With digitisation taking over the world, people have moved to a digital-first approach. Hence, businesses have also evolved with changing customer needs. This transition has already happened in all industries, including retail banks.

Retail banks have transitioned from brick and mortar and extended their presence digitally with multi-channel strategies. Retail Banks now have multiple touch points for customers to connect with them like a Mobile App, Website, Offline Branches, Kiosk, an e - lobby, Agents, Whatsapp, Chat agents, etc.

But in today’s day and age, a multi-channel strategy alone won’t help; retail banks need an omnichannel strategy.

What is OmniChannel Banking?

An Omnichannel Banking strategy involves seamlessly integrating multiple channels to deliver an uninterrupted experience. These solutions are also equipped with capabilities to record user insights and suggest intuitive solutions using AI.

Suppose somebody opens up your bank’s website with the intent to apply for a credit card. Still, for some reason, they leave the process halfway through after giving their basic details.

The omnichannel banking solution will create a temporary profile with their name and keep a record of it.

And, if after a couple of days, they make up their mind and visit the bank’s branch to apply for a credit card. The bank employee can immediately retrieve their half-filled form once they share their basic details and finish the process from there.

Or even if they don’t come back to you, since your omnichannel solution has recorded their activity, it will drop in a reminder to your sales and marketing team to check back on them. You can further automate this process.

How to select an Omnichannel Banking solution?

Knowing how crucial an omnichannel banking solution can be, it is essential to understand how to select one. Some parameters on which you can judge them are:

1. Multi-Channel Experience:

All the point of such a solution is to give users a seamless multi-channel experience. It should support your retail bank’s mobile application, website, social messengers, and every other possible touchpoint.

The customer should effectively be able to switch between channels without any disturbance.

The Omnichannel banking solution should be scalable to all your channels and provide a seamless switch over.

2. Secure:

Undoubtedly, this is one of the most important factors to consider before you go ahead and implement any solution. The platform will have full access to your customer’s data; thus, security can never be compromised.

You must thoroughly understand the security protocols the solution follows to keep your data safe.

3. Ease of Integration:

How convenient it is for you to integrate this solution into your existing platform. How long will it take to implement it fully and get the process up and running? How cooperative is the team that will help you in the integration process?

These are some essential questions that you should ask before committing to a solution.

4. Customizable:

You would not want to implement a rigid solution that can’t be customized as per your expectations.

Ensure the solution you are looking at can be fully customized as per your needs. Once implemented, the platform should not look disconnected; it should perfectly gel with your brand’s look and feel.

Why is an OmniChannel Banking Solution Important?

Let’s have a look at some data to understand better how omnichannel can help retail banks.

If you look at the below chart, you will find that most customer interactions occur online, contributing to a tiny sales percentage.

It is because, though, for day-to-day activities like withdrawals, payments, etc., people will use any one of the touch points and complete their actions. When they have to make complex decisions like take a loan, make an investment, etc., they will likely browse your services online; however, they need a nudge to take the plunge.

With the help of an omnichannel strategy, you can identify such potential customers and help them decide.

It will provide your sales and marketing team with information around such leads and make the process easier.

Also, as per one of Mc Kinsey’s other researches, they found that customers who use multiple channels are likely to buy more products from you.

These solutions also collect data around your existing customer and share insights for your team to upsell with personalized communications.

Conclusion

Retail banks leave much money on the table by; not keeping track of active leads, recording customer insights, and delivering a smooth switch-over between online and offline channels.

An omnichannel banking solution can be instrumental in helping you improve your customer experience while also increasing your revenue.

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- Author of this article is Abhinav Paliwal CEO of PayNet Systems, one of the leading White Label Digital Banking and Payments Solution Provider. ( www.paynet.pro)