By Swatil Binte Mahmud, Lava Protocols
The pandemic changed the way our businesses operate and how they deal with customers. Financial services organizations went through numerous changes since the pandemic in all aspects of their businesses. Some were smarter than others and realized that the way forward was to be innovative. Hence, these businesses did not take chances and equipped themselves with the best technology and modern innovations available to them.
A bank in the Philippines decided to make their customer care its topmost priority right before lockdown. They knew that even when the country was in lockdown, their customers required their support and services more than ever. They opted for the best and went to Salesforce for support. Salesforce set up a command center for the employees which facilitated seamless and fast omnichannel support for customers. Service Cloud of Salesforce is one of the most scalable and reliable cloud services available and it made it possible for the bank in the Philippines to provide timely customer service to their large number of customers even during the lockdown. Salesforce made it possible for the bank to offer end-to-end services such as bank account activation.
This bank realized way ahead that the pandemic was going to challenge the old ways of businesses and the new way forward is to keep customer service at the heart of all decisions.
Therefore, the new and clear path to success and profits requires businesses to adopt a business model which is customer-centric. Having a customer-centric model means companies will stop at nothing and give their 100% to understand what their customers want and needs. Having personalized, seamless, and omnichannel customer service is not the future but the present.
Your customers are Evolving and so are Their Needs
By now most of us have accepted that life is never going to be the same like it was before the pandemic. Just like face masks and Zoom meetings have become a part of our everyday lives, there have been bigger shifts in how businesses function and how customers think. Customers have evolved a lot since 2019 and they have become much more tech savvy. The financial services businesses are no exceptions and their customers have evolved too.
Since the pandemic hit us, we have pretty much learnt to do everything online. I even paid some bills online which I never did in years. Banks and insurance companies have adopted a blended model and are making big shifts to the digital space. Hence, almost 2 years into the pandemic, customers will not settle down for mediocre services. They now expect easy, fast, and end-to-end services which lets them apply for loans, open bank accounts, or pay off mortgages through a single click on their devices.
Customers want Hyper-personalization
Gone are the days when no one picked up calls at customer service hotlines. Now, we live in an era where customers not only want you to pick up but to care about them as well. They want hassle free, quick, and personal experiences. They want businesses to understand their needs and wants and to act upon those. Hence, there is no other way but to give them hyper-personalization.
Successful companies give their customers fast and easy customer services and at the same time they spend time on predicting what their customers need and want from them. Hyper-personalization allows businesses to leverage modern technology to yield data which gives a 360-degree view of a customer. This allows companies to make the most of every little interaction with their customers. Therefore, to thrive and survive companies need to have both face-to-face interactions and digital experiences for their customers.
Focus on Achieving Customer Centricity
Salesforce’s Customer 360 and its customer relationship management services exist for you to achieve higher levels of customer centricity. These services by Salesforce will unify and align all your teams for you. This unification is crucial for financial services as there are thousands of gigabytes of data about a single customer. By taking the help of Financial Cloud Services and Customer 360, both provided by Salesforce, financial companies will be able to compile all data in one place and gain valuable insights about each customer.
Remember that bank in the Philippines and how they were a successful case study? However, many financial services did not survive the wrath of the pandemic. But the ones who did are the ones who redefined their customer services. We hope you will too!
Lava Protocols is an authorized Salesforce Partner. Looking for a cloud service provider in Malaysia? Drop us an email to: hello@lavaprotocols.com.