Transcription

• Speaker #0

  Welcome to FinTrans, the podcast series where we explore the hot trends and news from the financial sector with experts. In today's episode, we are diving into personalization and banking. It is the new standard for customers. growth and we are going to talk about the risks for banks to be left behind if they continue to fall short on hyper personalization. So to help us explore this topic I'm joined by Shaline Kishore head of product design at SBS. So Shaline we have done already a lot of podcasts together so I'm not going to ask you to present yourself the same way I asked you before but through the lens of digital transformation and personalization in banking.

• Speaker #1

  Thank you, Caroline. It's great to be back. The way I see experience design, it's a translation of business intent. And for banks, they're dealing with customers who are individuals. So personalization becomes the business intent to serve each individual. Serve them for all the money that they're saving, they're transacting, or they're borrowing. and that's why it becomes a very crucial connection between technology advancements and the customer's everyday experience. And that's what design does. And that's my role as an experience designer.

• Speaker #0

  So why do you think it is important for banks to focus on the individual needs of their customers?

• Speaker #1

  So as I said, each customer is an individual and everything PING! that they do within banking that has a huge importance, value and impact on their lives. It's all about the money that they possess or they want to possess. And while the tech world is dominated by AI conversations, our end customers still are overwhelmed by tech advancements, by the possibilities of financial services and products. And they are scared of cyber frauds because in an ever increasingly digital world, it's very easy to scam anyone. So with all of that in mind, the banks of the future will need to be the enablers of customers' financial well-being. And when we... We talk about banking. It cannot be any more the product-centric version that these are the products we can offer. It has to be more aligned to the customer's needs, the solutions that they're expecting from a financial service provider. As an example, we talk about mortgages. It sounds like a very heavy word, but the moment you translate it into something like, I'm going to help you buy a home, I'm going to help you renovate it, move into it, it becomes simpler for people to understand. that this is how a bank can help me. Or when we talk about savings, helping you secure your future, depending on your life stage, your age. That's the way banks need to approach personalization. They're always serving an individual. And for each individual, that banking is personal.

• Speaker #0

  You were talking about humans' well-being to approach personalization and humans like to be entertained. So how do you think can technology help make banking services more user-friendly?

• Speaker #1

  Oh, we have a lot of ground to cover there. So in fact, we call it the baseline experience. It still has to be excellently done. It still has to be delightful to use. And it would include, number one, the ease of use for the frequent activities, bill payments, money charges. transfers. We want to simplify what is complex. So things like onboarding, which are long user journeys. We want responsive layouts where depending on the posture of a handheld device, a mobile phone or tablet, it adjusts the layout itself. And same for resizing a browser window. And it also includes adaptive layouts. So for example, for a large screen, you show the list and details you simultaneously. But for a mobile... phone is one thing at a time because it's a small screen size. And that is all about designing for usability. And this is for various scenarios that a customer might find themselves in. And that's like the baseline for all online activities and for any further personalization or value addition you want to do on top of it.

• Speaker #0

  And beyond delightful features, what are some ways banks can make their products feel more personal. to each customer?

• Speaker #1

  So the easiest way is a segmented personalization where we're talking about one-to-many customization. We group our users into broad categories based on demographics, based on location, or any shared characteristics for that matter. So for the customer, this is like treating, the bank is treating me as a long-term customer and it feels like a continued engagement. So for example, my... My landing page could be personalized based on what I'm using the most frequently. For a freelancer, it could be expense tracking. For a customer who's checking their credit card balance every day, it could be the credit card widget that's on the top. Similarly, for senior users, it could be an easy mode where we oversimplify the UI, like larger phone sizes, simpler navigation, and a very lean feature set that gives only the key activities and balances for older customers. So it's, at the end, all about the flexibility of different types of usage. of banks' products and services. And progressively we can enhance and provide experience for users no matter what device or platform they're using. So it's always about the flexibility, the familiarity and intuitiveness that we can enable with segmented personalization.

• Speaker #0

  Can you give an example of how a bank might adapt its services based on a customer's behavior?

• Speaker #1

  Oh, of course. and that is actually the next level of personalization. The user experience adapts based on the past transactions, the browsing history, basically understanding the customer's past behavior to anticipate the future. I can give examples like if I detect a loan has been paid up or a salary has increased, basically I detect a cash flow improvement. And there we can nudge the customer to improve their money habits. Congratulations, it seems you got a salary increment. Would you like to roll this cash flow into a high-yield account? And for example, if a user spends a lot of money on airlines or hotels abroad, they can be offered a travel card with cash back or Forex fee waivers. Now this becomes a personalized product for the customer based on my past behavior. And this can be done by the banks with a perpetual KYC. End. a combination of transaction history. This is again designing for sincerity towards a customer's well-being and it's also designing for delight.

• Speaker #0

  Great. What do you think about real-time alerts? How could they improve a customer's experience with their bunk? Wouldn't it feel intrusive?

• Speaker #1

  If done well, it will not be intrusive or creepy it will become helpful and when we talk about contextual personalization this is actually the highest level it is the hyper personalization we keep talking about it's about tailored content recommendations any dynamic information based on the current event the current location current time your device and this gives customer the feeling that This bank is a trusted and multi-generational financial partner. And how it does that? A simple example could be nudges for duplicate transactions. That you had, we've detected a duplicate transaction from vendor X. Would you like to dispute it? It could be rising subscriptions. Like your Spotify bill is 13 euros this month. It's 3 euros more than last month. It gives the feeling that the bank cares for me as a customer. It's translating the financial wisdom into something that me as a customer can use. A sophisticated example could be a small business owner. When they're experiencing a cash flow squeeze, they're offered a line of credit. So what at the end we're trying to do is we're trying to evolve the customer experience based on customers' needs. And this could be for each individual, for each business as they grow.

• Speaker #0

  What are the benefits of offering tailored financial advice to customers at different stages of their lives?

• Speaker #1

  So, as I was just talking about, each stage needs a different outlook on finances. When I'm in my first job, I don't know how finance works. I don't know what to do with a lot of money. I might be spending, overspending. I might be not saving at all. And that's where the bank, as the enabler of financial well-being, can help me understand where I'm going wrong and help me course-correct on my financial journey. Because the bank has a treasure trove of understanding of my transaction history, my behavioral patterns, my life choices, essentially. So it is in a position to be that financial guide all through.

• Speaker #0

  And why should... personalization in banking be seen as an ongoing process rather than a one-time change.

• Speaker #1

  Because the life is ongoing. The life grows. So personalization is in a sense about determining those influential moments, the points in a user's life where they make a choice, they make a decision, and then presenting relevant products with a clear call to action. And that's what I meant earlier when I said personalization done well. The answer would lie in combining behavioral data, my current context, and my declared preferences so that it doesn't sound creepy, it doesn't feel creepy. It is helpful to me. And I trust my bank to be taking me along on my financial path and being that guide to lead me forward.

• Speaker #0

  Thank you so much, Aline, for sharing your time and your insights.

• Speaker #1

  Thank you very much, Caroline. It's wonderful talking to you.