The Best CRM Blog

Insurance CRM: Creating Value Through Next-Generation Operating Models

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Mon, 03 May 2021 11:12:00 +0000

The purpose of insurance is enough protection for a rainy day. The covid-19 pandemic cloudburst means even the most prudent insurers are rapidly needing a bigger umbrella.

To complicate matters, most customers aren't aware of myriad insurance products and its intricate workings. Insurance product recommendations are so complicated that it reduces even veterans to tears. This leads to buyer uncertainty and loss of confidence before making a purchase. Which is unfortunate as a confident buyer is 3.6 times more likely to make a high value purchase. (Source: Gartner)

To thrive and survive in the new reality, shift in operating models will be critical. Insurers must act decisively and boldly by delivering expanded services, creating end to end customer sales and service journeys at all channels and touchpoints.

1. Offering differentiated products
Most insurers provide commoditized products with thin margins. However, digital enables them to increase their profitability and value to customer by delivering personalized, tailored, differentiated products. This includes micro and niche insurance plans at touch points like high value product purchases,service centers and even niche health insurance packages like surgery covers. Insurers can specialize in a niche and even diversify in that niche category.

For example, leading insurers are increasingly offering wedding insurance, riot insurance and for the discerning customer even alien abduction insurance.

2. Delivering differentiated service with AI
The increasing adoption of AI, ML technologies and powerful platforms are enabling insurers to connect with their customers at all channels, even non traditional ones. Engaging in an Open Communication Platform (OCP) enables insures to instantly respond to their customers and deliver instant fulfilment when needed. Insurers can access real time damage estimation through integration with third party systems and telemetry analytics. They can also evaluate damages through images or description with AI, OCR and image analysis.

A leading insurer has initiated an instant claim settlement platform with smart bots driven FNOL (First Notification of Loss) System for its auto insurance products. The system processes claims instantly by integrating with third party repair systems and automatically verifying damage and repair estimates leading to automatic reimbursements as soon as the invoices are verified through digital signatures.

3. Dynamic Pricing with Usage based Insurance (UBI)
Usage based insurance (UBI) primarily refers to dynamic insurance premium pricing based on customer's behavioral and usage analytics. This allows insurers to move away from a mindset of simply reducing claims costs and becoming an integral part of customer's lives by offering holistic core value propositions. Remote monitoring with telemetric data analysis can help reduce car insurance costs and boost preventive healthcare. This helps to make insuring higher-risk consumers more economical feasible, rewarding and also opens the door to new innovative insurance packages.

Recently, the Singapore government has partnered with Apple to reduce healthcare insurance costs with with personalized program to encourage healthy activity and behaviors using existing hardware. More than 2 million people were enrolled within 3 months of the launch.

4. Enabling smart distribution channels
Insurers can eliminate much bottlenecks and increase coverage by expanding digital access and AI driven digital performance enablers for agents. This approach can help free up more than 40 percent of sales teams capacity, allowing them to focus on significantly improving the volume of new business.

Insurers are delivering technology-enabled services to help improve customer care and boost efficiency. Insurance leaders who are in the forefront on developing and delivering innovative business models are the ones who will reap disproportionate value in the new reality.

How does the Internet of Behavior Impact Business?

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 09:46:00 +0000

The Internet of Behavior (IoB) extends from the internet of things, it consists of multiple approaches to capture, analyze, understand, and respond to a variety of digital representations of customer behaviors. Organizations are looking to use IoB’s digital capture ability to affect or influence the behaviors of individuals or collective demographic groups.

The IoB combines multiple sources of intelligence such as commercial customer data, citizen data processed by public-sector and government agencies, social media, public domain deployments of facial recognition, and location tracking. Additional sources can include things such as temperature and other physical measurements in both private and public domains. From the analysis of data in these myriad resources, it’s possible to tag an increasingly broad array of people’s behavior as an “event.”

This gives companies, like insurance providers and banking, gets the opportunity to change their image. Pulling from the IoT, they can provide data-driven value. Optimize individual premiums based on health habits or a clean driving record. Move you towards more saving, investing, or other long-term financial goals.

Ways IoB can help your business:

Collection of Data: By having a detailed understanding of how different customers behave differently and use your products you can customize the products based on customers buying behavior and gain a competitive advantage in the market
Effective business inventory: Using IoT devices can give businesses a much clearer understanding of inventory stocks. The IoT makes it much easier to keep track of where things are, what’s been sold or used, what’s been damaged, etc. Analysis of this data can improve efficiencies, ensure stock and resources do not run out, and help keep finances in check by preventing over-ordering.

Gartner announced that the IoB will become increasingly aware of in our daily lives and work. It combines existing technologies that focus on the individual directly – facial recognition, location tracking, and big data for example – and connects the resulting data to associated behavioral events, such as cash purchases or device usage. Organizations use this data to influence human behavior.

By knowing the buying behavior of a consumer, organizations can easily cross-sell or up-sell their products to their existing customers resulting in an instant increase in revenue and customer satisfaction. However. most consumers indicate unhappiness at giving away their data as this can allow the cyber criminals access to sensitive data that reveals consumer behavior and patterns. Cyber criminals can gain this data and sell it to criminals who can hack access codes, delivery routes, etc., and result in theft or loss of property to people.

The Direction of CRM Industry Development in 2021 and Beyond

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 06:09:00 +0000

The digital age poses new challenges for businesses in the BFSI industry, especially when meeting customers’ demands. Fortunately, there are always new technological innovations around the corner to help you manage your customers and improve your relationships with them. Moreover, these tools can help you remain relevant and competitive in the market.

Through customer relationship management (CRM), you can build lasting and more profound relationships with your clients. Nowadays, it isn’t enough that you have outstanding checking accounts, lending terms, or interest rates. You must also show your customers how much you understand and value them.

With that, here are some of the latest CRM trends 2021 that you need to watch out for.

1. More demand for CRM software
As the new generations continue to flood the workforce, a new type of CRM user is on the rise. According to Statista, 59% of the global workforce is currently composed of Millennials and Gen Z. These are the ones that grew up with technology and are reliant on it. Majority of them believe that software solutions will play a critical role in managing customer relationships effectively.

With that, many experts predict that the demands for CRM solutions will continue to grow in the coming years. More and more Millennials and Gen Z have purchasing power for the latest technology. Likewise, your teams will more likely be technology centric as the younger generations continue to enter the workforce. It is high time that you choose a CRM software that matches your needs.

2. Artificial intelligence on the rise
Nowadays, artificial intelligence has become more accessible for businesses. This type of technology now powers many software solutions out there. The CRM industry included.

Through AI, automations are now smarter and more reliable than ever. Chatbots, for one, can now learn and adapt their responses to tailor fit your customers’ needs. It uses data to anticipate customers’ questions or demands to resolve issues more effectively. You can also use AI to improve your CRM’s data and analytics for more accurate forecasts, insights, and predictions. This, in turn, can help you come up with more CRM innovation ideas in the process.

