By Rajesh Bansal
In recent years, the business landscape has undergone a significant shift. Gone are the days of a sellers’ market, where businesses had the upper hand in dictating terms to consumers. Today, consumers are the ones in command. With growing global markets and increased access to information, customers are more empowered than ever before, resulting in a highly competitive, consumer-centric market where businesses must go above and beyond to meet the evolving expectations.
Take, for example, the experiences that consumers have come to expect from their favourite brands. Whether it’s customised playlists based on listening history, AI-powered TV show recommendations based on viewing habits, or personalised push notifications based on past purchases, these hyper-personalised experiences have become the norm, and businesses that do not offer this level of customer-centricity stand to risk it all.
I truly believe that this is the model that we must replicate in financial services. Money is intricately woven into every aspect of an individual’s life – and as the ones creating products that help people manage that money, it’s a bank’s responsibility to build them with the customer at the core.
Today, most apps from the world of banking and finance are largely standardised – one can access products such as insurance, accounts, transfers, cards, and so on. But are these really relevant to every user? Wouldn’t a student’s financial needs, for instance, vary vastly from those of an entrepreneur? Wouldn’t the financial products a woman uses be different from what her male counterpart uses? In which case, shouldn’t a financial provider offer each of its consumers only those products and services that are relevant to her/him?
In times when adoption of a product or service is directly proportional to the level of personalisation offered, banks must deliver products and services that are hyper-personalised to each consumers’ personal journey – who they are, what they do, where they live, their habits and behaviours, and also how they access their finances.
And the best part is that we already have the tools to do this. India has arguably the best digital open infrastructure in the world, and it’s a ready foundation on which our industry can build customised products that can be accessed by every Indian.
All this approach needs is a willingness to meet customers where they are. And while this sounds like an uphill task, getting there isn’t as complex as we may think. Here’s how to get started:
1. Understand what the customer wants:
Conduct surveys, speak to people, gather their feedback on products and journeys. Understand their pain points and identify main causes of friction and drop-offs. That’s a great starting point to building a clean, simple product that makes users’ lives easier.
2. Design for simplicity and accessibility:
The financial sector is infamous for its complexity and jargon. But here’s what works – simplicity. Use simple language, clean design, and account for the different ways in which people will access your product – e.g., through a phone, a desktop, a tablet, or a laptop. The simpler you keep it, the wider the reach.
3. Create omni-channel experiences:
It’s common now for financial providers to have both an app and a website – and the key is to ensure a connected experience across both. For example, if a user logs a complaint on the website, they should be able to check its status on the app, and vice versa. Make the experience intuitive, seamless, and comprehensive.
4. Break linguistic barriers:
It’s easy to forget that users of financial products stretch beyond English-speaking, urban India. Localise the app or product to the context it’s in – enable translation in multiple languages and use images that can be relatable to customers across demographics. Make it relevant and relatable.
5. Enable product customisation:
Loans don’t always translate to large amounts. Account for different kinds of financial circumstances. Can you offer a small business owner an INR 1 L loan to be paid over six months? Or INR 15,000 to a fruit vendor to be paid in equated daily instalments? Everyone’s financial circumstance is one-of-a-kind – and the products that cater to them should be too!
It’s not a stretch to imagine a financial app that works just like your favourite streaming platform. Picture this – a banking app that displays a 1st of the month ‘playlist’, with all your bills and pending payments in one scroll. Pay in one tap and forget about it till next month’s reminder. Or a UPI app that runs spending analytics every month to show users an easily-consumed visual of their spending habits.
Aside from the apparent benefits to users, customer centricity also comes with its share of benefits for financial companies. Studies have shown that people switch financial service providers on account of ‘having to put in too much effort to get what one wants’ and impolite customer service. According to Bain & Company, a 5% increase in retention rate in financial services can boost profits by as much as 95%! And it’s easy to see why. Satisfied customers transact repeatedly, and would rather pay a premium to continue with a provider they are familiar with, rather than opt for a new one.
Despite it being such an integral part of our lives, financial services have been disjointed from our lived experiences for too long. In fact, research shows it’s been ranked second-to-last when it comes to being customer-centric. However, in 2023, user expectations are miles ahead of what they used to be – 86% of customers would leave a brand after just two poor experiences.
As India grows to be a global force in fintech, we are working relentlessly to strengthen the country’s economy by making it inclusive, accessible, and relevant. Customer-centricity lies at the very core of this vision. I am certain that this change in perspective can make all the difference to the way financial products and services are designed, built, and delivered to a country as large and diverse as India. It’s time to reimagine how finance can work for a billion Indians – a vision steep, yet achievable for a dynamic, innovative country like ours!
The author is CEO, Reserve Bank Innovation Hub. He has nearly three decades of global experience in designing digital IDs, electronic payment products, and cash transfers, to enable inclusive development in multiple Asian and African markets. The views expressed in this article are personal.
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