Outsourcery States That Banks Need New Communications Tech

Banks risk losing customers to competitors if they fail to fully adopt up to date technology to enable better communication and collaboration both between colleagues and with customers. Recent research shows that a third of European consumers would move banks to receive a richer service with wider means to interact.

A Unified Communications (UC) system, such as Skype for Business, can help banks to differentiate themselves from the competition by creating new ways to communicate and collaborate across the enterprise, optimise their customer interactions, and extract more value from their customer, says cloud service provider Outsourcery.

The study by Fujitsu shows that effective communication tools are an important part of the customer service banks deliver to their customers. The study illustrated that 34 per cent of customers still regularly visit a branch, whilst 35 per cent phone in to carry out transactions. It highlighted that one fifth of responders would consider buying financial services from disruptive providers such as Google or Amazon. The challenge for the banking sector is to find a way of achieving cost efficiency to deliver shareholder value, whilst also delivering the personal service that many customers still want.

“Many of us are now used to using banking apps that allow us to check our balances and make transactions. It is now time for banks to look more closely at how they communicate and take advantage of UC. Mobility in banking has helped increase bank efficiency and is transforming the way banks interact with each customer. The next step is to harness the latest advances in multichannel communications both internally and externally. This will translate into a new customer experience.” says Jon Seddon, head of product, Outsourcery.

“A solution such as Skype for Business, eases daily communications through seamless integration with instant messaging and presence, video conferencing, online meetings and telephony capabilities at your fingertips. The benefit is that you can stay connected to the collective intelligence of your organisation and take advantage of your colleagues’ specialist expertise quickly to deliver better client service.” continued Seddon.

UC can also deliver richer customer interactions with just in time conferencing and collaboration enabling faster decision making with clients, which can be critical in this sector. The latest UC products deliver this whilst still offering tools that help maintain compliance and auditability in this brave new world of interaction.

Seddon concluded; “Customer satisfaction and trust in banks can be increased through unified communications thanks to the ability to reach out on any device or platform, at any time. Banks have the opportunity to support the financial lives of their customers any time, any place, across any channel or any device. Skype for Business can help banks to provide superior financial advice, execute on cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and ultimately maximise customer retention.”