Multi-channel banking is the buzzword in today’s banking world; banks are competing to increase their reach by adding on customer touch points including laptops, PCs, mobile phones, tablets, kiosks, smart ATMs and even television. But, are customers expecting more?
The digital generation is ever ready for innovation and experimentation, and expects banks to make their banking experience easier. Cross channel transaction is one of the needs of this tech savvy busy young population.
So, what does cross channel transaction mean? …Allow your customer to schedule a fund transfer to another account, through Internet banking, and later modify the schedule through mobile. A transaction with a life cycle across multiple channels, that is what is meant by cross channel transaction.
What other cross channel scenarios can be deployed to entice your customers? A few are listed below.
- Schedule a utility bill payment for a later date through Internet banking, and reschedule or cancel it using mobile
- Provide location based offers on mobile (say an offer on motorbikes, with auto approved loan facility), allow the customer to show interest through mobile, and later upload relevant documents to sign up for that product through Internet
- Sign up for a new product through Internet, and call the call center later to update certain information
- Create a monthly budget to track finances through Internet, tag transactions and monitor spend patterns against the budget using mobile
- Approve payments, or enable the salary uploads initiated through the Internet by one user to be approved over mobile or tablet by another
Is a cross channel experience solely for customers? No. Bank employees can enjoy a similar experience too. Say a sales representative meets the customer at his office, and introduces a new savings product. The customer shows interest, which is captured by the sales representative using his mobile CRM App. Later, the sales representative synchronizes the information captured on his mobile to a CRM solution, and creates a product origination request for the customer.
Cross channel experience is expected to become hygiene in a multi-channel banking solution. It will evolve in due course, and we can watch out for more complex scenarios turning cross channel in the days to come.
Related posts:
- Cross-channel banking strategies – getting over the internal hurdles
- The Real Advantages of Cross-Selling Online Rather Than at the Branch
- Making Mobile Financial Services a Legitimate Channel…
Original Post: http://www.infosysblogs.com/finacle/2012/10/cross_channel_transactions_can.html
It’s rare that institutions allow applicants the ability to start a deposit or loan application in one channel and finish it in another. For example, applicants who begin applications online are often not able to save their work if they don’t finish in one session. Even when they can, online applicants often have to redo their work if they walk into a branch for help.
Your post is spot on. I work at Andera – a company that provides multichannel account and loan origination software. Like you, we believe that the institutions that will ultimately succeed are the ones that allow their customers/members to do their banking business however and where ever they choose.
Applicants (like other shoppers) want the experience to be consistent across delivery channels. They should be able to start online and finish it in a branch, or start in a branch and finish at home via a laptop, tablet or smartphone device.
http://andera.wistia.com/medias/01654b461e
Diginomics at its best. Standing in a grocery checkout line, the customer in front of me, using his debit card to pay, discovers his bank account here lacks the funds to finish the transaction. No problem, he says. He asks the cashier to suspend the order for a moment while he transfers funds from his home account in Washington state to his local account here in Houston … using his cell phone. By the time the store manager suspends the transaction and my few items are checked out, the transfer of funds is completed. He completes his POST as I am loading my items into the grocery cart. He beats me out the door. The convenience of digital economics on full display, I would say.