Onboarding digital: new customers and a non-hassle customer journey

In the age of immediacy, consumers are looking for fast, simple, personalized and relevant experiences. In this context, financial services customers are turning to omni-digital platforms to carry out their banking operations and expect the system to move away from traditional channels.

This is a steadily advancing trend, especially in the hands of the new generations that is accelerating as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, it is indispensable that financial institutions accompany their customers in the best way throughout their digital journey.

We know that the “new normal” posed by the pandemic implies a banking digital transformation led by organizations that have consumers as their principal concern and are based on a high horizontalization of products. In fact, according to the World Banking Report 2020, those companies that can offer fully digital banking will have significantly lower acquisition and distribution costs than traditional banks.

Thus, hand in hand with artificial intelligence and machine learning, the banking industry is moving towards the automation of all the processes that customers use. And digital customer onboarding becomes a great ally: not only does it improve consumers’ experiences by making their access to banking services faster and more flexible, but it also reduces failed customer acquisition and maximizes operational efficiency.

In line with these insights, omnichannel solutions such as Infocorp's spin-off, Prisma Campaigns, allow financial institutions to start accompanying their customers long before they are such, through the implementation of more effective marketing campaigns (on account openings, applications for loans or credit cards, for example) and the management of the entire acquisition and onboarding process once the user expresses interest by means of any online action.

This type of intelligent platform offers the best tools to accompany customers throughout their online journey: from need or interest, information search and intention, to account opening and all subsequent experiences by means of the products and services that are best adapted to the needs of each person. The most important thing is to have in depth knowledge of customers’ interests and behaviors, and then reach out to them with messages that make them feel special.

“Digital onboarding” reached maximum popularity as a search term in the Finance category worldwide in May 2020.
(*Source: Google Trends)

And in this process of acquiring new customers, digital onboarding ensures a more direct and lasting relationship.

How does digital onboarding work?

Consumers do not need to go to the bank or fill out paper forms and can become customers remotely, securely and automatically, thanks to biometric technology. The process is based on the KYC (Know Your Customer) approach, which allows companies to verify the identity of their customers digitally, through methods such as videoconferencing. Handwritten signatures are not required either, as users can sign electronically with their smartphones.

Of course, as we said before, digital transformation begins long before users open an account and become customers, with creative actions that emphasize relevant messages and connect with people's concerns. Thus, accompanying consumers from the creation of personalized marketing campaigns, making them feel special, offering them the possibility of carrying out all their procedures digitally so that they optimize their time, facilitating the validation of identities and documents from different electronic devices and continuing to add value to the relationship with effective omnichannel campaigns are some of the pillars of a better user experience. We are talking about a process that also maximizes engagement and loyalty.

Nearly 7 out of 10 millennials demand integrated, frictionless experiences available across all channels. (*Source: Accenture)

Thus, the digitization of all onboarding steps allows players in the financial industry to turn challenges into opportunities, especially in this new global scenario. Today, traditional onboarding methods (face-to-face or semi-on-site) have become slow, repetitive, and complex. Therefore, thanks to frictionless routes, digital onboarding appears as one of the great differentiators that redefines the banking universe. A future that is already here and that has the user as the main protagonist.

If you are interested in the subject, we invite you to relive our latest edition of Infocorp Webinars.