Metrobank: Delivering a customer centric banking experience

Metrobank is a Philippines corporate and retail bank that is at the forefront of a global movement towards making banking more customer-centric, personalized, and focused on making the customer experience as easy as possible without compromising security.

We spoke to Jonas de los Reyes, Head of Digital Marketing and Omnichannel at Metrobank to find out how the bank is evolving their customer communication to keep the focus firmly on the needs of their customers, in terms of messaging, personalization, and trust.

Jonas provided an insightful summary of the top three trends in the banking industry when it comes to digital marketing and customer engagement.

Personalization: These days customers understand that banks have access to their data and expect it to be used responsibly and effectively to provide a more personal and convenient banking experience. The challenge for banks is to make optimum use of the information that they are trusted with to better serve customers.

Omnichannel engagement: This is so much more than interacting with customers on multiple channels, it is about making the entire experience richer. Whether a person visits a physical branch, speaks to an agent on the phone or by chat app, or logs into their account online, the experience must be seamless, consistent, and friendly at all times.

Trust and security: As more people use and rely on digital solutions, designing secure
omnichannel banking solutions that create trust is more important than ever. In Jonas’ own
words “In the platforms that we develop and the marketing campaigns that we launch, trust and security must be a primary consideration, both in the backend and in the design of the interface that the person interacts with. Customers should always feel that they are safe from fraud when they are engaging with the bank.’

Rather than pushing customers to use communication channels that they wouldn’t usually choose, being customer-centric is all about giving people choice.

With Viber being a popular messaging app in the Philippines, the team at Metrobank wanted to ensure that it was used to its full potential for delivering personalized marketing messages and broadcasts that included rich media like images and buttons.

Personalization was enabled via our simple Salesforce Marketing Cloud integration that means messages can be enriched with real-time information from Salesforce.

Staff at the bank can send Viber messages to opted-in people from their existing CRM tool or as part of a Journey in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. The result is that customers receive secure and seamless communication from the bank on a channel that they are familiar with.

Jonas talks about how Metrobank’s vision to champion customer-centricity is what guides them in adopting new technology. This includes making optimum use of data and using new AI technology to provide value for customers in many different phases of their financial journey. AI is helping the bank to understand their customers better with the goal of providing a better and more human experience.

This thinking aligns closely with Infobip’s approach to developing AI solutions for the banking and financial industry. Like Metrobank, we believe that appropriate and well-conceived AI projects can enable more interactive and engaging communication between financial institutions and their customers. This is the foundation for true conversational banking.

Historically the banking industry has had a reputation for being slow to adopt new technology. Dynamic institutions like Metrobank are changing this view right now by leveraging new tools and communication channels that help them deliver on their ambition to better understand their customers and play a vital role in their financial journey. We are proud to be helping the bank to move the needle on customer experience in the banking industry.