As digital capabilities have grown over the last few decades, digital organizations have also grown albeit in an organic, and not always scalable, way. We now live in a time where daily digital interactions exponentially outnumber any other channel, making it the primary vehicle for most brands to reach their customers and creating a massive labor shortage in this key area.
Many organizations struggle to catch up and organize to manage this new influx of customer expectations, because they aren’t aware of what those expectations actually are from a holistic standpoint. This is typically due to the aforementioned organic growth, which tended to silo and splinter resources based on the technology being used and/or the targeted user groups. This is especially a problem in the financial sector, as there are many disparate systems that require integration to create a full ecosystem.
A centralized Customer Experience organization creates a layer that can help drive internal decision making and investment based on the holistic needs of the end user. By uniting all customer facing channels (Digital, Branch, Call Center) under this organization, which centralizes data from the various disparate systems, you can develop a 360-degree view of the customer to define personas and segments, provide standardized policies and business rules, and drive road mapping and resource planning for the entire enterprise.
Why is centralizing around CX so important?
Your business exists to solve problems, and the best way to maintain and grow customer relationships is to put the voice of the customer in control of the solutions. This is key to remaining relevant as customer expectations rapidly change based on emerging technologies and competitor offerings. With advancements in data collection, AI and ML, customers not only demand, but they expect a financial institution to understand who they are and provide services that are tailored to their needs. Empowering an organization focused on understanding these needs to steer your enterprise will not only drive higher ROI, but will also provide a North Star for all employees to follow.
A change like this may seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t, and in fact shouldn’t, happen overnight. Once committed to the approach, look at finding a few leaders who can help you draw an initial data set and build a plan for structuring your organization. This should include a data collection and centralization plan, along with a strategy for data governance and performance measurement, from which you can begin to build requirements for infrastructure, feature backlogs, optimized workflows and staffing plans. In early phases it may not be feasible to bring on full time resources, as there may not be enough momentum to ensure utilization. This is where a hybrid staffing approach can help accelerate your plans while simultaneously avoiding risk. Hybrid allows the use of fractional resources in specialized roles. It also allows the addition of resources and moving resources from part time to full time once there is an appropriate amount of utilization helps scale the organization in a safe and methodical way.
Finding and retaining productive resources in the digital space is more competitive than it has ever been, as options for remote employment have massively expanded over the last couple of years. Add to that the need for familiarity with financial technology and the talent pool grows even smaller. Leveraging trusted services partners can provide development resources that have experience with the technologies being implemented and offers flexibility in utilization, allowing your organization to forgo long onboarding processes and put resources directly to work without taking on additional capital expenses. While you may pay a bit more in the short run, the level of flexibility you maintain while progressing through your strategy is worth it.
If your institution is ready to take a closer, more holistic look at your customer needs, Xtensifi has the experience and trained staff to help you with that analysis. Reach out to us today.