3. Mobile CRM is a go
Recently, many businesses have begun implementing remote work. That’s why many businesses are considering remote work software to improve their processes and ensure they continue their operations. This requires a flexible system so that all data and resources remain accessible to everyone no matter where they are. With that said, many experts believe that 2021 will be the perfect time to explore mobile CRM.

According to Oberlo, almost 46% of the world’s population uses their smartphones to connect to the internet. This small but sophisticated device now has the power to run powerful apps such as your CRM system. Not to mention, the rise of cloud technology makes data sharing and transfer instantaneous and easier. This allows your employees to seamlessly carry over work from desktops to smartphones or tablets.

4. Social CRM gains momentum
Social media platforms are where most of your customers are at nowadays. This is where they often post their opinions, recommendations, and their impressions about brands including yours and your competitors.

According to CRM industry analysis, you can use these channels to foster relationships with your customers and attract new ones. This is called Social CRM. It integrates your CRM system with the various social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to help better understand your customers. You can also use it to:

Monitor what people are saying about your brand
Engage with current customers
Attract and maintain leads effectively

5. CRM integrates with IoT
Gadgets are getting smarter. From phones, to watches, to appliances, these things can now connect to the internet. It won’t be long for businesses across different industries to start adopting Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology into their operations. So what does this mean for the CRM industry?

According to experts, these smart devices are treasure troves of customer data and insights which CRM can take advantage of. By integrating CRM with IoT technology, you can proactively detect product performance issues and customer satisfaction. This way, you can improve customer support and personalize customer experience according to their specific needs and demands.

The future of CRM industry
Nothing is ever set on stone. New technologies are on the rise. Customers’ behaviors and attitudes are changing. And the workforce is evolving. It only follows that your CRM must adapt to the new demands and needs of the market. However, refining your strategies won’t be enough. You must make sure that your tools can also catch up to these changes.

Regardless of what industry you are in, your business relies on CRM software. It plays a critical role in ensuring that you remain competitive and relevant in the market. Likewise, it helps you build meaningful and lasting relationships with their customers. By getting ahead of these latest CRM trends, you now have an idea of what features to consider when selecting the best CRM software for your business.

Using CRM Analytics to Gain a Competitive Advantage & Increase Sales

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 09:38:00 +0000

CRM analytics comprise of the applications and programs used to analyze a company’s customer data and present it in a way that is conducive to business decision making.

It takes the process of data collection further by applying in-depth analysis of the data, extracting useful information from it and presenting it in a comprehensive manner offering cross-functional insights.

CRM analytics can offer various benefits to a company like
- segmenting the market
- understanding customer preferences
- personalizing client communication
- predicting future trends and opportunities
- making product and/or service changes based on customer needs
- discovering new or lost revenue opportunities
- monitoring customer activity and much more

The benefit of such a system is increased productivity across all business spheres, especially sales, marketing and services.

How can businesses make better decisions through CRM analytics?

Businesses are increasingly using CRM software to facilitate informed decision making. CRM analytics not only converts raw data into applicable information for decision making but also ensures that this information is easily accessible to the various functions across an organization.

The key purpose is to make data available securely whenever and wherever required so that timely decisions may be taken.

One of the key essentials of implementing CRM analytics is to integrate it with the overall business strategy. These must be used in reference to the ultimate business objective to derive the right type and amount of information for decision making.

Analytics can be the most useful when managers understand what the key business issues are. Once these are isolated, valuable information related to them can be easily retrieved and used for arriving at practical solutions. Managers are also often tied up in integrating data across various platforms as they are constantly fed information from different teams and departments.

Bringing this data together and synchronizing it is another advantage of CRM analytics. In this way, one can ensure that no crucial information is missed out on while taking critical decisions.

CRM solutions offer a dynamic platform for organizations to answer to business challenges with multi dimensional CRM analytics. Interactive software ensures that users get well acquainted with their business data while at the same time have easy and quick answers to various business queries.

Managers can get a real-time analysis of complex business problems from multiple perspectives. This helps them get a holistic understanding of the situation for improved decision making. One can get insights into the present state of the business, in terms of productivity, areas of efficiency and non-efficiency, individual team performances and more.

How Businesses can Increase Sales with Predictive Analysis

Every company wants to put their sales on full power. But the unknown attribute of fickle customer preferences often throttle it. That's when predictive analysis comes into play, by making the unknown known.

Many businesses ranging from retail to banking are using predictive analytics to increase sales and maximize their profits. As the name goes, predictive analytics involves making predictions based on concrete data, not gut feeling. So, how can you use predictive analytics to increase sales? Read on to learn more.

1. Delivering customer intelligence
Big data is useless if your business can’t leverage from it. Predictive analytics crunches the big data and turns it into smart actions. Data garnered from customer habits and interactions at touch points helps them to point their resources in the right direction.

It helps you to utilize all the information that you have about your customers effectively, allowing you to know what your customers are likely to buy, why they are motivated to buy from you, and when they are most likely to make the purchases.

2. Quickly converting prospects to sales
Predictive analytics within CRM solutions help you to predict trends and come up with marketing techniques that will help you to increase your sales. That means sales on a high speed lane instead of rough terrain.

In addition, you will learn how your customers think and be able to understand them better. This will help you to not only improve the performance of your business, but also to make informed business decisions. This means that you can use predictive analytics to turn a prospect into a loyal customer.

Once you know what your most loyal customers want and collect vital information on your prospects’ activities, easily predict the likelihood of these prospects to buy from you. Cross selling through CRM solutions has never been so easier. It is always wise to concentrate on leads that have a higher possibility of conversion.

3. Calendaring sales pros for maximum productivity
Calendar is one the most common time management function. But sadly, not commonly used for optimizing sales. It stands (often) for scheduling (boring) meetings with no tangible results. Smart calendars in CRM software helps to change that by providing detailed actionables, plans for a day.

Smart scheduling takes into consideration that planned time is not engraved in stone and automatically adjusts revised timings. This ensures that your reps utilize their time for the best.

4. Increasing cost effectiveness
Wrong leads assigned to wrong resources will only result in one outcome, failed conversions with increased overheads. A well allocated prospect will increase the chances of conversions. Pairing the right lead with the right executive will result into faster conversions with minimum costs.

Stiff competition and tough economic conditions are pushing many businesses to come up with ways that they can use their data to increase sales without straining themselves. Predictive analytics allows businesses to target customers with laser accuracy, converting shoppers into loyal customers.

Banking CRM: Bring the Power of Digital to Corporate Banking

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 12:35:00 +0000

Digital is bringing in delightful transformation in efficiency, convenience and automation in retail banking. Yet, for the average corporate banker, all this could be happening in another planet.

There was little incentive for change in corporate banking as the return of equity (RoE) of the segment was usually in double digits as compared to high single digits in retail.

Today, though, digital is critical for corporates as business and economy are drying up. Corporate bankers are on the lookout for offering differentiated services with the power of digital.

Inefficient communication leads to effective pains
Customer onboarding in corporate banking usually consists of five steps in general. Initial consultation, documentation, KYC checks, customer training and engagement. Corporate banking is often beset with poor process transparency and siloed collaboration.

