the process of setting up full blown physical infrastructures for branches and reaching out to customers spread across large distances is a huge challenge. In the Middle Eastern market, customer onboarding has challenges in terms of cultural issues, which complicate the onboarding of female customers in terms of limited accessibility to bank branches, signature or photograph availability, etc. 02 Infosys

3 Mobility in customer onboarding While banks today are trying to internally re-structure their onboarding/ account opening process, the rise and growing popularity of mobile banking has provided them a great opportunity to make a quick impact. Till not so long ago, mobility was considered merely an alternative channel to reach customers. But this has changed today and banks are now seriously exploring mobility as a means to solve real business problems. Some examples include: Tellers accessing a customer s information via tablet devices while interacting with him on the branch floor, thus helping the customer perform basic transactions without having to wait in a queue at the counter. Ability to allow a customer to deposit checks anywhere by using his mobile phone cameras, leading to customer convenience with the added benefit of sharing some of the processing tasks with the customer. It is estimated that by 2015, approximately one billion people are likely to use their handsets to perform banking and other financial transactions. From a customer onboarding prospective, mobility and self-service channels for customers presents your financial institutions with a significant advantage, enabling you to reach out to greater pool of customers irrespective of their geographical location while cutting down operational costs. Infosys 03

4 Mobile-based self-service channel The mobile-based online channel is an undeniably important tool that your financial institution can leverage for the acquisition of new, profitable customers. According to research, top-tier banks report that online banking customers hold up to 50% more accounts and generate 20-40% more profit than their offline counterparts. Access to mobile-based channels (via an app or online Internet banking) provides customers with a great degree of flexibility and convenience. They can: Register anytime, anywhere Enroll for a callback or appointment with a relationship manager Complete and submit applications online based on a time of their choice Easily upload documents using mobile cameras If required, take help from the operations team to complete the application Track the application status Receive alerts/notifications by SMS/ Faster account opening processes accomplished through online channels can help enterprises cost-effectively scale customer acquisition and, at the same time, improve customer experience. An online channel (web or mobile) can significantly increase customer satisfaction through real-time feedback, instant approvals, auto assignment of account numbers, and proactive assistance (especially for high net worth applicants). Moreover, an effective online account opening process helps determine if: The applicant s ID is genuine The ID actually belongs to the applicant The applicant is a desirable customer The solution can be seamlessly integrated with third-party databases to determine the application s profile risk, validate the address against various postal databases, and check for criminal activity and political exposure. Furthermore, additional checks that an enterprise performs internally can be configured in real-time. Technology and IT processes can be employed to iron out system flaws and ensure it is ready for the deployment of the solution. Critical components of such a solution include, but are not limited to, a dynamic decisioning rules engine, a platform for integrating multiple data sources, and a multi-channel workflow application for processing pending applications. One practical implication of a mobile-based online channel for account opening could be in Islamic banking. The cultural and regional issues in the Middle Eastern counties add to the complexity of the customer onboarding processes there. Regular bank branches are not accessible to women, who are restricted to transacting at women-only branches. These branches are few in number and mostly situated in urban areas. Using mobile-based online channels, women customers would be able to initiate the onboarding process without having to physically visit to the bank. The system would guide them to a step-by-step workflow-based onboarding process and enable them to track the application status online. The cameras on mobile devices can be used as biometric scanners by simply downloading apps that directly capture the customer s fingerprints, etc., to establish unique customer identity. The photos on the customer s mobile device can be uploaded as documentary proof for the onboarding application (i.e. photos of passport, social security number, etc.) 04 Infosys

5 Mobile technology-enabled hardware devices The majority of the population in the developing nations is based out of rural areas and forms a large untapped market from a financial institution prospective. But the challenge for onboarding these customers exists in the fact that most banks have few rural branches, geographical reach is difficult and margins are high enough to justify the capital investments for infrastructure setup. But today, most rural regions are well connected by mobile networks, although smartphone adoption rates are continue to lag behind urban areas. However, the fact that mobile connectivity exists provides financial institutions with a huge opportunity for customer onboarding. Today, your financial enterprise can make use of an array of devices, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), suitably-adapted Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and hybrid smart cards to increase their market footprint and be accessible to a greater set of customers. These devices enable bank representatives to capture a customer s picture, scan and upload documents, support ability to deposit and withdraw cash by the customer, etc. Hybrid smart cards allow for dual type (biometric and digital) customer verification. Leading banks worldwide are running pilot programs to check the feasibility of wireless/mobile technology in futuristic banking/account opening, Deutsche bank in Germany and ICICI bank in India are some examples of the same. The advantages of mobile/online channels for account opening include: Improved customer delight and experience through real-time ID verification and approval Reduced onboarding lead time through streamlined processes and greater customer involvement Increased accessibility to a larger customer pool and ensuring 24x7 availability of services irrespective of location or time Enhanced customer data accuracy and lower back-office costs by involving the customer in the banking value chain Infosys 05

