Five digital transformation power-ups for financial services

Are your digital transformations making a positive impact on your business?

With customers pushing for change and agile competitors at the door — if they’re not, there’s a danger you’ll get left behind. And it may be time to power up your programme.

According to Forrester, 70% of banks have either implemented (or are currently implementing) some form of digital transformation. As they adapt to evolving customer needs, competitors and regulations, many need best practices and technologies to help speed up the pace of change.

But financial services teams don’t often know how to power up transformation quickly — without waiting on global tech vendors or a big-budget infrastructure overhaul.

With a low-code platform and AI-powered robotic process automation, in-house IT teams and business colleagues can go it alone without hiring outside developers.

Step into a world of ready-to-go modules, adaptable workflows and drag-and-drop forms — where game-changing processes and apps are delivered in days. Suddenly, the lights are on and digital transformation is moving at pace.

Here are five power-ups that financial services organisations can deliver quickly:

Customers expect to complete online applications quickly. And they’re often unaware of how complex it is to collect, consolidate and check information.

Behind the scenes, many lenders are still dealing with disconnected legacy systems and data silos. Just getting the key customer details needed for applications is time-consuming, leaving employees and customers frustrated.

The solution is low-code tools — which help create a better, faster and more streamlined experience.

Intelligent forms help customers to quickly upload details and documents for verification, from any device. Automated workflows speed up downstream activity, matching and integrating critical data with other systems, such as your website, CRM, ERP and third parties.

The result? Applications that are processed accurately and at speed. Your team gets more free time to deliver a better service. And customers get faster outcomes with automated updates.

Too many financial services businesses still work with broken case management systems that leave customers feeling neglected or forgotten. When they submit an application or question online, there’s barely an automated acknowledgement, followed by days of infuriating silence.

Customers either quietly give up or lash out on social media channels (or at call centre agents).

Here too, low-code tools offer a simple solution. Map out and digitise your case management process, connect automatically with key teams and flag errors easily. And your team gains time to devote to more complex cases.

You’ll also enjoy full visibility of the process — identifying numbers of cases, average handling times and the position of each application or enquiry..

For customers, this fresh approach means speedy outcomes and less stress. With regular automated updates — via email or text — they feel more valued.

Customer portals have become a cornerstone for great experience in financial services. They satisfy the demand for self-service and control, while easing the burden on your contact centre.

But creating customer portals can be a challenge. People expect an intuitive and personalised experience, while regulations demand stringent security and compliance.

Out-of-the-box portal software is often inflexible and not fit-for-purpose. Hiring developers to build your own portal can be time-consuming and expensive.

This is where low-code platforms offer a cost-effective alternative. With re-usable modules and workflows, you can integrate and control the tech that support your portal — such as Microsoft Flow, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, and other key systems.

Within just days, you can build a branded portal. It will tie everything together and offer a simple sign-in for customers, via services like Microsoft Live, Google and LinkedIn. Any files and details they add are updated automatically in the back-end system — so agents can access them, via the cloud.

Financial services teams need robust compliance, full traceability and accountability. What they don’t need is endless paperwork.

With low-code tools, you can build a digital-first compliance process — that manages governance and approvals, reducing the risk of mistakes and fines. And your team can integrate disparate systems to ensure seamless data flows.

That same system can identify and manage exceptions. These can be sent automatically to the right person for review — and tracked until the correct approval is granted. Plus, everyone is kept updated on requests progress, including your internal safety board or external agencies.

Financial services customers don’t like to wait. Delays can damage brands, impact review scores and drive customers to competitors.

Using intelligent automation tools, incoming complaints are routed to the right person at the right time. Hands-free.

Your team can understand the content. And advanced AI analysis can measure underlying sentiment of emails, social media messages, voice messages and more. That means you’re better tuned in to find the right answer.

Streamlining the complaints process saves hours of time for your team and results in faster resolutions for customers, which will boost your brand’s reputation.

It’s easy for digital transformation projects to stall because of cost and complexity. But financial services teams can now deliver change at a speed that matches what’s going on in the market.

With a low-code platform and intelligent automation tools, you can begin to power up parts of your operation — sharpening performance, saving your team from a host of mundane tasks and delighting your customers in the process. Momentum builds and everyone can see the difference.

What’s more, you can keep updating and fine tuning your digital processes, so you’re always in step with the marketplace.