The power of digital for commercial banking:

1. Instant current account opening journeys
Digital is empowering corporate bankers to deliver instant current account for businesses and practice social distancing with digital journeys, eKYC and video consultations.

A corporate customer can start the journey from any channel and select the branch closest to his business location. He then fills in contact details and authenticates via OTP. A banking CRM can then fetch the business details based on business tax id. Demographic details can then be confirmed and a brand new current account number is instantly delivered. As per regulatory norms, bankers can then complete eKYC through digital documentation with OCR capability and or complete physical KYC through biometric authentication. After fulfillment, the current account is activated.

2. Instant MSME loans
After the economic havoc brought about by COVID 19, small businesses today are in intensive care. Credit is the lifeline for small businesses. Digital can be the therapy that makes life easier for both enterprises and banks with instant digital credit.

A registered corporate customer can initiate instant loan journey from any channel. He fills in his registered contact details and Customer Reference (CRN) Number and authenticates via OTP. The customer then verifies the loan details including processing fees and submits the application. He can upload documents like request letter, tax certificates etc for faster sanctioning. Customer instantly gets the application id through which he can track the application status.

Once the application is sanctioned after following the regulatory norms, the credit amount is disbursed to the customers bank account. As an application moves towards closure, digital can bring in standardized disclosures, e-signature and customer onboarding. This reduces process variance between departments and operations and further speed up the origination process.

Impactful conclusion:
Digital can enable instant fulfillment, convenience and a delightful experience for both corporate bankers and customers. It can
1. Reducing cost per customer by 15 percent and more
2. Cutting time to onboard by 20 percent

Financial CRM: Adapting to the Next Normal

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 07:34:00 +0000

Over the past 3 months, a virus a ten-thousandth of a millimetre in diameter has upended lives, businesses and economies across the globe. Financial institutions are no different.

They are staring at near-zero interest rates and a flattened yield curve resulting in diminished net interest income. Credit losses are expected to surpass $1 trillion.

It was only twelve years ago that a great financial crisis severely damaged the reputation of the industry. Since then, over the past decade, the industry has striven to rebuild its strength and reputation. Today, world economies are at a pivotal moment, with shrinking global trade, increasing income inequality and struggling small businesses. In a twist, financial institutions are today well-positioned to serve as anchors of stability for customers, businesses, governments and societies as a whole.

Here's how they can adapt to the next normal.

1. Differentiated customer relationships
The COVID 19 crisis has accelerated changes in customer interaction into a hurricane. Today, financial institutions are under pressure with never seen before credit losses, while at the same time, serving customers who themselves are under immense financial and psychological stress. Organizations striving to be resilient will need to deliver differentiated customer relationships and drastically reduce cost structures. They are digitizing customer interactions, realigning workforce and operations to become more flexible.

At the onset of the pandemic, one of Asia's largest banks swiftly rolled out digital initiatives in record days. This included instant account opening, lending journeys, moratorium/forgiveness application journeys with automated decisions, quick access to government assistance schemes etc. The bank opened more than 100000+ accounts with eKYC, practise social distancing with video KYC and processed more than 300000+ applications during the initial days itself, thus proving to a major vector in delivering government aid and customer fulfilment.

2. Flexible business continuity with rapid innovation
Customer's today are heavily dependent on digital channels to connect with their financial institutions. Initial investments in digital capabilities are paying off big time for financial leaders and are spurring their peers to upgrade their digital offerings. The pandemic crisis is forcing financial firms to replace in-person sales, service and cross-sell approaches with digital and remote sales capabilities. Financial institutions that rapidly deploy innovations in customer engagement and reworking operations will be marvellously rewarded with customer gains and greater productivity during the next normal.

As the world was shutting down, a leading bank in Asia rapidly introduced eRM, a powerful integration between banking CRM and automated dialer,that empowered Relationship Managers to establish and maintain engagement with their customers anytime, anywhere, even from the comfort and safety of their home. They streamlined their calling processes and increased efficiency without the hardships of hardware installation or heavy IT support. As a result, despite the operations being rewired due to work from home, the bank was able to generate 1 million+ calls with 70000+ leads generated with 16000+ concurrent users in one month.

3. Remote work simplification
Change is constant. Companies that didn't believe in 'work from home' concepts are now forced to send emailers detailing the benefits of working from home. Financial institutions are facing a period where placing large employees in small spaces is no longer recommended. In a drive to be prepared for the next normal, many financial providers are reorganizing to deliver higher agility, scalability and productivity.

Financial institutions have a unique opportunity to digitize and simplify work, activity processes with automation and strong collaboration platform. They are rapidly adopting internal digital collaboration platform, often withing CRM for financial services to share information with other users through posts, links or files. Integration with external platforms like Teams or Slack ensures that users are connected to each other from the safety and comforts of their home.

4. Remodelling risk profitably
Thanks to the regulations and support provided in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, financial institutions entered the current crisis with significantly higher capital and liquidity. However, they are staring at a lifetime high credit losses, originating from corporate loans to industries that are highly impacted by lockdowns. The rapid outbreak of the crisis and the resulting financial uncertainty has left customers reeling.

The swiftness of the crisis and uncertain variance in financial impact, historical and traditional financial data models are being thrown out and financial institutions are rethinking of how to use dynamic data for remodelling risk with a more personalized approach. Financial firms are aggressively diving into their voluminous customer data to go beyond traditional indicators of creditworthiness and offer tailored financial products with personalized advice and budgeting. They are accelerating steps to use data-driven personalized offerings and engagement that are highly tailored to a unique and evolving financial situation.

Winners take a crisis as a stepping stone towards success. To renew growth, winning financial service providers will need to rapidly evolve their innovations and value propositions in response to swiftly changing customer, community needs and demands.

How to Drive Consistent Business Growth with Sales Performance Management?

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Fri, 15 May 2020 05:34:00 +0000

There is a popular saying in sales "Setting targets is the first step in turning the invisible profits into visible cash".

Spare a thought for sales teams in today's uncertain times. The new normal of social distancing and eventual pause in economic activity has caused every sales leader's target hitting strategies to hit an iceberg.

Sales teams need a powerful performance management system that proves itself in good, bad and ugly times. How can businesses catalyze their sales performance in demanding situations?

By following two robust models of planning approach, a revenue target model based on multiple parameters and a corporate account management model based on activities for increasing wallet share.

A. Target Planning Model

1. Set targets based on multiple parameters
A great sales performance management platform helps users to set targets based on roles, products, time period, channels, revenue, quantity and conversion rates etc. This helps in in-depth planning and execution of targets. These targets can be assigned at multiple hierarchies and rolled up depending on organizational policies and strategies.

2. Guided steps to achieve targets
SPM acts as a catalyst for sales users in achieving targets by auto calculating the required number of leads, campaigns, interactions and conversions on a daily basis. It helps to close the loop between marketing and sales strategies to maximize revenue. This information comes in handy for the daily work planning of a sales executive. The platform can also deliver AI-driven smart tips and next best action items to boost conversion rates.

3. Complete process tracking visibility
SPM helps you to track performance at all levels ranging from individual sales executive to teams, regions etc. depending on the organizational structure. With complete visibility of performance, timely course correction strategies can be implemented to ensure targets are achieved and there are no last-minute deviations.

