Find out the opportunities and possibilities of how conversational banking is changing customer relations in the context of BFSI. Learn how RCS and WhatsApp are changing communication and understand their significance in modern day financial services.
Introduction
Convenience is now a priority in today’s fast-paced economy. In order to meet this demand, BFSI leaders are currently redesigning their operations. This revolution is headed by conversational banking which has brought a new convenience, accessibility, and personalization of the financial services. As more and more customers rely on RCS (Rich Communication Services) and WhatsApp, banks and financial institutions are now in a position to correspond with customers in a smoother and more easy-to-use manner than ever before through messaging accounts.
The shift does not merely involve improvements in communication but the overall modifications in the customer experience. But now, how conversational banking is transforming the BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance) industry, and why these technologies have become so important now?
What is Conversational Banking?
Conversational banking refers to a digital way of communicating between the customers and the financial organizations in a real-time interactive manner by using digital messaging platforms. Failing to wait in a line or go through convoluted phone menus is not an option anymore. Customers nowadays have the opportunity to perform multiple banking operations such as balance inquiry to pay a bill or seek help without spending much effort in response to a text message.
The innovation keeps real-time communication and combines it with automation, which allows banks to attend to customers 24/7 with the minimum effort. It can be an automated bot that provides the answers to the most common questions or a live agent that replaces it when the question is more complicated. The idea is the same to make the work of customer service responsive, efficient, and personalized.
The art of conversational banking is that it allows the provision of customized services adjusting to the preference of the customer as per her desire to receive the assistance on the spot or just want to communicate at her own speed.
The importance of Conversational Banking
Surviving in the fast-evolving world of financial services, it is impossible to deny that delivering a high-quality customer experience (CX) is not a luxury anymore and becomes obligatory. Key Reasons Behind the Growing Importance of Conversational Banking:
- Improved Customer Experience: Customers nowadays require timely response and 24/7 accessibility and conversational banking provides that. Either it is a friendly ping about a fast due payment or promptly answering a question, banks can reach their customers, wherever they are, at any given time of need.
- Cost Savings: The conventional ways of banking will consume huge amounts of resources in servicing a large number of clients. Automation through conversational banking allows financial institutions to perform routine tasks in the most effective and less-costly ways as it allows the agents to devote their time on more complex challenges.
- Portable Interactions: Conversational banking also uses the power of data on the customer to have more personalized interactions. Banks are able to provide real-time, advice tailored to the customer on their preferred channel, remind them of any payments that are about to be due or suggest products based on past history.
- Development of Trust and Loyalty: If they offer responsive efficient service their relationship with their customers gets stronger. In the long run this creates confidence and customer loyalty thus conversational banking is an investment in a long term success of the business.
The Role of RCS and WhatsApp in Conversational Banking
The two messaging services that have changed conversational banking are RCS and WhatsApp.
RCS: RCS is an upgrade of SMS. In contrast to the conventional SMS, RCS has functionality, such as interactive buttons, high resolution pictures, and even sending a carousel of products as offerings. This will be much more customer friendly and will enable a bank to deepen its message with rich media, including graphics, payment buttons directly within the native messaging app.
The significance: RCS is able to turn a text of any kind into a branded and fully interactive experience. As an example, banks may send payment notifications with the possibility to point at them to pay immediately, or maybe secure account notifications having action buttons to approve transactions. It is a means of communication of the future that allows brands to connect with customers more dynamically and in a meaningful manner.
WhatsApp: WhatsApp is the most used messaging application with more than two billion active users. To the banks this is a way to coincide with the customers on what they already think they know, the platform. The end-to-end encryption adopted by WhatsApp would also be of great use to deliver financial services to the customers.
The significance: WhatsApp supports two-way communication effortlessly, and that allows the banks to respond to customer queries, handle requests, and even share multimedia content. Whether mailing the banking statements, advising the customers about the status of their loan payment or answering their inquiries regarding the loan account, WhatsApp would provide a guaranteed safe and convenient place of work.
Conversational banking Real-World Examples
Financial institutions around the world have already started to use RCS and WhatsApp to revamp their business and enhance outcomes on customer engagement. These are only some examples:
- Account Updates: One can think about getting an instant update on your phone about a suspicious transaction with the possibility of either confirming or canceling the transaction in your chat window itself. That is how RCS may be applied to the betterment of real-time account security and notifications.
- Payment Alerts: A lot of banks rely on WhatsApp to send reminders to the customers about their next bill payment or loan dues or credit card payment. Such reminders usually have clickable links in order to make the transactions through the chat.
- Customer Support : India Major banks are starting to adopt WhatsApp as a primary service channel with customers. Be it balance verification or mini statements and reporting lost cards or flagging transactions disputes, customers are now able to perform and fulfill key banking related requirements efficiently and easily. The vast majority of inquiries are addressed via uninterrupted automatic processes, and more problematic issues can be repeatedly redirected to the human workforce when necessary. Not only is this hybrid model making service delivery more efficient but it is also creating a new benchmark in Indian banking in terms of accessing and responsiveness.
Adopting Conversational Banking
To engage in conversational banking, the process begins with an elaborate planning process in financial institutions planning to implement the process. The most important steps are the following:
- Select the Appropriate Platform: Before trying to implement RCS or WhatsApp, ask yourself: what is the best platform regarding your customer base? Take into consideration such aspects as user taste, geographical consumption habits, and functionality needs.
- Seamless Integration with the CRM and Banking System: To provide an overall seamless experience, conversational banking requires connection with your existing CRM and banking systems. This will allow availability of new information and on-time replies to the customers.
- Automate: keeping it simple at first, you should grant the possibility of automating simple operations like checking the account balance, transferring funds, reminders about paying something. Not only does it save on efficiency it also enables human agents to attend to more intricate requests.
- Security: Since financial transactions are sensitive, security must be ensured. Both RCS and WhatsApp provide encrypted communications, though there might be higher security standards needed where a higher threshold is needed in the value of transactions or in account management.
- Continuous Optimization: After your system is deployed, users will start using it, so you should collect their feedback to optimise the interactions, make your chatbot better at its responses, and introduce new capabilities that will improve the customer experience in general.
Conclusion
Since the global shift is in line with more integrated, digital experiences, conversational banking is rapidly emerging as a very valuable tool to banks and financial institutions. With such platforms as RCS and WhatsApp banks have a chance to provide their customers with personalized experience, the convenience of use, and instant informational access. Conversational banking is not only an additional customer service tool but a transformer in the way financial institutions work and interact with their clientele. Conversational banking is the future, and it is happening now.