The COVID-19 pandemic has had a lasting impact on how customers interact with their banks. Customers still need help — card services, student loan assistance, deposit notifications, mortgage refinancing and more — but are often limited to using digital channels in place of in-person visits to their local branch.

Consumers already have increased needs and expectations when using digital channels. A growing number of banking consumers turn to chat, text or messaging apps instead of initiating a phone call as their primary means of communication. And email remains a popular method for consumers to interact with you.

If you work for a financial institution that has struggled to keep pace with all this change, you’re not alone. Issues of scale and security have resulted in disjointed user experiences across voice and digital interactions because of ad hoc implementations. Larger financial institutions with different lines of business have the additional challenge of providing a consumer experience that’s consistent across all business lines.

As a Customer Success Strategist for our valued banking customers, I see this firsthand. Even when someone is using the perfect platform to solve a problem — and even when they’re paying for the use of digital channels — they’re still hesitant about rolling out a digital banking strategy. There’s perceived high risk, high effort and low reward to justify it all. Part of the role of a CSM is to bust the common myths about deploying digital channels.

I want to share with you two critical factors required for successful digital engagements in banking and financial scenarios from the perspective of a Genesys Cloud™ user.

1. Deploy with Customer Use Cases as the Foundation

Simply bolting on new channels isn’t the right approach. New digital deployments often fail when the design derives from your internal goals and doesn’t consider your customers’ goals. Our experience with financial institutions has shown that you can achieve outcomes faster and position yourself for better progress when you employ user-centric design techniques.

We deploy digital channels for Genesys Cloud using a proven use-case approach that begins with your customers’ outcomes in mind. This approach lets you roll out digital engagement tactics in combination with each other or one at a time. This eases the adoption process on employees and minimizes risk to the organization.

Most importantly, you’ll match the expectations of today’s banking consumers and how they want to interact with you — digitally or not at all.

2. Walk, Then Run, Then Fly

Think big but start small. Define which digital engagement methods matter most to your customers. We’ll start there, crafting experience after experience until this style of interaction becomes part of your brand. After you master the basics, you’re now “walking” and ready to explore more advanced uses.

For example, start by building confidence in routing simple chat interactions to agents. Depending on your scenario, that could mean letting customers initiate contact with one of your agents through your website regarding card services, customer resolution processes or new account onboarding activities.

When that part becomes second nature, think about adding co-browse so your customers can click a “Share now” button to show agents what’s delaying their progress. These are just two of many possible options you can tackle in the “run” phase.

When you’re ready to take it to the next level, roll out predictive engagement using artificial intelligence (AI) to understand when a customer is about to abandon your website. At this point, your agents can proactively reach out and turn that person into a happy, loyal customer. It’s at this point that you can truly deliver empathy in your digital channels and start “flying.”

While adding new digital channels and AI to your organization might seem daunting, it’s really not. Especially when you partner with experts like our Customer Success Managers. Just look how easily TSB Bank digitized its customer experience to decrease abandon rates by 20% and maintain a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of over 71 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The digital engagement world is waiting. Are you ready to serve your customers where they are? If you’re a current Genesys customer and ready for digital, reach out to your Customer Success Manager to get started. If you’re not a customer yet, let’s talk. I can’t wait to partner with you.

Speak to a Genesys representative today. Your customers will love you for it.