6 The road ahead for mobility-based onboarding Customer onboarding may hit the hockey stick given that mobility facilitates accurate and reliable customer data collection and low-cost banking hardware. The result is that financial institutions can enable banking for customers in remote areas and help manage their day-to-day banking needs by reaching out to greater section of potential customers and improving internal process efficiencies by streamlining the endto-end onboarding process. The road ahead for mobility-based onboarding involves working strategically with the following factors: Futuristic and advanced hardware devices: This is a very important factor from a rural and remote banking perspective. The devices that exist today for rural customer onboarding (i.e. PDAs, suitably-adapted ATMs, etc.) suffer from low durability, high costs and poor connectivity. The durability of these devices is important since they are carried by local sales representatives to customer homes making them prone to lot of wear and tear. Seamless device connectivity is pivotal to the overall efficiency of the system. As a result, financial institutions and service providers need to invest in devices that: Can operate in both online and offline modes Are low cost and easier to procure Durable and secure User-friendly and intuitive Road ahead for Mobility based onboarding Futuristic hardware devices with; Seamless connectivity Low cost of maintenance & procurement Data security & durability Modular & scalable technology platform Which is scalable to future enterprise needs Supports multiple mobility platforms Extendable to new lines of business & geographies Enterprise wide end to end case management capabilities Workflow based Case management system Enterprise wide customer request tracking Real time customer status updates Modular and scalable onboarding technology platform Financial institutions need to create onboarding technology platforms that: Are scalable and can be easily interfaced Support multiple mobile operating systems (including ios, Android, BlackBerry OS and Windows Mobile) Multiple telecommunication standards Provide the best-of-breed technology in a modular architecture to accommodate future technology and functional changes Extendable enough to support the continuous addition of services under the mobility preview in customer onboarding Case management: A multi-channel/multi-entity approach to account opening often leads to multiple business processes, complex workflows and siloed IT systems. As a result, the customer service agent is lost in the ensuing complex web of processes and loses track of the current state of the new business process, leading to frustration for customers. Eliminating this issue requires: An enterprise-wide case management system with welldefined and clear workflow processes across the different channels and lines of business Unified view of the customer pan-enterprise to ensure worldclass customer service and operational efficiency 06 Infosys

7 Conclusion For banks to reap the benefits of mobility effectively, the impact has to be at a 360-degree customer experience level and should not just be restricted to siloed practices. Financial institutions need to start with anytime, anywhere banking for retail customers while leveraging the use of mobility channels to increase sales and marketing capabilities. These changes at an organizational level will lead to benefits such as reduction in workload on their front, middle and back office, improved lead management, enhanced brand perception and top-of-the-mind customer brand association. About the Authors Ashok Gopinath is the Industry Principal & Head of the Products, Platforms and Solutions (PPS) group within the Financial Services and Insurance (FSI) vertical in Infosys. He has over 20 years of international IT experience in the financial services industry and holds several patents to his name. His areas of specialization include process efficiency by leveraging IT & operational convergence in the domains of Wealth management and Financial Inclusivity. Intellectual property creation, high performance and high availability computing systems are his areas of core expertise. You can connect with him on Linkedin: or reach out to him at Ashok_ gopinath@infosys.com Navdeep Gill has nearly 6 years of global experience in the financial services industry and the capital markets domain in Europe and India. Her areas of specialty include risk and compliance, customer onboarding and portfolio management. She has worked on requirements gathering and validation for large transformational projects and product development. Navdeep earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in finance from the Fore School of Management, Delhi, India. She can be reached at Navdeep_gill@infosys.com. You can also connect with her through Linkedin: in.linkedin.com/pub/navdeep-gill/18/660/a01 Infosys 07

8 About Infosys Infosys partners with global enterprises to drive their innovation-led growth. That's why Forbes ranked Infosys #19 among the top 100 most innovative companies. As a leading provider of next-generation consulting, technology and outsourcing solutions, Infosys helps clients in more than 30 countries realize their goals. Visit and see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY), with its 150,000+ people, is Building Tomorrow's Enterprise today. For more information, contact askus@infosys.com Infosys Limited, Bangalore, India. All Rights Reserved. Infosys believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date; such information is subject to change without notice. Infosys acknowledges the proprietary rights of other companies to the trademarks, product names and such other intellectual property rights mentioned in this document. Except as expressly permitted, neither this documentation nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, printing, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Infosys Limited and/ or any named intellectual property rights holders under this document.