OMNICHANNEL BANKING: A WIN-WIN PROPOSITION

Experience the future of banking with digitally-converged channels

By Anjani Kumar, Principal Consultant ˆ Consumer Banking Practice, Financial Services & Insurance, Infosys.

Digital consumers seek access to banking services anytime, anywhere. They initiate a transaction on a mobile or tablet device and complete it on another banking channel such as phone banking or ATM.  Omnichannel banking offers opportunities to engage deeply with customers, offer customized products, and deliver personalized service. Banks that realize the potential of omnichannel banking attract and retain digital consumers, while achieving long-term profitability.

OMNICHANNEL VS. MULTICHANNEL BANKING

In multichannel banking, customers access the bank via diverse touch points such as the branch, mobile, online, call center, or the ATM. However, the bank does not provide a consistent user experience across these channels. In addition, banks that offer multiple channels often encourage customers to use the channel that is the least expensive.

At majority of the banks, the processes for banking channels operate in silos. Consequently, customers are offered irrelevant product(s) or inconsistent services through multiple channels. For example, loans are offered repeatedly through online and mobile channels and branches despite communication on customer’s disinterest in the loan. Banking channels usually have independent databases as well as technical and functional architecture, thus operating independently. Even as advanced multichannel banking infrastructure has facilitated a consistent look-and-feel across channels, the functional and technical architecture of each channel remains disparate and disjointed.

In omnichannel banking, customers enjoy a consistent experience across channels. The customer is seamlessly transferred from one channel to another, almost in real time. Customers can access products and services of the bank anytime, anywhere. They can seamlessly shift from one channel to another and enjoy a similar user experience. For example, a customer can initiate a banking transaction in one channel, view it in another and complete it in a third channel due to convergence of virtual (online) and physical (branch) banking channels. Significantly, omnichannel banking allows customers to select their preferred channels for banking transactions. Different channels use the same database and share a common functional logic for the same banking function. In addition, the bank’s channels have a consistent view of transit data to monitor the customer’s context, transaction and experience across business processes.