B. Account Planning Model

1. Enabling intelligent planning process
Users can set revenue and activity targets based on different parameters like income, income group, organizational hierarchy, balance sheet, credit ratings, wallet share, outstanding payments etc. It enables the sales team to get actionable insights on their pipelines, leads, contacts etc, with the platform that fetches data in real-time. Activity plans can be created based on real-time, verified financial and news based corporate information available through integration with multiple third-party sources.

2. Easily configuring forecasts and review
SMP enables users to quickly forecast activities needed to achieve targets can be quickly forecasted. Account directors are always aware of their RMs’ performance in real-time and can step in if needed. This ensures timely execution of plans and focuses towards generating greater activities for maximizing value from corporate relationships.

The use of Sales performance management can help in taking out the guesswork out of sales planning and targeting. A data-driven, high impact sales and relationship strategy can be easily created along with the tools to execute and measure performance accurately.

Unlock Unlimited Sales Performance With Smarter Lead Scoring And Allocation

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 13:26:00 +0000

Business revenue grows on sales, paved from engagement and driven by leads.

Quick and strong sales growth depends on sales teams actively working on the right leads at the right time. Misidentification and misallocation of leads can be expensive for sales and marketing in terms of lost opportunities, campaign resource wastage etc.

How can marketing and sales increase qualified leads, boost sales and be more productive?

Lead scoring assigns values to actions that a prospect takes, helping teams to judge the conversion probability of a customer early on.

Sample actions of leads

For every action, numerical points ranging from 0 to 75 can be assigned.
Request demo or valid contact sales forms can be directly assigned 100 points as it indicates true intent.
Every email unsubscribed or opt-out will have -100 points.

Allocate right, profit twice with automation and AI:
Not every leads and sales reps are born equal. Matching the right lead with the right rep is critical for establishing the right connects. This is where smart automation and AI comes in.

Having a long lead pipeline is exciting. But, manually combing and allocating leads will drown you in data. Robotic Automation with AI in a unified CRM solution will quickly filter through a massive database and discover the leads that are most relevant to you. AI allows you to use a quality score to filter junk leads. It also helps in smart allocation with rules pertaining to parameters like:

Skillset
Experience (rookie to veteran, 0 to 10+ etc.)
Catchment areas etc. (Pin code, Territories, distance)
Location (GPS coordinates for the rep closest to the lead)

Along with intelligent analytics like:

Conversion rate efficiency
Conversion ratio
Responsiveness
Activity level (for instance through activity updates inside CRM, integration with LinkedIn Sales Navigator etc.)

Having the right mixture of lead scoring and allocation can increase sales conversions by 45%. Sales teams know to prioritize and target high quality leads. Marketing and sales teams visions are aligned as they both are now targeting the same group.

Future of Credit Unions: Digital-Physical or Digital-Only?

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 12:05:00 +0000

Credit unions are always on the lookout for innovative technologies that help them put the customer first in customer care.

The financial industry is moving from face-to-face interactions to digital interactions and round the clock touchpoints. With the current millennial generation hooked on digital technology, the industry is further expected to move towards digital banking solutions - with digital debit cards, biometric verification, etc.

But digital transformations will not make physical branches redundant. They still provide a unique experience that no digital solution can ever replace - the comfort of a human presence.

In such a dynamic environment, each credit union must be agile in all fronts to enhance a member’s experience. A seamless omnipresence and contextual continuity is just the bare minimum in today’s cut-throat competition.

The main issue with today’s growing digital innovations is that while the younger generation is highly inclined towards digital banking, they are certainly not seeking digital-only banking.

Less than half of respondents aged 18 to 34 said they’d actually consider moving their accounts to a digital-only option, others wouldn’t even consider switching to a digital-only institution. They may visit the physical branches less than the older folks but the process of transitioning from digital to digital-only can be quite monumental.

How can CRM in credit union revolutionize the way the customers perceive the physical bank branches?

The financial industry is not yet ready for a Digital-only solution as backed by data and customer behavior.

A perfect solution is the one that balances both the digital and the physical aspects of modern financial service in a way that ensures a greater customer experience, ease of access and human empathy on a single platform.

2020 Roadmap for Delivering Exceptional Customer Experience in Banking

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 11:38:00 +0000

According to the Economist, a global banking customer today has checking account on a mobile app, rainy day fund at another bank, 14 credit cards, five mortgages, six insurance policies and several pensions across employers. 2020 will be the milestone year where bankers will stitch the patchwork of financial products and serve the global customer in one integrated platform across products.

Building real-time alignment of customer and banking goals will involve taking the below seven concrete actions in customer experience management in banking.

1. Unify systems for best in class digital enablement Successful customer engagement in banking is similar to a marriage. It depends on two-way communication (a.k.a integration). Unfortunately, there is little to nil integration between various operational technology and strategic business components.

Quick Start: Destroy organizational and technology silos by investing in a digital platform that unites systems of things, systems of intelligence, systems of engagement, and systems of records through intelligent journey designers that empower end-to-end digital transformation in customer experience management.

2. Self-service solutions with advanced automation The best service starts and ends with the customer. In 2020, bankers will increasingly embrace machine learning, biometrics, artificial intelligence, and robotic process automation to empower customers to service themselves on the go.

Quick Start: Emotionally intelligent chatbots, voice-enabled personal assistants will break any service barriers between customers and their banks.

3. Personalized campaigns with machine learning Investing in an AI-driven intelligence platform will enable bankers to deploy self-evolving algorithms that perform real-time customer profiling, micro-segmentation, and action-based response campaigns. AI and machine learning are increasingly playing a vital part in creating the perfect messaging content that has the highest conversion probability. 2020 will be the year where bankers will completely eliminate the “one size fits all” approach to campaigns.

Quick Start: A large North American insurer was disappointed in digital campaigns executed over emails, SMS and social as it was delivering the expected boost in customer acquisition numbers. The company was bogged down by fragmented customer segments and legacy systems. To overcome the challenges, they integrated their marketing module, particularly campaign execution with the intelligence-driven machine learning platform.

It's self-evolving decision tree algorithms could perform real-time customer profiling, micro-segmentation, and real-time multi-channel campaign delivery. The result was a 35% improvement in lead conversion rates and a 50% increase in campaign click rates.

4. True customer understanding with deep IoT integration Bankers can achieve true customer intimacy by becoming one through deeper IoT integration. Banks can automate financial advisory services through intelligent investor analytical engines. Bankers will also be in tune with emerging customer preferences in relation to macro trends like climate change, environmental protection, etc.

Quick Start: Advanced IoT linked products like Google Glass, smartwatches, etc. can deliver personalized customer recommendations, coupons and financing offers at the right moment.

5. Branch banking of the future 2020 will see increasing evolution of bank branches from flagship information, advisory and engagement hubs (offering education, financial advice, full-service capabilities, and community offerings) to smart kiosks (offering service, sales, cash, and video contact) at a customer's fingertips.

