FCMB Nigeria: Driving growth and loyalty through conversational banking

Conversational banking is transforming customer experience (CX) in the financial industry in Africa, with an increasing number of players leveraging messaging apps, chatbots, and AI to provide seamless, personalized interactions. According to the World Bank, over 160 million people in Africa gained broadband internet access between 2019 and 2022.

Yet, despite the continent’s rapid digital adoption, almost half of its population (52%) remains unbanked. And with 75 percent of the continent’s web traffic happening on mobile phones, many banks are joining the race to provide access to financial services by jumping straight into mobile platforms.

But African banks aren’t just offering mobile banking to speed up digital transformation. They know how important it is to build and maintain meaningful relationships by engaging with customers on their terms. At the same time, they are simplifying transactions and building trust and loyalty by making banking more accessible and responsive.

To better understand how banks embrace this trend, we spoke with Oluwole Coker, Head of Mobile and Internet Banking at FCMB Nigeria. Watch the video or read on to discover how banks make conversational banking a central part of their business strategy while navigating complex security and compliance regulations.

Imagine an account holder checking their balance or making transactions within an instant messaging app like WhatsApp, Messenger, or RCS. Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), these apps help banks provide personalized experience  throughout the entire financial journey.

Conversational banking enables banks to streamline operations and simplify CX. This allows customers to seamlessly transact and communicate through their preferred messaging apps, on their own terms.

Conversational banking can assist customers in:

And the best part? If a customer needs more help with a complex query, they can always be transferred to a human agent, ensuring that the conversation is maintained when technology fails to do so.

As many African consumers enter the virtual world, they approach digital channels with caution. They still value face-to-face interactions to forge relationships and trust, and banks like FCMB fully understand why they need to maintain the human element in their CX.

FCMB is embracing the benefits of AI and generative AI to boost their CX. Just like retailers harness AI to sell items through messaging apps, conversational banking brings that same CX to financial services.

Banks can provide support through the entire financial journey using an omnichannel platform, crafting bespoke interactions that elevate the banking experience.

Infobip’s conversational platform offers various channels, ranging from WhatsApp Business, Facebook Messenger, RCS Business Messaging, and more.

FCMB uses WhatsApp Business to provide a wide range of services from accessing account balances, statements, and loan balances to blocking lost or stolen cards.

But FCMB knows that access to instant messaging channels might be limited in some instances –a customer might lose data access in a rural area, or run out of prepaid data. That’s why traditional messaging channels like SMS are always on standby.

Conversational banking is not just about prioritizing favorite channels. On the back end, efficient data collection helps banks to improve their CX even further. It enables them to gather detailed information about customer preferences and needs with every interaction to tailor future communications, whether transactional or promotional.

The technology behind conversational banking improves efficiencies, significantly improving banks’ ROI. Research by Accenture found that conversational banking can reduce costs by up to 30 percent.

Banks have the opportunity to increase efficiency and cut costs by implementing the following strategies:

While conversational banking might seem simple on the front end, banks require a lot of measures on the back end to stay compliant.

Using the GDPR as a benchmark, FCMB is all too aware of the threat of data breaches. They need solid security measures, but at the same time they try to keep things simple to reduce the number of processes. That’s why it is important to strike a perfect balance between keeping data secure while ensuring that the user experience remains simple and seamless.

Infobip helps banks reduce friction in safeguards with a range of effective, multilayer solutions:

By ensuring market-leading security solutions like these are in place, banks can build and maintain the trust and security. They can also protect their own interests by reducing fraud risk and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards like the GDPR.

Conversational banking offers endless opportunities to better understand customer behavior, preferences, and needs.

Banks navigating rapid digital transformation in developing regions like Africa require the right communication technology partner. Infobip’s conversational platform helps banks like FCMB grow their digital services, improving support, sales, and marketing.

Our customer engagement solution coupled with our customer data platform will make your communication even easier. Partnering with us will help you become more efficient, cut costs, and keep customers satisfied, all through one-scalable-AI communication platform.