Do you ever feel like your favorite institution or app can do better? Implement responsive UX, improve helpline, simplify onboarding or just include you more in the conversation? Many customers feel that way about digital products. They don’t want to be cogs in the machine, grinding the same load every time they contact the institution or use its services. Customers want to be heard: here’s how to do that in FinTech.
FinTech customer experience shows you care
Sounds cheesy but hear me out – if the customer can trust the brand, you get stable revenue for years to come. It’s not easy to do, though. According to the Edelman 2020 Trust Barometer report, there are multiple sources of the subjective feeling of distrust in governments and businesses, currently circling the society. 64% of all consumers are now belief-driven buyers, voting with their wallets and creating a new “competence vs ethics” era. 51% believe business is an engine for innovation, which can drive economic prosperity. Generating and managing personal and company income becomes vital and needs sufficient tools. FinTech apps can do just that.
The FinTech customer experience (CX) goes beyond the in-app user experience (UX) and user interface (UI). It requires a holistic approach to what the customer needs and wants to achieve by using the app. Today, even a payment service provider must think outside the box.
According to a 2019 study of the Center for International Governance Innovation, less than 15% of the population in Europe and North America is familiar with blockchain technologies. At the same time, this number reaches 35% for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS). Why the difference? The second group has an underdeveloped banking infrastructure but people’s needs are often similar to the rest of the world. Combined with answers to local challenges, blockchain payment solutions win the market. What can you do to enhance the FinTech customer experience?
FinTech innovation starts with seven takes on a daily routine
People use FinTech tools every day, many times in 24 hours, in multiple locations, for different products, with multiple devices. They need convenience, security, and total management of personal finance. To help them, design your product around these problem-solving features and techniques:
People first…
1. Chatbots and virtual assistants for consumer education
Customer onboarding helps new users find themselves in the financial services ecosystem. Automation first, human second – that’s the rule for customer help. If you can avoid answering simple questions by implementing an efficient FAQ, do it. If you can automate the process of getting to know the app, do it. If you can turn a skeptic or a beginner into an advanced user… well, you get the idea. Most people are not technologically or financially savvy. They just want to manage their money on-the-go. Let them.
2. Implementation of seamless and responsive UX
Global public deficit of trust also translates to financial institutions. People form their opinions on FinTech applications based on how easy, intuitive and fast they can make their operations – transfer or count money. App’s design has to be optimized for most devices and screen sizes but that’s just one aspect of it. In fact, there’s an entire roadmap for the UX product design.
3. Listen to customers and respond to their needs
Millennials and other digital native groups (not necessarily linked with certain demographics) want everything now and in high quality. They expect service, contact, and immediate implementation of their suggestions. But social media do not replace traditional – contact and conversation. That’s why it’s important to engage with customers (soft approach) and have software tools to give them what they want (hard approach). Missing out on customer’s feedback can generate extra software development costs and limit the chances for true FinTech innovation.
…Technology second
4. Artificial intelligence for predictive analytics and making sense of financial data
Know Your Customer (KYC) process is getting traction, and rightfully so. But it’s not only about basics: who this person is, where’s the address, how money lands on the account each month, what’s the money flow. Data is useless if it’s static. Animate it by driving numbers to give you a fuller picture of spending preferences or transaction behaviour. Then you will be able to personalize the experience. Predictive analytics can be used to offer a credit just before the customer thinks about it on his own. A good example of personalized experience approach is NoMo: the company boosts user engagement with in-app communication (analytics on spending habits and three assistant personalities with different communication styles). It creates a personalized experience that make people engage with their finances.
5. Point-of-sale (PoS) implementation for data generation and management
Personalization is the core of the modern approach to user experience. PoS software gives you the necessary tools to collect and make sense of the stockpiling data. You can use the gathered information to create upselling campaigns, at the same time creating more opportunities for customers interested in the wide range of services.
6. Wide cloud adoption for increased security and access
Cloud adoption accelerates and stimulates businesses. It gives them the means to deliver services faster and reduce infrastructure costs. According to the 2020 PwC report, financial outlays on cloud infrastructure reached more than $33 billion in the US alone, making it one-third of all IT spending. And that was 2015. In 2019, IDC has estimated that global investments in cloud reached $210 billion.
7. Peer-to-peer (P2P) implementation for seamless transaction processing
Companies like Venmo or Zelle have grown exponentially. That’s because the P2P technology reduces transaction costs and people don’t have to pay for transaction fees. It’s important to everyone, not only the younger crowd. Multiply payments for multiple purchases and you have customers saving multiple euros or dollars.
A living, breathing machine
Customers can be unpredictable but that doesn’t mean they don’t know their personal finance needs. FinTech customer experience is based on an assumption that customers are partners in a business relation, not cogs in the machine. And if, for some reason, we want to call them that, then it’s a living and breathing mechanism, full of backdoors which can be used to leave the app. Faulty UX/UI? Bye. No onboarding processes? Not for me. Flat communication instead of a personalized experience? No, thank you. Financial services are all about creating a safe environment and that means putting people first.