How the Global Pandemic has Re-shaped Financial Services

By Joe Norburn, CEO of Recordsure

One fifth of financial services employees may never return to work in the office. Many have adapted so well to their new environment that they have been convinced the changes made during the pandemic may be key to moving forward afterwards. 

The use of innovative technology has helped managers become incredibly reactive to the latest changes in government regulation. Mass adoption of solutions such as digital call recording has allowed firms to remain diligent in client management while remaining under strict lockdown. 

Lockdown is Driving Innovation

During lockdown, many have found that new technologies have been fast-tracked through the motions to cope with the necessities of the pandemic. Digital solutions are the flavour of the day, from government commissioned ‘Track & Trace’ apps to Zoom, which has been utilised by seemingly every household in the country to enhance the human connection during the pandemic. The video chat tool has subsequently seen an increase of 280% on the NASDAQ exchange from 68.72 USD at the beginning of January to 261.49 at the beginning of June.

With this, the clients of financial services are becoming more and more tech savvy in their own lives, giving them exposure to and practise with new technologies. The successes of online video call services have opened the door for further, innovative technology to gain a solid foothold.

Life returning to normal also seems a distant possibility, with the public now likely to become more permanently entwined with their newfound tech habits. A “new normal” Is rapidly becoming a reality.

The Customer Experience

Communication in financial services is vital: managers have to build and sustain meaningful relationships with their clients to achieve their shared goals. It would be understandable to suggest communication would be harmed by lockdown. However, clients and managers are now more reachable than ever. Professional relationships are flourishing due to online services like Teams and G Suites providing a platform to organise meetings, introductions and catch-ups.

The most telling sign is that the financial services sector seemingly, isn’t missing the physical meeting spaces at all. There isn’t a single attribute that the online forums can’t try to replicate.

As our personal lives have seen digital entrenchment with an increased daily reliance on tech, the financial services landscape is a mirrored image, with conference calling and Microsoft Teams replacing traditional meetings. As of the 14th of June, Microsoft Teams saw an 894% growth in user numbers, compared with its base usage, surpassing its stablemate and early darling of the lockdown; Zoom. 

Keeping Compliant

A lot of pressure rides on financial advisers. The industry deserves credit for the way It has embraced technology and video calling in particular to stay connected with their customer base through challenging conditions. With so much pressure on firms to not only provide suitable advice consistently but to evidence this to regulators, it is essential that tech stacks evolve to keep pace with the rush towards virtual meetings.

One of the biggest challenges In adopting solutions such as Teams or Zoom has been how to supervise or monitor conversations In an unobtrusive and scalable way. With many firms turning to fast tactical adoptions of these new technologies In an effort to keep business flowing, attention Is now turning to how to embed these solutions Into longer term strategies.

In tandem with the benefits of virtual meetings, speech recognition technology is giving firms a robust audit trail of all meetings, driving operational efficiencies and giving a strong foundation for more powerful analytics and automations further downstream. These efficiency gains are helping advisers to spend more time with their clients and, when the technology Is attuned to the nuances of financial services, some firms are starting to see emerging trends and Insight that they were previously blind to.

An Emerging Customer Persona

As the client base is getting younger, we are seeing more and more millennials turning to investing, as much as 57%, which goes a long way in explaining the rate of InvesTech adoption. Generation Z are also attracted to the new and improved financial services market because of the new lower barrier of entry and higher adoption of technology. Studies have shown that this generation is attracted by cutting edge technology and often want to be a part of early adopters’ movements. They are advocates for innovation and are at home with new technological solutions.

In conclusion, we have seen the financial services landscape dramatically shift with the changing times. The solutions we have seen come out during lockdown have given managers advanced flexibility and continued communication. As firms have embraced virtual meeting technology, it is essential that their supporting tech stack isn’t left behind. Recording and transcribing meetings is more than a safety measure against future remediation scandals: it is the starting point for driving operational efficiencies, improving customer care and unearthing valuable insights. The industry has done well to manage the initial shock of the pandemic but must now look longer term at ways they can improve their service offering on a sustainable basis.