So what is the importance of data in the financial services industry? With the emergence of neobanks and fintechs, financial institutions are increasingly facing more challenges and greater competition. Incumbent financial institutions are reacting to keep up with the pace of digital transformation. Some are upgrading their IT systems while others are changing their business models. As they try to be more agile the generation, storage, analysis, and transfer of data become a critical aspect of financial sector operations. The financial sector generates a huge amount of data daily from customers’ inputs to billions of financial transactions. Managing all this data presents business and IT challenges. Some financial institutions are struggling with the data but for others, it creates opportunities for them. It allows them to grow their business, combat fraud, and improve operational efficiencies.
By using data to understand the customer and his journey, financial institutions can gain deeper insights into the customer’s thinking. The customer’s journey is comprised of the various experiences that the customer has accumulated across many touchpoints over time.
With thorough data analysis, financial institutions can make use of the data to do a better customer segmentation. Marketing campaigns can then be more relevant and personalised to the customer. For example, a customer who browses a banking product on a website can be retargeted with a social media ad later. Financial institutions can connect with the customer at the right time with a right offering.
A customer’s journey does not end with the purchase. Financial institutions’ objective is to create a long-term relationship with the customer. Using data-driven insights, financial institutions can devise advanced strategies to connect with the customer. They can incentivize them and retain a customer on the brink of churning. Or they can sell add-on or complimentary products to the satisfied customer.
Financial institutions can also make use of the valuable data collected to improve customer experience. Data can be used to better understand customer sentiments and also provide an omnichannel customer service. With this, the customer can receive customer support across any channel, such as on social media, emails, or chat. Financial institutions can turn every interaction with their customer into a meaningful and personal conversation. And in doing so, improve customer loyalty and building brand advocacy.
This ultimately leads to cognitive banking. Cognitive technologies – such as machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing. This allows financial institutions to make smarter and faster decisions. With artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and good user experience and interfaces (UX & UI), financial institutions can anticipate opportunities. They can embed intelligence analysis within the user interface to create smarter experiences for their employees and customers.
At Fern Software, we absolutely understand the importance of data in financial services. We have different products catering to different segments from; Assets / Fund Management Firms, Credit Unions, Microfinance institutions (MFI), Savings and Loans organisations, SME Lenders, Development Banks, Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI), Social Mortgages and a variety of grant funding agencies. Our latest product Baytree is built on the native Salesforce Lightning platform. Baytree offers a complete set of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, user-driven real-time dynamic reports & dashboards. As well as a comprehensive CRM as well as a user-configurable UI & UX. This helps financial institutions manage their data and improve efficiency.
Are you interested to learn more about Fern Software and Baytree? Our latest Cloud Lending Platform built on Salesforce? If so then get in touch with us via the web form below!
