Bringing Banking to the Customer’s Doorstep with ‘Locus for BFSI’

Expectations are a moving target, thereby creating the need for institutions to regularly track and understand how they are Performing Against Customer Expectations (PACE). The PACE index for the banking sector does this on an annual basis, in a global study spanning 8,000 customers and 500 small businesses. The 2016 survey revealed that Indian banks were near the bottom of the global PACE rankings, performing 7 points below the global average. It concluded that India was behind the curve where other banks were finding their greatest success — technology driven convenience.

With consumers demanding connectivity with their bank providers at any time and from anywhere, BFSI entities have started sending service executives to their doorsteps as opposed to keeping them waiting in long queues outside their branch offices. The executives assist customers in opening accounts, loan discussions, asset verification, paying insurance premiums, collecting EMIs, cheques, and demand drafts, etc. and processing their requirements in real time. They also make visits to rural areas that do not meet the logistical requirements of having a dedicated branch.

Digital disruption has made Knowing Your Customer (KYC) more important than ever before. Nowadays, biometrics and e-KYC have stepped up to replace paper-based systems. The use of fingerprints, retinal scan, digital signatures, OTPs etc. Not only augments personal security and privacy, but also attenuates cost. However, the new RBI regulations now mandate firms to collect and upload a common KYC to a central repository. This has weighed heavily on digital payments banks and broking firms, as it puts them at par with traditional banks.

Dawn of a New Delivery Channel

Last year, Thomson Reuters surveyed 800 financial institutions and their customers across the world to reveal that 89 percent of the customers did not have a good KYC experience, while 13 percent of them ended up changing their financial institution as a result. The firms have attributed the numbers to the rising cost and complexity involved in KYC compliance, with the lack of personnel and high volume.

Among said impediments, the one that is in the hands of the firms is the former — resource shortage. BFSI firms have been looking at over 60,000 leads a month. The lack of appropriately skilled people on the road has led to an increase in the number of employees on the field, adding extra cost to the companies. And the thing with such banks is, the lesser the cost they endure, the better the customer gets served.

Upon receiving a lead, the firms have to identify the customer’s address, fix or modify a service slot as per the customer’s convenience, even account for instant ones, and assign the right lead to the right service executive based on the locations. Companies are barely managing a daily coverage of 7 to 8 customers a day per executive. For the numbers mentioned above, that is the equivalent of maintaining 20 fleets of 10 riders each, or vice-versa. Now comes the daunting task of overseeing it all. It appears to be a situation where you will not be able to leave the drawing board. Locus, however, begs to differ.

How Locus BFSI in Bringing Banking to the Customer’s Doorstep?

Locus’ Serviceability Tech allots convenient time slots for the customers, be it instant, scheduled, or a reschedule. The advantage is twofold with Skill-Based Routing: ensure the right executive is assigned to the right pin-code or locality best suited to them, while also considering the skills respective to the task in hand, by attaching relevant information and documents to each one. You would not want a KYC agent assigned to a lead involving loan discussion. Overseeing and tracking multiple fleets in real-time is also made easy with a Control Tower view.

Locus has helped executives top 12 visits per day, while also reducing fuel costs in the process with Route Optimisation.

Reducing the number of interactions customers have with their respective firms, without compromising on compliance, is the key towards consistent experience. Losing customers over one step in the initial stages, after all the effort spent on making them consider it in the first place is nothing short of an anti-climax. A positive and efficient customer experience is a differentiator for the BFSI institutions that are able to deliver.