5 Ways Banks Can Build Trust with Infobip and Microsoft Azure

Fierce competition, rapid increases in online banking, and personalization as the new brand differentiator have disrupted the financial services industry (FSI). As a result, many executives are struggling to find ways to meet operating KPIs and achieve key business results.

Fortunately, technology has developed just as fast – and solutions that can help you set up conversational banking experiences exist. Here’s how Infobip’s solutions on Microsoft Azure can help you increase customer trust and retention in a fast, secure, and economical way.

With more competition entering the market, younger generations are straying away from legacy banks that aren’t digital-first.

Through our 2020 customer engagement survey, we set out to learn what customers expect from brand communications as a result of the pandemic. Here’s what we found:

Modernizing your customer communication through digital channels, automation, and cloud-based technology is a proven way to deliver fast, personalized banking experiences. These digital attributes have become key factors that drive customers’ decisions to trust and stay loyal to a brand.

Although modernizing customer communication might seem like a wide stretch from where legacy banks stand now, leveraging the easy-to-use cloud solutions available on the market can make the process a whole lot easier.

To help you get started, we’ve outlined:

One of the main concerns for most bank executives when deciding to move to a cloud-based solution is security. Being held up to the highest regulatory standards and needing to be compliant can often be a hindrance to CX for many financial institutions. However, cloud solutions break that rigidity by giving you the flexibility to provide the best CX in a compliant way.

That’s why we’ve partnered with Microsoft Azure, one of the most secure clouds available on the market, to ensure your customer information stays safe and to prevent breaches.

Infobip’s omnichannel solutions on Azure ensure:

As the only major cloud platform built by a security vendor, Microsoft Azure has security embedded into each layer of its architecture. From built-in security controls and network security to encryption, using Infobip’s solutions on Azure ensures your payment, billing, and account information stays safe no matter which channel you communicate on.

In addition to operating on a secure system, building trust is also centered around delivering personalized experiences. If your customer believes you truly care about their business, they’ll be more inclined to trust and stay loyal to your brand.

The first step in building trust through personalization is getting to know your customers’ preferences. What does this mean for your customer communication? Finding out what channels your customers prefer to communicate on can help you meet them where they are with the right information.

What’s more, chat apps such as WhatsApp have upgraded their systems in recent years to enable businesses to communicate in a safe and reliable way. Apps that were once used for casual conversations with family and friends have introduced:

Plus, since customers use these apps on a regular basis to chat with the people they trust most, businesses that are present on them with a verified profile have a greater chance of being seen as a trusted brand in the eyes of their customers.

Chat apps aren’t the only option, though. Customers also prefer other secure ways of communicating with their favorite brands, including SMS, Email, Voice, Mobile App Messaging, and Live Chat. The key is to find out what best fits your customers’ needs and to meet them where they are.

The next step in building trust through personalization is to unify all your customer data. Using a tool that creates 360° customer profiles out of your existing data will help you understand behavior and preferences at a glance. As a result, you’ll be able to identify opportunities and take immediate action.

Once you have your customer profiles set up, you can dive into proactive messaging.

Start by tailoring your engagement strategies to specific customer groups. Organize customers into segments and send personalized, event-triggered or behavior-based messages. For example, if a customer fills out a form on your website to receive a loan estimate, you can send them messages about special loan offers when they’re available.

The best part? Cloud solutions can automate the process for you by adding people to your flow based on external actions, such as sign-ups or purchases, or removing them, such as customers who unsubscribe.

Our communication solutions on Azure also enable you to view conversions at each step of the communication flow – and track campaigns as they happen. So, you can add campaign data to your dashboard and customize report formats in minutes.

All in all, being proactive with your messaging helps:

Personalization over the years has evolved from [FirstName] fields in emails to mapping out future customer interactions based on previous ones. Because of this, legacy financial service providers have found it difficult to keep up and some have stopped trying altogether. However, the introduction of automation solutions such as chatbots and IVR have made introducing personalized interactions on this wider scale manageable.

AI (or intent-based) chatbots are one way to streamline the think-ahead personalization practice. Designed to recognize customer intent, an AI chatbot allows you to communicate with customers and tailor the conversation based on their replies.

A simpler alternative is implementing a keyword-chatbot that recognizes specific words and phrases to provide relevant information. For example, if a customer messages your bank on WhatsApp asking for a list of your student loan options, your keyword chatbot can recognize student loans in their message and instantly share a PDF document with all the relevant details.

Although it may seem that customer expectations now lean toward fast, automated communication – many still prefer to speak with a human for more complex queries. To ensure you provide superior customer service, combine your digital channels and automation with your contact center in an all-in-one cloud-based workspace.

Using Infobip’s Conversations on Microsoft Azure makes it easy for your agents to:

This way, agents have all the information they need to tailor the customer service experience to individual needs – and customers know they’ll get a quick response on the channel they choose to use.

Our omnichannel communication solutions are built to make delivering personalized customer experiences painless. Coupled with one of the most secure clouds on the market, our customer experience and engagement solutions are proven to help you: