Reaching those tech savvy customers

Price comparison sites, social media and customer reviews are powerful tools, allowing people to have high expectations and seek better services – giving them the ‘upper hand’, so to speak. And people’s expectations are high.

For financial services and telecoms organisations, this new type of customer wants contact through multiple channels, whenever and wherever suits them. And they will want to be served quickly, with efficient application processes, pre-qualification for relevant products and services, and instant credit decisions.

And why not? It’s the stuff that drives changes inside our organisations.

Interestingly, from our work with financial services and telecoms organisations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, we’ve found that one in three see the challenge of engaging tech savvy customers as their biggest one currently.

So where are the top firms placing their priorities in the next five years to address this?

1.       Data, data, data…For two in three financial services and telecoms organisations, the clear focus over the next five years is getting hold of more data sources, whilst of course respecting privacy, data policies and regulation on data security.  This data will include both structured and unstructured data, as well as the integration of internal and new external sources.

 2.       Can you see everything? The importance of a 360-degree customer view is a given, but nine out of ten admit they could do better.  And they recognise that internal silos are a barrier to achieving this view.  For two in five organisations, the next five years will be dedicated to eliminating this problem and bringing together multiple data sources for a holistic view of customers and their circumstances.

 3.       Make it instant, consistent and fair. Delivering real-time, reliable decisions through all channels and customer touch points, is a deal clincher for good customer experience. Yet, just over half of organisations still see significant room for improvement in their own performance in this area. Well, it’s on the agenda. Automated decisions across all channels and throughout the customer lifecycle are being considered and software will play a vital role.

 4.       Make it clever and make it work across the organisation. Opening up big data will help to drive good decision making. One in three plan to outsource advanced analytics to a trusted partner in the next five years, so that is can be applied across organisations and the customer life cycle.