Bankers will rapidly enhance their footprints by efficiently reducing branch size and costs while at the same time, introducing newer models of digital channels. Digital will encompass human touch as branch officers and customers are on one platform, with one look and feel.

6. Make every product profitable on a standalone basis with reduced costs As the pain and costs of switching banks get lower, competition for customers will intensify across segments. Every traditional bank will strive to become a low-cost producer by offering high-value services by eliminating massive legacy costs and adopting one digital platform for all their needs.

7. Double your sales force productivity with performance accelerators Even with the dominance of digital, customers will need the services of a physical sales force. For instance, High Networth Individuals (HNIs) will need access to experienced RMs for highly complex products. Unfortunately, RMs average only three customer meetings per day against the industry best practice of six.

Bankers will take advantage of sales performance effectiveness accelerator models that combine intelligent planning, real-time tracking along with guided achievements. Intelligent algorithms on modelers take into account past performance, current run rate and create actionable strategies with course corrections to achieve targets. This will free up RMs for more engagement activities.

Ultimately, the winners in 2020 banking will be the one that manages customer experience journeys rigorously, anticipating and removing barriers with greater efficiency, heightened productivity through leaner end to end processes.

Banking CRM: Why Digital is Critical for Relationship Managers

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 11:45:00 +0000

Relationship Managers (RMs) are a restless bunch.

They are always on the lookout for ways to get closer to a customer's hearts and wallets.

How can digital banking CRM become the perfect conduit for building a profitable, personalized and exciting engagement?

1. Holistic customer 360 degree action center
Fragmentation of customer data across multiple systems increases screen hopping. When a sales rep have a discussion with a prospect, it is important to have a detailed view of the transactional history, previous purchases, engagement with the recent promotional campaigns etc.

Best in class CRM for banks creates a unified customer view by collating and analyzing data from multiple systems through seamless integrations. Real time display of product holdings,trade finance, activities and account intelligence empowers relationship managers from a single window.

2. Proactive account management with performance modelers
Relationship Managers can access real time pipelines and stake holders can actively plan engagement enhancing activities. They can identify high value accounts so that they can be given higher priority.

Smart performance management tools inside CRM for banking can help stakeholders plan targets and intelligently calculate the number activities needed to achieve the targets. With the help of effective performance management, business teams can set budgeted planning and tracking with current account holders.

3. Account onboarding
With the help of CRM in banking, RMs can implement end to end onboarding for customers with integrated processes on a unified platform. Automated eKYC processes will ensure strict compliance with FATCA, AML and other requirements.

Pattern based integrations will eliminate multi window hopping through multiple systems including DWH, backoffice and core banking systems. Quick action buttons on a single screen can deliver quick turnaround for service requests.

4. Marketing 360 degree
A smart CRM solution with inbuilt campaign designer can automate and execute multi channel, multi wave campaigns with tight budget and expense controls. Relationship Managers (RMs) can track multiple parameters like leads generated, cost per lead, campaign ROI etc.

RMs can target dynamic or static lists based on requirements. The right promotional offers can be delivered to the right audience through intelligent cross sell modelers.

5. Personalized cross selling
Based on account intelligence analyzed in algorithmic modelers, RMs can deliver personalized offers across channel. Real time alerts from various systems integrated to provide event based triggering such as large deposits, channel usage, etc lays the foundation for building a profitable relationship.

Sales forecasting can only be done by the existing sales team once you are well aware about your current customer portfolio, new client prospects through multiple touch points. Intelligent data analytics provides useful insights for running targeted mail campaigns & other sales related activities.

5 Revolutionary Digital Transformations in Financial Services

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Fri, 13 Dec 2019 06:26:00 +0000

Transformation drives finance.

Business strategies are driven by significant investments in digital technologies for higher customer engagement & seamless digital experience. Traditional banking is being replaced by paperless documentation, straight through processing, digital chatbots etc. for instant gratification with CRM for banks.

As technology continues to advance and evolve, the financial services vertical becomes further tethered to ever evolving technological advancement through artificial intelligence & process automation. It’s becoming harder to live with them alone, but impossible to live without them. That’s where CRMNEXT comes in.

CRMNEXT helps organisations re-imagine their relationship with customers through effective CRM software, building a future powered by intelligent AI driven, “One & done” processes with an autonomous approach.

5 Winning Practices for Banks With Banking CRM

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 09:56:00 +0000

The ultimate tribute to the banking industry is that if it sneezes the global economy could catch flu.

It is, thus, all the more important for banks to develop winning practices that enable them to the growth leader of the global economy.

What can bankers do to achieve superior margins, cost efficiency and superior asset quality through CRM in banking?

1. Superior digital customer engagement powered with AI-
CRM in banking delivers a holistic customer 360 degree view that tracks customer transactions, purchase patterns, current cases etc in a single window. Quick action links with straight through processing can enable relationship managers to deliver instant gratification to customers for routine queries and request. AI with machine learning applied on customer data can give guided next best actions that deliver improved customer service and engagement.

2. Pricing excellence backed by analytics-
With a banking CRM, bankers can identify and capitalize better, effective pricing opportunities for their financial products. They can leverage advanced analytics on customer profile and competition intelligence on a drilled down, granular level. Effective pricing can prevent revenue and customer leakage.

3. Tighter risk management-
How banks control risk can be a great differentiator between winning and failure. Accurate risk assessment can help banks make the right decisions quickly. They can also streamline processes with faster turnaround times and also handle large volumes. Tighter risk control will help banks with better asset quality and capture more customers with higher credit quality.

4. Best in class customer segmentation-
A banking CRM, with its powerful analytics will allow banks to have customer centric segmentation with personalized value propositions across products, service and channels. Such targeted segmentation can empower bankers to embrace agile practices and eliminate silos. They can also quickly reconfigure marketing campaigns without compromising on convenience, value and speed.

5. Higher performance management-
Winning banks have a very high revenue to cost ratios, thanks to a very productive sales workforce. Effective performance management modelers in CRM for banks can act as a catalyst to the overall sales process. Such modelers helps in keeping a track of the previous set targets vs achieved numbers for further sales forecasting.

Banking CRM provides a real time report tracking in order to have performance review by analyzing the implemented sales strategies with their outcomes, improvements if required resulting in exceeding the set targets.

Analytical driven strategic CRM in banking implementation can thus prove to be an important differentiator for winning banks.

CRMNEXT, CRM for banks software, provides seamless omnichannel experience irrespective of multiple touch points. CRMNEXT, rides with much higher profits from the waves of digital disruption with the largest CRM in banking implementation in the world. It provides process automation by reducing manual deviations resulting in profit maximization.

Enabling Continuous Transformation of Customer Experience with AI driven Banking CRM

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 11:54:00 +0000

Buckle up, Bankers!

Artificial intelligence is delivering a thrilling customer experience across channels.

It is helping banks to know customers better than themselves and offer personalized, instant and convenient financial fulfillment.

Here's how you can use 'continuous intelligence’ to develop ‘continuous understanding’ of customers and create impactful customer experience in real time.

