How analytics helps banks improve customer service
In banking, digital technology is in the process of changing customer relations as mobile technology and the Internet continues to place more and more control in the hands of consumers. Fortunately, some financial institutions are recognizing and embracing this change.
Analytics has now become a major tool in providing financial institutions with the means of relating to customers in a profitable way. The mix of data gathered in real time from mobile devices and social media can now be combined with legacy information to provide a comprehensive picture, of customer behavior and attitudes, that was never possible before. This creates the possibility of new products, new ways to approach established and potential customers, and the creation of new business models.
Banks already have a great deal of legacy information at their disposal. Combining this with new information creates a Big Data resource that enables banks to understand customers in ways that enhance customer relations and make new financial products possible.
The old fashioned system of data silos is changing as the integration of information is moving business, including banking, from a one-dimensional approach to customer relations into a multi-dimensional relationship where business becomes a participating member of the decision-making process. Of course, this will require even greater reliance on digital technology and a number of banks are already laying the foundations for expansion by embracing IT.
In the future, predictive analytics will make it possible to predict when customers will want to make major purchases, thus enabling financial institutions to place the right financial product in front of the right customer at the right time. The only danger in this new approach is that banks risk sounding like salesmen when they should sound like dignified and reliable financial institutions. But, if this is done with propriety and respect for the customer, then there is no reason why customers should not regard such offers as information that adds value to their lives.