What financial service companies can learn from retail’s approach to omnichannel strategies

Why Nordic banks and insurance companies are different

The Nordic banks are different from their European and American counterparts when it comes to digital infrastructure and technology adoption. The Nordic financial sector were early to recognize the importance of creating a unified and consistent customer experience across all touchpoints.

In terms of customer communication and omnichannel strategies, Nordic banks have been early adopters of digital banking channels, including mobile apps and online banking, and integrated these channels with traditional branches and call centers to provide a seamless omnichannel experience for customers. Today, their own developed mobile apps, known for their ease of use and convenience, ensure that all channels, whether online or offline, offer the same messaging, branding, and customer service. The apps also utilise data and analytics to gain insights into customer behaviour and preferences, allowing the banks to personalise and improve the customer experience.

The shift towards omnichannel communication has brought numerous benefits to Nordic banks, including :

• improved customer satisfaction
• increased efficiency
• cost savings

In addition to these benefits, Nordic banks have also prioritised security features. Their apps provide branded verified senders and encryption, ensuring that customers communicate with a legitimate bank representative and that their messages are protected from unauthorised access.

Omnichannel communication has become the norm in retail

Today, consumers can interact with retailers through various channels, including social media, email, messaging, phone and chatbots. This approach has revolutionised customer communication and service, making it more efficient and convenient for customers. Many industries can learn from retail by recognising the importance of creating a unified and consistent customer experience across all touchpoints. It also means using data and analytics to gain insights into customer behaviour and preferences and using this information to personalise and improve the customer experience.

What financial service companies can learn from retail?

The financial sector can learn from the retail industry's omnichannel communication approach and shift the channel mix from e-mail, phone and own developed app to messaging apps and chatbots to reach customers in their preferred channel. Consumers are 35x more likely to open mobile messages than e-mails. New rich and interactive messaging formats for example the instant messaging app WhatsApp or Messenger could be of interest for non-sensitive inquiries, promotions and customer surveys.

Mobile apps have become increasingly popular among younger audiences, who tend to engage with them frequently. Banks can leverage this trend by offering customer support and other services through instant messaging apps. This approach allows banks to reach their customers where they are and provide a more personalised and convenient customer experience, available 24/7. Instant messaging apps allow for multimedia messages, file sharing, and real-time support through the encrypted chat function. The retail sector has already adopted messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger for customer communication, sales, and marketing. Financial services companies can also benefit from this trend to reach and engage more customers.  We have listed five messaging use cases below:  

5 smart messaging use cases for banks and insurance companies to consider

1. Personalised customer communication: banks and insurance companies can use instant messaging to provide personalised communication to their customers such as account updates, alerts, and notifications on transactions, payments etc. By keeping customers informed in real-time through their preferred channel, banks can build trust and loyalty with their customers. 

2. Product recommendations: banks can use messaging and chat agents to provide financial products and service recommendations by analysing a customer's transaction history and financial profile and suggest for example a savings account with a higher interest rate based on the customer's spending habits.

3. Promotions and opt-in incentives:  to convert email customers to messaging channels, banks should offer value and convenience while respecting their privacy and preferences. Banks can inform customers about special promotions through messaging, which are the fastest and most convenient way. Additionally, exclusive promotions can be offered to encourage customers to switch to messaging.

4. Customer Feedback: messaging can be used to collect instant customer feedback on products and services. The feedback can be used to improve the customer experience, develop new products and services, and ultimately retain customers.

5. Customer Support: messaging can serve as a customer support tool, enabling real-time assistance on platforms such as WhatsApp. Customers can message their bank with questions about their account or report lost cards, receiving immediate responses from representatives in an encrypted channel, which is convenient and fast.

Key challenges for banks and insurance companies

Similar to the retail industry, banks and insurance companies face the challenge of integrating all their channels seamlessly to ensure that customers have a consistent experience across all touchpoints. This requires effective management of the increasing amount of customer data across multiple channels, with robust processes in place to maintain data accuracy and security. Compliance with data protection regulations is also a top priority.

ABOUT LEKAB
LEKAB offers a range of mobile messaging services, including messaging APIs and software for advanced messaging and process automation. Our digital tools and solutions are designed to help companies optimise their communication and interaction with customers and employees through mobile channels, with the aim of improving productivity, availability, and customer experience.

If you are interested in learning more about our solutions or would like to discuss how we can help your business, please don't hesitate to contact us.