The coronavirus has radically changed how banks can interact with their customers.
Branch closures and social distancing practices have forced financial institutions to innovate with news ways of replicating the branch experience, remotely, in order to continue to provide both their retail and private banking services.
Just as retail banks have had to find alternative ways of bringing the benefits of the branch to their customers’ homes, those in the private banking sector, such as wealth managers, business loan managers and investment loan managers will also need to find different ways of offering the same personalised and specialist service, without actually visiting their customers’ homes.
The private banking industry is hugely dependent on the customer being able to trust the expertise and credentials of their wealth manager and the validity of their advice. Indeed, just 8% of respondents said they would trust an automated financial services bot, even if it had been programmed by experts.
This is why many of these high-stake interactions are often conducted in person, and due to the sensitive and often complicated nature of the interaction, tended to be dispensed at the client’s home.
For example, a typical wealth management session requires at least three face-to-face interactions:
- An introductory session, where the wealth manager meets the customer
- Investment review, where information is gathered
- Recommendation stage, where the wealth manager presents advice
In normal circumstances, from the bank’s perspective, visiting a customer, and covering the costs (car and petrol) and man hours for potentially multiple trips to and from the customer’s home has never been the most cost-effective, nor the most time-efficient way, of dispensing advice.
Of course, during the pandemic, visiting a customer at home, in the era of social distancing, is not only inefficient for the business, but also not particularly safe.
With Vizolution technology, remote private banking services can be completed wherever and whenever the customer wants. Through an innovative combination of remote channels (telephony and online), customers and wealth managers can talk to one another, while still being able to share, display, exchange, complete, verify and sign documents as if they were face to face.
Being able to offer the benefits of the branch, but in a remote setting, is more convenient for both the customer and more efficient for the bank.
In these uncertain times, where visiting customers’ homes are not as easy, nor as safe, as they once were, technology can ensure you can still [digitally] be there for your customer.
