Throughout 2020, much of which has been spent in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic, businesses and entire industries have had to reinvent how they work—and crucially, how they connect to customers. Often, this has meant adapting to a more virtual workday, with digital tools and video conferencing coming to the forefront of business operations, communication, and relationships.
How has this affected banking?
Online and mobile banking are hardly new technologies. Yet, the pandemic has brought into focus just how much bankings’ standard operating procedures emphasize security and authentication.
Banking customers need assurance that their finances and the details of their identity are in safe hands, both of which have historically been dependent on in-person interactions.
Digital banking - how we got here
While the adoption of web technologies has followed a natural trajectory for all businesses, there were a few factors that specifically helped push banking into the digital world:
- The financial crisis of 2007-2008 required the banking sector to reinvent itself as consumers, faced with a crisis of trust, called for increased regulations.
- The emergence of the first generation of professionals who had grown up with digital media, and a technology-savvy consumer base that expects availability of services and information far beyond traditional banking hours.
- The interconnecting of world markets, which demand access to telebanking executives in remote locations, often at non-traditional hours.
- The mass adoption of smartphones, web-based research, and advice-seeking from third-party financial services. This has often replaced the personal relationship with the bank branch manager, dictating everything from choice of bank to ratios of investment and expenditure.
- Rather than being chosen by proximity, reputation, or homegrown trust, banks are now being selected based on interest rates, rewards programs, and eye-catching apps.
- In many parts of the world, banking from home or on-the-go has replaced many customers’ trips to their bank’s branches.
The Covid-19 effect
Until recently, however, many people—especially those in more conservative markets and with larger accounts to operate—still walked into a branch office when making important transactions such as making large investments, purchasing new financial instruments, and (re)negotiating loan and mortgage rates. Now, in the midst of a pandemic, customers are forced to weigh the health risks of interpersonal interactions against the perceived financial health risk of remote banking.
Banking professionals, on the other hand, need a way to maintain customer relationships, continue to provide services as normal, and maintain internal business operations while complying with pandemic regulations. These changes include:
- Working with a smaller than usual in-person staff and managing a hybrid workforce
- Taking into account all the necessary measures to keep staff happy, engaged, and productive while working remotely
- A much larger volume of customer interactions happening over telephone or internet
- Limited travel for employees, and more virtual meetings, both with customers and staff
- Deciding how to best implement protection measures for employees and customers, and what this means for signaling responsibility and commitment to safety
Where video banking comes in—and how Pexip offers a “people-first” solution
As we have seen, while the banking sector has digitized itself in many ways, it has long been ripe for the next critical phase in digitization: video banking. Incorporating video into meetings is, after all, merely an extension of tele-banking and conversations with call-center representatives located around the globe. Like many industries, the pandemic has pushed financial institutions to become adopters of technologies that were already an inevitable part of their business’s future.
When it comes to banking, it’s critical that the video meeting software in place allows bank employees to maintain customer relationships in the best possible way. Here are some factors to consider:
- About 55% of communication with other human beings is based on body language, and this interaction is lost over the telephone. Video enables you to create better, more personalized business interactions in the “new normal” that is remote work and virtual meetings. Being face-to-face on video provides richer opportunities to acquire new customers, build trust, and maintain relationships.
- Security is paramount, and at Pexip privacy and security measures are built into every level of our operations and culture. For our customers, this means having the confidence that your data remains private, regardless of which of our flexible deployments you choose: our self-hosted solution, or Pexip-as-a-service. For your customers, this means assurance that their data and identity remain secure.
- Pexip can be embedded into your existing CRM or contact center.
- We are an industry leader in system interoperability. Our certified gateway service bridges the gap between different meeting platforms and devices. This allows you, your employees, and customers to easily access meetings through Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Skype for Business. This minimizes anxiety around joining virtual meetings and makes for a better meeting experience.
- Pexip uses AI algorithms to offer Adaptive Composition. This technology optimizes the layout of faces in the meeting, and crops and frames individuals for a more natural virtual meeting that feels closer than ever to an in-person experience.
- Pexip’s technology provides super-wideband audio and 1080p HD video, which improves comprehension and allows you and your customers to see and hear every nuance of the conversation.
- Our customizable branding options allow you to tailor the visuals of your video meeting welcome screen so that customers feel more comfortable stepping into your "virtual branch."
- The platform can be used on any device, from a personal smartphone, to a corporate laptop, to video system hardware in the office. This means it's easier to stay connected, wherever you are.
Pexip is trusted by large banks and other financial sector organizations around the world. Our secure video meeting solution provides a reliable space for building customer relationships and maintaining a human touch in the digital world.
Want to learn more? See how Pexip Engage can help.