1. Design led digital journeys
'Experience' is the new digital currency. Customers are trading their hearts and wallets for convenience, personalized and contextualized engagment. Bankers can deliver that and more with intelligent drag and drop visual designers that create and weave together delightful digital journeys. Designing context responsive experience journeys builds long term trust, loyalty and stickiness.

2. Proactive listening to the Voice of the Customer
An intelligent banking CRM platform will help bankers to identify customer sentiments and perceptions in real time. Collecting, combining and intrepreting direct and indirect feedback can help them turn customer intelligence into alerts, reports, customized dashboards and business-rule-based actions. A unified banking CRM platform with smart alerts can deliver this information to the right teams at the right time. The 'Voice of the Customer' can also be a beacon for driving investments in continous customer experience.

3. Cross selling with personalized offerings
Real time visibility of customer journeys allows bankers to instantly know when prospects have dropped their digital purchase journeys. They can then offer contextual, personalized offers, powered by intelligent algorithms, enticing them to complete the buying journeys. Personalized cross selling is a great conversion and stickiness booster. AI driven machine learning can comb through copious amounts of customer data and provide granular habit intelligence.

4. Omnichannel continuity
The three keywords for exceeding customer expectations are choice, context and continuity. This pertains to the ability of the customer to service/buy anywhere, anytime (choice), saving current journey state (context) and completing it on any device (continuity). Bi-directional integrations and single fabric UI will allow bakers and customers to view the same data and bring them both on the same wavelength. This matches customer expectations and experience.

5. Real time, AI driven assistance
Banks can provide real-time assistance to customers by incorporating chat-bots in their digital banking systems. These conversational virtual assistants can provide customer service service at the moment they need it. They can understand customer context and solve queries of customers quickly and are very intuitive with well-timed pop-ups. This will eliminate miserable wait in lines or holds before they get help from bank staff.

Augmented Intelligence can be used very smartly for uplifting of digital banking experience. Faster customer insights can be generated at real-time which will help in marketing the bank’s products accordingly and also customizing experience as per need. This is aimed at developing continuous customer understanding so that customer experience can get better all the time

CRM in Financial Services: 5 Ways to Deliver Next Generation Customer Service

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 09:03:00 +0000

Banking and financial service leaders are mixing finance with technology in the hope of solving the world's toughest Rubik's Cube, the customer.

Forget generic products, offers and loyalty programs, the key to a customer’s heart and wallet is by delivering friction-less, delightful and personalized customer service through financial services CRM.

Here are the five effective ways to deliver scalable, delightful customer care through CRM in financial services and banking-

1. AI driven chatbots-
Customers today have their banks and financial providers in their pockets. So it is imperative for financial services to be where their customers are. Chatbots that are powered by AI and machine learning enables contextual, conversational banking. It is also increasingly used as a medium for deliver instant gratification through pre-defined rules.

Advanced chatbots helps in deeper understanding customer journeys that can be a base for personalized service in the form of text or voice based which can further be integrated in the system through CRM for financial services.

2. Convenient self service portals-
Digital self service portals empowered by financial services CRM help customers to take control of their profile and engage with their business through a powerful and visual interface. A powerful self service portal helps them to view all their product holdings in a single view, automates simple repetitive queries and instantly fulfill their routine needs through straight through processing.

CRM in financial services can use self-service portal to display relevant and personalized cross sell offers, thus boosting conversions. Customers can also track real time status of their service requests through their self service portals.

3. Single service window-
Playing football with customer service request, due to siloed intelligence, is morale and goodwill sapping. CRM for financial services can consolidate multiple request types across product holding into fewer, faster processes.

A single service window will also enable pro-active escalation management, reducing the turnaround time, resulting in notable improvement in SLA compliance.

4. Seamless service delivery through Customer 360 action center-
Bankers and financial users can use a comprehensive customer 360 degree view that includes real time transactional, analytical and static data on product holdings, account details etc. Integrations with multiple sources gives a rich and actionable customer intelligence.

Seamless service delivery is made possible with quick action links powered by straight through processing and executed through digital journeys with financial services CRM. This delivers instant fulfillment in service request and eliminates reworks and errors.

5. Boost first time right (FTR) resolutions
A digital CRM in financial services ensures that customers can now have their issues accurately and quickly addressed at the first connect itself thus increasing delight. Service teams can deliver to deliver single touch resolutions with the help of drag and drop visual designers.

This translates into increased customer delight and advocacy. Auto allocation of service requests to the right reps based on business rules and seamless integration with document management system (DMS) guides agents with the right service collateral for higher FTR numbers.

As customers are the real business owners, it is of prime importance to deliver instant solutions with a unified platform to the customers through digital customer service support with reduced operational expense. Also, a positive customer experience helps in building a sense of trust & loyalty adding an overall value proposition.

CRMNEXT, a unified digital CRM for financial services platform, empowered with digital technology, helps in meeting customer demands in a superior, faster & personalized manner with an enlightened customer experience.

3 Ways Customer Intelligence Can Drive Sales Through CRM

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 11:10:00 +0000

In the past, any increase in the sales of traditional banking were more or less attributed to its soothsaying abilities rather than strong understanding of customer data within.

Customer’s digital engagement has been increased exponentially through multiple touch points including tabs, mobile desktops & laptop devices along with engagement through social channels with effective CRM in banking software. Such sources create immense amount of valuable customer insights which needs to be captured, analyzed & delivered.

The advent of digital is delivering enhanced business opportunities with in-depth customer intelligence.

The three key ways through which customer intelligence drives sales with CRM for banks are listed below-

1. Actionable customer 360 view-
A unified banking CRM platform provides a single truth of the customer by meshing together information from multiple systems on a single window. It configures & develops one single view of customer data like contacts, activities, service requests followed by relevant attachments eliminating siloed data flow and departmental bottlenecks.

Complete interaction history in CRM for banks helps users with better service & query resolution. Bankers can use the 360 view to segment customers for richer loyalty campaigns.

2. Identify customer patterns-
With the help of machine learning and artificial intelligence through banking CRM, bankers can combine customer information distributed across multiple systems to identify patterns from customer purchase history, current financial transactions, online behavior etc.

These patterns can help understand brand loyalty that can be analyzed through an individual’s buying pattern based on demographics, financial product holdings and user response. These patterns can also help with frequency analysis that generates personalized cross sell offers that significantly boost business revenues through CRM in banking.

3. Smart marketing campaigns-
Bankers can design and execute smart campaigns through campaign designers with CRM in banking that delivers a targeted reach with personalized messaging. With response based triggers, CRM can instantly capture responses and suggest or automate the next best action. Targeted multi regional and multi wave campaigns can drive large qualified leads to conversions.

Micro segmentation of customer data followed with advance analytics can be done with banking CRM which helps in scoring customer loyalty. Inactive customers can be identified & can be reached out with attractive offers through campaign analysis. For example, a bank can identify its customers who have huge credit card spends and offer them higher loyalty points on each swipe.

CRM for banks provide solutions that can empower workforce to get actionable customer insights through integration with varied touch points & omnichannel sources.

CRMNEXT, a unified banking CRM software, provides a holistic customer 360 degree action center that enables to prioritize tasks, leads, opportunities, cases etc. with smart actions, supporting information, interaction history and collaboration solution.

