An app alone does not make a bank digital

TRANSFORMATION of any kind takes a bit of reverse engineering, which is why I often find myself thinking of the customer of the future – who exactly are they?

Fifty per cent of the world’s population is made up of millennials and Gen Zs – digital natives who grew up around smart devices. They also represent the upcoming affluent who will benefit from the generational shift of wealth – dubbed The Great Wealth Transfer – over the next 20 to 30 years. These are the customers that all brands are preparing for.

Even when looking at the wider demographic, many already treat their smart devices as their go-to device for all manner of services, including banking. For instance, more than 95 per cent of our customers’ financial transactions in Singapore are now done digitally. One in two primary banking products – current or savings accounts, loans or credit cards – are also acquired digitally, with our growth in digital wealth quadrupling from 2020 to 2021. Thus, much of our time and effort will continue to go into digital innovation, with a strong focus on mobile app development.

However, having an app alone does not make us digital. Digital transformation will need to leverage the true currencies of digitalisation: data and design. Only then will banks like us be able to authentically deepen customer engagement across all channels and respond to their ever-changing needs.

Personalisation from all fronts, thanks to data and design

Personalisation is already all around us. Open Amazon, and it will remind you to purchase something you are running out of. Netflix will make suggestions on what to stream next, based on your past interactions.

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Banks have been doing the same. OCBC RoboInvest, our artificial intelligence (AI) powered robo-investment service on the OCBC Digital app helps customers to invest according to their risk appetite and objectives, provides access to customised portfolios, and automatically rebalances their portfolios so customers do not need to time the market. AI-powered personalised recommendations on our OCBC Digital app and digital marketing have also helped increase digital wealth transactions by three times in 2021 from 2020 – a testament to its accuracy and relevance.

That is all well and good, but how do banks go one step further?

Over time, banks need to connect all customer touchpoints. This can be done with data that connects app, ATMs, branches, customer service representatives and relationship managers. Design must also be at the heart of how banks can interact seamlessly and consistently with customers across these touchpoints.

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A personalised recommendation on the app is good, but if that personalisation can be repeated across relevant channels, then that is even better. This personalisation cannot be intrusive and should not cause confusion or fatigue. Instead, it must be pertinent and intuitive to the user. Data and design – brains and beauty – must go hand in hand to create a great customer experience and journey. Both have to be in our DNA.

For example, if a customer regularly uses their app to pay a bill, a post-transaction pop-up might appear, nudging them to set up a recurring payment or move to Giro if they have not already done so. Similarly, should they meet their relationship manager at a branch for a wealth discussion, their relationship manager should be able to help them with that – while suggesting again, that they set up a recurring payment or move to Giro.

The reverse would be true too. Data captured by a relationship manager, or by an ATM, should be fed back to the app to optimise the customer experience. For that to happen, certain channels need to be transformed further. Teller counters at the branch, for instance, must be able to facilitate this capture and internal synchronisation of data.

And all the while, the platform on which the customer interacts with must be beautifully designed, intuitive, simple and transparent. This applies to the app, ATMs, or even having carefully designed branches that consider consumers’ needs from the moment they take a queue ticket.

Human-centred design across borders and institutions

We also see opportunities for banks to harmonise cross-border propositions to truly become “one bank” to serve customers’ needs. Imagine if customers, whether they be domiciled in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Macau or in mainland China, could open an account seamlessly in another country to access products and services before they relocate, and view their accounts on a single digital platform.

Another “border” that is being gradually chipped away at is the one that separates institutions. A complete view of our customer requires looking beyond their holdings with us, which is why the open banking movement is integral to what we do.

Already, the OCBC Digital app includes OCBC’s Your Financial OneView platform enabled by the Singapore Financial Data Exchange. Customers can see financial data from participating banks, Singapore Exchange’s Central Depository (CDP), CPF and Iras – and with open banking set to grow over the years, there will only be more possibilities to leverage data for financial planning.

This enables more informed and better decision-making for consumers. They can get an overview of all their financial information and commitments across a multitude of financial institutions first – from banks to insurance companies to their CDP holdings, before making further financial decisions like investments.

Not just one app to rule them all

Of course, in all of this, an app is important, but that alone is insufficient to be deemed true digitalisation. Instead, understanding the customer through data and interacting with them through human-centred design across all touchpoints is the key to a seamless, consistent and personalised experience every time. That, to me, is what the true digitalisation of banking is about.

The writer is head of Group Digital Business and Digital Transformation, Global Consumer Financial Services, OCBC Bank.