In the last two years, just about everyone has come into contact with online meetings. Video conferencing tools such as Microsoft Teams, Skype, Google Meet, Cisco Webex and Unblu have become commonplace, both for contact with customers and for internal communication during home office hours. After a short familiarization phase, the business world has discovered the benefits of video consulting. As a result, large companies are also increasingly seeing video consulting as a great opportunity. Nevertheless, video consulting is still too rarely used by financial institutions.
Today we show why it is worthwhile for banks, savings banks and financial advisors to rely on video advice.
But how is video consulting used in the financial sector?
With the advent of digitalization, it has become easier than ever for people to network and share information. This has led to an increase in the use of video chats and video conferencing tools, a form of communication that uses video as a medium.
Video advice is a popular service that the financial sector can offer its customers. The service establishes connections and helps to explain financial products in a way that is easy to understand. Video advice is particularly beneficial for the younger generation, who are often overwhelmed by complex financial products. With the help of video consultations, banks, savings banks and financial advisors can help their customers to obtain expert information about their finances.
Well-known providers such as Deutsche Bank, Basler Kantonalbank, BNP Paribas and Fineco Bank are already relying on online advice and digital advisory processes to improve their customer experience even further.
Here are some of the benefits that some of Europe's biggest banks are dedicating to digital advice:
- Saving time: Receive advice regardless of location(Deutsche Bank)
- Attractive opening hours: Your usual quality of advice at extended opening hours(Deutsche Bank)
- Transparent advice: Have complex issues explained directly on your screen(Deutsche Bank)
- No need to travel: Get advice from the comfort of your own home, on the move or from the office.(BNP Paribas Bank)
- Co-browsing: Sharing relevant documents on the screen is very practical (BNP Paribas Bank)
- Expert advice: If special advice is required, a specialist can be consulted.
- Valuable visualizations and explanations complement the telephone consultation and make it easier to understand.(Zürcher Kantonalbank)
How location-independent advice improves the customer experience
Banks that want to survive in today's competitive environment must offer an expansion of existing access channels to the bank in addition to traditional branch advice. Millennials, Generation Z and Generation Alpha are showing increasing interest in digital offerings. And ultimately, these age groups are the customers of tomorrow. This can be seen very clearly at Basler Kantonalbank. The under-40s in particular make disproportionately high use of video advice. Digital natives in particular prefer to receive advice regardless of their location. No matter where they are in the world, they want digital yet personal advice and information about their finances.
In general, it can be said that financial institutions that already rely on online video advice or other tools such as online configurators and chatbots have had exclusively positive experiences and that the offers are paying off with the younger generations.
Online video consulting can increase product completion rates
A German study on the topic of video consulting - conducted by 4P Consulting - underlines the trend towards omnichannel consulting services among financial service providers.
More than a third of the Swiss banks surveyed have already achieved a higher product completion rate with video advice than with in-branch advice.
Digital banking can certainly be a challenge to build trust with customers. Cognizant's report shows that the banking industry expects to increase its revenue through digital channels by 54% by 2023. However, this means that retaining and engaging customers with digital banking and other financial services will be a challenge.
There are no longer any technical or regulatory hurdles. With a solution such as Calenso's digitalization suite, efficient and secure advisory processes can be easily digitalized. For example, supposedly complex topics such as securities trading or inheritance law can be explained easily and clearly in an online meeting using the co-browsing function.
Regionally positioned banks in particular show great potential for improvement
In the course of digital change, it is important to keep your finger on the pulse.
Online advice is a must, especially for regionally based banks, which usually only have a few locations. Especially if there are only a few locations in the region, it is difficult for customers to organize an appointment for detailed financial advice during the already short bank opening hours in addition to their everyday work. By offering online video advice as part of their customer service, regional banks can improve the overall experience for their customers and thus strengthen their customer loyalty with existing customers. A digitalized advisory process prevents customers from migrating to the competition or a major bank. Following the industry trend, international banks and financial service providers in particular have discovered video collaboration tools for themselves. Small regional banks must therefore be careful not to miss the boat.
Online video consulting for banks is now a matter of course. It is no longer a nice extra service - it is a means of remaining competitive and keeping pace with the competition.
Conclusion
The message is clear: if financial institutions such as banks, savings banks, investment companies, insurance companies and mortgage companies want to offer an excellent customer experience, they need to adapt to the needs of their customers. Video advice is an opportunity for financial institutions to reshape this relationship and modernize the customer experience.
