We grabbed five minutes with Jack Sweeney, Regional Sales Director for N. America, to find out what he was most looking forward to during his two days at Future Digital Finance.
The slogan for Future Digital Finance, ‘Digital Innovation. Today’ speaks on the urgency for enterprises to innovate with their digital offerings. How important is it for US banks to undergo their digital transformation?
It’s vitally important; in recent years we have noticed a general trend among banks to innovate with their digital offerings, whilst also investing heavily in their digital transformation. We’ve also seen an increasing number of strategies that combine elements of a hi-tech and hi-touch approach to customer service and customer experience, especially in the finance sector, which often have quite complex and personal journeys.
There are some interesting talks throughout the event, including one by Sarabjit ‘Ruby’ Walia, Head of Digital Banking HSBC, North America. His talk ‘Identifying the Next Generation of Digital Banking’ seems a must-attend. What do you think will be the next generation of digital banking?
New players in the payment space, like Venmo, Bitcoin and Blockchain, are driving traditional banks to innovate to deliver highly digital and real time solutions to their customers. I also strongly think that the next generation of digital banking will combine the service quality of face-to-face interactions with the convenience of digital solutions.
What Vizolution offers is quite unique; that coupled with the fact that we are expanding our presence in the US and are still relatively unheard of, must make it difficult to explain who we are and what we do. How do you tend to introduce Vizolution to US clients at events like Future Digital Finance?
You're right, it can be difficult, but I simply explain that we offer face-to-face interactions in remote channels by offering a unique combination of hi-tech and hi-touch solution. The impact our technology has on enterprises’ KPIs is significant and tangible, so whomever I am talking to always seem to be interested in that.
Are there any talks/sessions that you are personally looking forward to attending?
I am really interested in hearing what Brenda Arndt from U.S. Bank has to say in her “Using Guided Selling to improve your Customer’s experience and remain competitive” session. At Vizolution, we believe customers need guidance, whether that be in a streamlined and straightforward digital journey, or in a more complicated journey that requires human interaction. As we provide both self-service and agent-assisted solutions, I’m very interested in hearing what Ms Arndt has to say.
Obviously in the UK, many of the nation’s biggest banks have been quite receptive to our unique proposition, and are not only clients, but also shareholders in Vizolution. As such, we have been quite instrumental in many of their digital transformations. What is the stage of digital transformation for US’ major banks?
Banks in the US seem to be fairly advanced in their digital transformation initiatives and have been innovating and experimenting with different digital strategies for quite a while. In fact, numerous studies show that more than 80% of banks cited implementation of a digital transformation program as a business priority for 2018. We are also noticing that banks are beginning to realise that while fully digital self-service journeys are potentially optimal for the bank, they aren’t necessarily for the customer.
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