Insurance CRM: Digitizing Workforce for Delivering Delightful Customer Experience

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 09:53:00 +0000

A lot rest on the shoulders of insurers as they protect a customer's future.

In today's age of digital disruption, insurers are looking to create simple, affordable policies that are relevant at every stage of a customer’s life. Their goals include increasing market penetration, enhancing lead conversion ratio, boosting workforce productivity etc.

How can insurers simplify insurance through digital, with the ultimate objective of delivering delightful customer service?

1. Automating business acquisition
By automating lead generation and management, insurers can set up intelligent processes that capture lead data and other information of prospects from multiple channels. Seamless integrations can capture information from multiple systems, document management system (DMS), analytics etc. Digital on boarding, free look up processes can be designed, customized through visual journey designers.

2. Actionable customer 360 degree
Insurers can get a holistic customer 360 intelligence that captures profile, previous engagement, pending cases, current status etc. Straight through processes (STPs) can lessen huge multiple request types to a few faster workflows that significantly reduces turnaround time and increases customer satisfaction.

3. Automating policy renewals
Renewals are the lifeline of an insurance business. An insurance CRM platform empowers insurance firms to auto generate renewal base and execute rule based renewal allocation. Different allocation rules can be applied to ageing buckets. This will allow insurance salesperson to keep real time update on payment status and calling buckets with monitoring of allocated vs. called vs. paid. Insurance CRM will send automated reminder emails to customers for policy renewals.

4. Smart Policy Servicing
Insurance policies ,for customers, can be harder to understand than the late Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time”. Insurance CRM platform makes policy servicing faster by providing insurance executives a unified insurance policy view on a single screen anywhere and on any device. This holistic intelligence is generated through mashups based on on-demand fetches. Insurance firm staff can quickly create policy processes for demographics, transactions, interaction, payments etc.

5. Faster Customer Servicing
Insurance CRM enables insurers to deliver faster customer service through straight through processing work flows, that can boost First Call Resolution (FCR) rate. Guided form filing through auto population and the availability of more than 300 different communication templates ensures that insurance firm executives or customers need minimum data entry. CRM for insurance can take care of end to end dispatch tracking as well.

To conclude:
CRM platform will help insurance firms to bring uniformity in customer experience across touch points like call centers, branches, and self-service portal services. With insurance CRM, insurance firms will be able to establish consistent communication with customers and your sales team and customer support team will work in sync. They will be able to keep track of customer complaints and queries at real-time. A CRM platform tailor-made for insurance can bring down the time insurance salespersons spend on unproductive work by 80%.

This will allow them to focus on increasing engagement activities and delivering delightful customer experience.

5 Benefits of CRM for Corporate Banking

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 09:01:00 +0000

The past few years have been the most morale sapping for corporate banking.
Slowing global economy, low industrial output, increasingly strict regulations and growing Non Performing Assets (NPAs) have made life miserable for banks. They need to develop a relationship centric strategy that puts emphasis on customer relationship management (CRM) as a solution which can be achieved through banking CRM.

Commercial banking needs to keep into consideration not only aspects related to product selling but also having a deep customer centric approach. In such scenario, banking CRM provides a competitive edge to the business for seamlessly handling existing clients, while at the same time, increasing new revenue opportunities.

Listed below are five key benefits of CRM in banking for corporates:

1. Smart Account 360 degree-
Banks can acquire corporate accounts quickly through digital journeys that captures account requirement, documentation, transaction histories, limit utilization and so on. Seamless integrations with multiple external sites can deliver verified corporate information. This intelligence can be used to build a richer corporate account profile that cements a long term, profitable business relationships through CRM for banks software.

2. Intelligent Account Planning-
Relationship managers can track key account metrics to gauge the real time status of an account. RMs can use performance modelers through CRM in banking to plan more account engagement activities that translate to more business opportunities. With a CRM in Banking, bankers can get real time account data and account activity updates for more personalized servicing and cross sell opportunities.

3. Actionable reports and dashboards-
Through CRM for banks, customizable dashboards and drilled down reports give bankers a hawk eye view of an account health and trends. This fine grained intelligence on transaction and interaction can power accurate credit analysis and product customization.

4. Streamlined cross channel processes-
Account follow-ups, yearly renewals, limit enhancement interactions can be automated with real time AI driven nudges and automated reminders. Role based data visibility will ensure account integrity. Real time data also makes proactive decisions possible. Siloed systems are eliminated through integrations and mashups on a unifying CRM for banks solution.

5. Deeper account loyalty-
Bankers can offer customized attention to bankers with the help of holistic intelligence captured through CRM in banking platform. With the added benefit of convenience, personalized engagement and mobility, bankers now have a strong foundation to build deeper account loyalty.

Being in a dynamic yet competitive scenario, corporate banking needs to be in sync with the technology innovation, efficient risk modelling systems & service excellence. Adapting CRMNEXT’s banking CRM will provide an extra edge to the existing competition in order to achieve customer delight with set targets.

CRMNEXT, a tool for CRM for banks, is used by over 1 Million users who manage more than 1 Billion customers across 30+ countries in Asia, Europe, North America, Middle East and Africa. Our customers include several of the largest and fastest growing brands in the world who rely on our platform for all their sales, on-boarding, servicing and cross sell needs.

Financial CRM: 5 Key Impacts of AI in Financial Services

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 09:24:00 +0000

Barely a day passes by without Artificial Intelligence (AI) being hailed as the second coming of financial innovation.

From instant fulfillment to block chains, AI is causing financial services to experience a ‘big bang’ with data science and machine learning.

Large amount of automated processes and other applications are attributed to the integration of AI in banking system through banking CRM software’s and mobile banking apps.

The 5 key areas where financial institutions can best implement AI through financial services CRM to improve customer engagement and retention are as follows:

1. AI driven chatbots -
Financial services are empowering customers with their own virtual personal assistants through intelligent AI driven chatbots. Customers can begin the account opening or service journeys through intuitive interactions with chatbots which can be traced through CRM in financial services. Often, AI empowered chatbots are becoming personal financial advisors to customers with on demand human assistance as needed.

For example, SBI Intelligent Assistant (SIA), developed by SBI is a smart chatbot that efficiently resolves NRI customer queries, similar to that of a bank representative. Similarly, HDFC has smart chatbot named EVA (Electronic Virtual Assistant).

2. Predictive Analysis -
With mountains of customer data available, financial firms today know customers better than themselves. This is made possible through CRM with machine learning applied on data patterns inferred from a holistic customer 360 intelligence. With predictive analysis applied on a customer’s transactional and interaction history, financial providers can deliver personalized messaging and offers at the customers preferred touchpoints through CRM for financial services. Thus predictive analysis, peppered with AI, can help with higher campaign response rates.

For example, AI assisted nudges, based on predictive analysis of customer portfolio can help customers opt for leveraged funds rather than plain personal loans.

3. Process focused automation -
Intelligent process automation can reduce time consuming administrative tasks manifold resulting in major focus on customer acquisition & retention which can be achieved through CRM for financial services.

