We always find a solution

In barely a decade, consumers have shredded the entrenched structures that banks, and insurers built their businesses on for more than a century. Distances have evaporated, reactive became proactive and predictive. Static became dynamic. Formal became informal. Physical and digital fused into phygital. Today customers expect the convenience of digital banking and insurance and if they ever visit their local advisor or broker, they expect tangible added value. This is the new normal for them. Financial players are faced with a stark choice: adapt and change or die.

As a digital partner of organisations in the financial sector, we keep a close eye on new developments, such as ecuc's Position Paper and the DORA legislation. We know what to expect in terms of privacy, security, governance, legislation, contractual aspects, and operational resilience for banks. It is this knowledge that empowers us to offer the very best advice that is always strategic, efficient and in accordance with the regulations.

Here's how to get bank and insurance customers on your side

Integrate IT into the DNA of your approach
The shift to a new hybrid service model forces banks and insurers to make important choices. While the role of IT used to be limited to system management and streamlining productivity, today it has become the backbone of the financial sector. ITinfluences every business decision. It is an essential part of any holistic strategy, alongside marketing, brand experience and innovative business models.

Forget monopolies, think product-oriented
Technological disruption has no mercy. Especially in the fintech sector, the competition continues today. New, digital players compete on an equal footing with the old giants who previously only had to contend with the burden of a heavy cost structure. In the space of only a few short years, exclusive products and services have become commonplace – in a few clicks you can buy everyday products and services. Large online retailers are putting pressure on traditional companies and insurers that used to have a quasi-monopoly. Using intelligent data management, they have succeeded in serving the consumer more personally, proactively, and also more sympathetically.

Stay flexible, alert, and agile
The time when consumers accepted financial products and services as they came, is over. People want to choose a suitable service for every aspect of their lives, from a wide range, that they can access effortlessly online. They have the power, banks and insurers have to adapt. Car insurance for the precise number of kilometers driven per year, a home insurance policy for shared housing solutions, or a micro loan for an electric bicycle. Consumers want à la carte solutions, not for life, but tailored to their lives. It is up to the provider to offer the flexibility that their clients expect.

Good intentions are not enough. The will to maintain a good customer relationship may be there at banks and insurers, but it is essential that you have the means. More and more customers are only satisfied with a frictionless digital customer experience, or a phygital experience that flows seamlessly into personal contact with the online services. For that, you need technology and a marketing strategy that fully meets – and preferably exceeds – their expectations. Because today's consumer is constantly looking for better, more intuitive, more user-friendly, and more efficient. Most banks are in the process of transforming to optimally serve the new generations but also to attempt to keep them as customers. For insurers, brokers and asset managers, the search continues. But they too have no other choice: adapt or die.

Work on technology that works for your customers:

• Trade reactive for predictive

Over the next decade, within the financial sector, we will see a huge transfer of capital and leadership, from the Baby Boomers to the Millennials. This new generation of customers knows what they want and where to find it. Financial players who want them as customers must serve them or lose them. The collection and management of accurate data is crucial: who really knows what customers need at every stage of their lives, can offer products and services that are relevant.

• Do intelligent data mining

Banks and insurers should not be blind to the latent threat of digital marketplaces such as Amazon and Bol. They collect consumer data in an inimitable way and have thus become de facto lenders and facilitators. Banks and insurers that want to protect and expand their business will have to find the right partners in the coming years to develop an ecosystem that will encourage the building of long-term loyalty. Artificial Intelligence will undoubtedly play an important role in this.

• Offer relevant beyond banking services

How can banks, insurers and brokers remain relevant to their customers? How can they deepen and strengthen their relationships with their customers? The answer lies in creating relevant (micro)services via intuitive interfaces. Banks and insurers that make life easier for their customers will be embraced again as a valuable partner and will benefit from this loyalty and good will.

Financial players are looking for a partner who can offer them the right solutions today and into the future. But for us, it starts earlier. You can only come up with a solution if you know where the problem is and what your priorities really are.

Since 2010, iO has been helping fintech, banks and insurers realise their ambitions. There are few challenges that we have not experienced or found an answers for, with end-to-end solutions. From technology consulting, app development, brand strategy or inbound marketing, we help our clients in every aspect of their digital transformation. This allows them to respond even better to the changing expectations of their customers today and in the future, and means that they can remain a leader in their sector.

1. Make technology a strategic business partner.

Financial players can only develop a future-proof digital ecosystem if they align IT with business strategies and marketing communication.

2. Build a love brand

Crucial to this is creating a frictionless customer experience, fully focused on comfort and convenience. The integration into existing apps or other services that the customer uses is also a prerequisite for becoming a love brand.

3. Provide autonomy through holistic, technological transformation.

You don't achieve a relevant customer experience through fragmented initiatives. It must be consistent and complementary across IT, marketing, and business.

4. Get to know your customer better.

Collecting and analysing relevant data is a must for banks and insurers who want to offer personalised services.