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In the rapidly evolving landscape of financial services, customer experience has emerged as a critical battleground for differentiation and success. As technology continues to redefine the parameters of service delivery and customer engagement, financial institutions are under increasing pressure to adapt and innovate.
A pre-pandemicDeloitte surveyof over 15,000 adult banking customers found the reputation of major banking brands was held in such historically low esteem that nearly half reported they would consider banking services from Amazon. Another quarter said they would consider Facebook banking services.
Anuj Maniar, a Deloitte Principal specializing in financial services, joined Emerj CEO and Head of Research Daniel fa*ggella on the ‘AI in Business’ podcast to discuss GenAI’s impact on customer service in the industry.
Throughout their conversation, Anuj sheds light on current trends and explains in-depth how generative AI (GenAI) is instrumental in addressing the challenges and pressures insurers face with increasing customer service expectations. Later, Anuj delves into the need to integrate strategies across communication channels to aid companies in meeting and exceeding the new benchmarks of customer service.
This article will examine three critical interrelated takeaways highlighted in our discussion with Anuj:
- Integrating multiple AI capabilities to balance efficiency with customer expectations: Combining GenAI, conversational AI, and basic predictive analytics to identify more clandestine trends in customer expectations and drive associated efficiencies.
- Unify communication channels:Strategically select and integrate communication channels to provide customers with a seamless omnichannel experience that meets modern expectations.
- Proactive back-office operations:GenAI-enhanced copilot technologies are poised to transform back-office operations in after-call work, allowing customer service employees to be proactive in informing customers about bills and payment options, increasing personalized outreach, and reducing associated costs.
Listen to the full episode below:
Guest:Anuj Maniar, Principal, Deloitte Financial Services
Brief Recognition: Anuj has worked as a consultant for over 20 years. Currently heading up Deloitte US’s Customer & Marketing division, his primary goal is assisting companies with developing methods of attracting and retaining customers. He has authored several Deloitte methodologies on the topics of customer analytics, customer experience design, and marketing effectiveness, among others. He holds an MBA in Economics & Strategy from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Skills: Customer experience design, digital transformation, customer analytics, business strategy, marketing strategy
Integrate Multiple AI Technologies to Balance Efficiency with Customer Expectations
Anuj begins the interview by discussing the most common AI in insurance trend he’s seeing: execs attempting to balance customer expectations of service with limited budgets. He lists three technologies that help companies “do more with less” in the long run:
- Conversational AI
- Generative AI
- Predictive analytics
“The biggest trends we’re seeing is that AI and Gen AI are really making an impact on solving an equation … how do I deal with increasing customer expectations with increasing pressure on my budgets? I need to be able to do more with less. And the trends we’re seeing are the adoption of AI to really help solve this equation. Whether it’s in the form of conversational AI, generative AI, or simple, brute force analytics, that tells me more about what customer needs are and how I can solve them efficiently.”
– Anuj Maniar, Principal, Deloitte Financial Services
Some of the improved efficiencies across operations afforded by these three technologies include:
- Reduced costs: Conversational AI (e.g., AI-powered virtual assistants) can automate many routine customer inquiries without needing a human agent. Predictive analytics can identify potential customer issues via behavioral analysis and provide proactive solutions, reducing the need for human support and increasing customer satisfaction. GenAI can summarize after-call work, saving time and labor costs.
- Improved customer service: Conversational AI can provide support outside of regular business hours without the need for human agents, lowering support costs and improving the customer service experience. GenAI capabilities can create tailored content for proactive outreach (e.g., payment reminders), improving customer satisfaction and loyalty by demonstrating concern for customers’ financial health by reducing late fees.
- Employee enablement:AI tools can provide agents with insights and summaries, getting them up to speed on cases faster and resolving them more effectively. Happier agents who feel empowered often lead to better customer experiences.
Unify Communication Channels
In our discussion with Anuj, the most compelling application of AI and GenAI is the strategic integration of communication channels. As mentioned, many eCommerce-adjacent industries with increasingly digital customer experiences are facing pressure to improve customer experience due totrendsettersdriving highly tailored customer experiences throughout their systems.
The central challenge for many insurance companies is that they need to be improved by legacy systems and decentralized communications. These limitations put them at a disadvantage in meeting customer demands for faster communication across channels. These difficulties often lead to the following customer service no-nos:
- Slow response times: Customers get frustrated when their queries remain unanswered, and claims are slow to process.
- Inconsistent service: Too often, customer experience can vary widely across departments and channels.
- Innovation stagnation: Legacy systems stifle the ability to adopt new technologies and offer innovative services.
Regarding any potential manual or automated solution, Anuj stresses the importance of:
- Remaining open to any communication solution
- Selecting the right channel or combination of channels for seamless customer communication.
- Recognizing a common misconception: consolidating all channels into a single point of access is not necessarily ideal.
- Doing some weeding out: identifying those channels that should not be integrated or utilized.
Concerning the last, Anuj gives the example of a financial services client that established a significant social media presence for the purpose of revamping its customer service. This could be better due to strict privacy laws, complex customer inquiries, and heightened security concerns in financial transactions.
Creating the “Right channel,” as Anuj terms it, involves additional steps beyond channel strategy:
- Customer journey mapping: Analyzing and designing customer interactions across touchpoints to ensure a seamless experience.
- Organizational and technical alignment: Unifying communication channels is essential for defragmenting communications across silos and delivering this experience.
- Technology infrastructure: Implementing a robust technical framework to support the transfer of customer data across channels.
Proactive Back Office Operations
Anuj emphasizes the benefits of incorporating GenAI into business operations, especially in areas not directly involving customer interaction. He suggests that GenAI has the potential to significantly improve internal processes, such as after-call tasks and support through “whisper agent” software, which acts as a virtual assistant. Anuj explains that this technology can transform traditional, reactive back-office functions into proactive ones, reducing costs.
He illustrates this point by stating that current procedures for notifying customers about credit card payments and options only occur after a missed payment, leading to financial losses or delayed income for the company.
Anuj proposes using a combination of three AI technologies to enhance these processes:
- Predictive analyticsto identify potential late payments,
- Conversational AIallows agents to receive timely data through a chat interface and
- GenAIwill customize communication strategies based on individual customer behavior, focusing on empathy and effective persuasion.
Anuj shares a story highlighting how these AI-driven approaches can anticipate why a customer might be calling—such as having several bills due just before receiving their paycheck. With the foresight provided by GenAI, agents can proactively offer flexible payment solutions, addressing customer needs while also securing revenue for the company.
Taking such a proactive approach to channels beyond phones and call centers, Anuj recommends a small – but telling – change in the name for these operations, symbolic of the overall transformation in strategy:
“Instead of using ‘contact center’ or ‘call center’, I would call it our customer experience or customer service organization that could span the bank branch, the contact center, the ATM, or the insurance agent, the contact center, and the digital experiences we’ve created on the mobile app. That’s what can really unlock the power and value of these technologies. We have to think differently outside of our individual channels. There’s been so much optimization done within each of the individual channels that the future optimization and value are going to come from AI, GenAI, and predictive analytics.”
– Anuj Maniar, Principal, Deloitte Financial Services