AI process automation helps in simplifying processes & enabling them to be encoded in the system resulting in higher accuracy, keeping a close eye on high risk involved transactions through risk rating platforms with lesser turnaround time through financial services CRM.

4. Intelligent product customization and cross selling -
Cross selling is the bread and butter for financial services. Efficient cross selling will help financial providers extract maximum value for a customer's lifecycle through assistance of CRM in financial services. AI delivers fine grained information customer transactions and interactions that can be employed for credit analysis, product customization and intelligent cross selling.

Forecasting customer habits by micro segmentation of the entire customer database through CRM helps in boosting cross sales of similar products which have already been acquired based on their previously made investments or personal holdings.

5. Anti-money laundering & fraud detection -
Intelligent data aggregation with risk rating platforms helps in generating high alerts on suspicious transactions which can are done either through cross borders or continual financial rule alterations through financial services CRM. Financial firms can rely more on AI driven statistical models to identify authenticity of series of transactions. As a result, the financial advisors can then focus more on high risk rated cases with lesser manual work involved in detecting fraudulent transactions through CRM for financial services.

By marrying the efficient competencies in the field of data science, big data and machine learning, AI is bringing large financial providers and fin-tech on an equal footing. With greater commitment from stakeholders, AI offers first mover advantage to all the existing banks & financial service providers.

About CRMNEXT:
CRMMEXT, a financial services CRM software, has a proficiency in creating customer journeys with focus on the delivery of high quality CRM implementations. CRMNEXT is extremely flexible with the ability to be customized for multiple verticals including banking, finance & insurance.

Financial CRM: 5 Steps to convert social into success with CRM

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 07:00:00 +0000

A recent poll found that financial firms lose approximately 45% of their customers due to lengthy response times and delay in providing even reasonable customer service.

This is proving suicidal for financial providers in an age where customers demand instant fulfillment and convenience over legacy.

Social CRM on a unified platform can empower banks to create more qualified leads that converts to happy customers. It also serves as a launch pad for analyzing responses to new customer initiatives and accordingly, modifying campaign strategies.

However, social CRM has its specific set of challenges as listed below:

1.Most of the large banks generate maximum profits through corporate banking and there is a general opinion in the financial industry that social media is more for the individuals than for corporations and hence, not considered as valuable option for boosting revenue.

In response, banks can chose to run corporate banking specific campaigns that highlight value added offerings to large accounts.

2.Global banks face various regulations that restrict them in actually integrating any type of social media with their CRM system in some countries. For instance, with respect to GDPR etc. Financial institutions are also restricted from engagement online due to privacy concerns of their customers. Due to all these regulations, some banks are reluctant to use any kind of social media as part of their communications strategy.

Automated regulatory management can greatly simplify compliance.
3.Another challenge is failure to identify and justify how social media efforts result in increasing ROI is also one of the reasons why banks have not yet given serious thought to social media. Around 80% of CMOs say they have not been able to prove the business value of social media use in numbers, because they haven't been able to figure out the correct metrics to measure the success of social CRM in banks.

A social CRM can help identify key metrics important to the banks in terms of campaign ROI, CPCs, CPIs and help track the cost of sales, service etc.

The key steps of using social CRM for success is as follows:

1. Deliver instant fulfillment via social media
The best customer service is delivered to where they are. Using social media as an effective customer service platform, bankers can combine the power of digital automation to deliver complaint resolutions directly to customers fingertips. Using support models like 'follow the sun' will help bankers to cut down response times from hours to minutes.

2. Employ real time engagement
Bankers should get involved with social conversations relevant to the customer's financial needs. A social CRM can convert conversations into cases that speeds up solutions to customer needs. Real time engagement is also beneficial for greating strong traction while launching new market products. Customers can tune in and ask queries, place applications etc in real time.

3. Identify and reward brand advocates
The success of a bank depends on its ability to retain customers. Brand advocates are customer multipliers. They help banks to generate valuable goodwill that retains existing customers and attract new ones. They also help to drastically lower cost of sales and service. A social CRM will help capture positive sentiment while monitoring customized social feeds. Creating and executing relevant loyalty program campaigns through cross sell models using advocates will boost engagement rates, increasing retention and conversions.

4. Be where the customers are
Customers love to check out their favorite hangouts. Banks can capture this behavioral data with a social CRM. Such intelligence will help bring the banks offer the right solutions at the right time. Thus bringing them closer to hearts and minds of the customers.

To conclude
Digital savvy customers are a key target market for banks and financial institutions. They do transactions on mobile or tablets, shares customer reviews on the Internet. Mobiles have made instant fulfillment a habit for these customers. Lack of focus will be suicidal for banking and financial services. A social CRM will thus help banks and financial services to convert social to success with the above four strategies.

CRM in Banking: 5 Effective Ways to Drive and Boost Customer Retention

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 04:16:00 +0000

Customer’s infatuation with instant fulfillment and availability of financial choices have threatened to add to traditional banking’s towering challenges pyre.

Customer retention and growth have become more critical to bankers as there is a shift towards customer centric business models. They are constantly on the hunt for proven strategies to develop engagement activities to boost retention and increased lifetime value.

Here are five proven and effective ways to drive and boost customer retention through CRM for banks:

1. Acting on holistic 360 degree customer intelligence
A banking CRM can provide a complete customer 360 profile overview in a single screen. Eliminating the need for multi window hopping, manual entries etc. The profile data can give actionable insights into a customer’s current preferences, buying patterns, previous transaction and interaction history etc.

This empowers bankers to deliver the most relevant product information through CRM in banking with personalized flavour on the preferred touchpoint or channel. Thus, boosting conversion rates.

2. Personalized offers & loyalty rewards
Customers are spoiled for choice today. It is important to have a delightful yet tailor made customer loyalty program to have happy customers which can be achieved through banking CRM. You have to match offers with needs. With the combination of big data, behavioral analytics and frequency scoring, your business can now offer cross sell modelers that meet empower your business to meet customer expectations.

3. Boosting relationship enhancing activities
Bankers need a catalyst to boost their customer engagements. Using the aid of AI driven contextual sales guidance, Performance modelers help sales professionals to not only plan strategies, but also smartly execute them to exceed their targets. CRM in banking involve increasing meetings, follow up calls, conducting webinars etc.

Old customers are cheaper and far more cost effective than new ones. They also deliver the maximum life cycle value. It is thus imperative to boost customer engagement activities.

4. Enabling customer self service
Customer self-service is a balancing act between both the interactions, may it be a personal touch through executive interaction or self-service resources. Customer expectations & their preferred channels of communication are rapidly changing with the emerging technologies.

Real time interactions are important for instant results. Chatbots assists customers to get spontaneous replies to their queries based on inbuilt algorithms using AI & analytics. Well deployed customer self-service through banking CRM helps in reducing the service cost which further results in revenue growth opportunities.

Finding the right combination of process, people & technologies enhance the cross channel customer experiences resulting in higher retention rate through CRM in banking technique.

5. Assessing performance through regular feedback
Feedback, either positive or negative, is important to improve the existing processes to be more effective. The best way out is to get it straight from your existing customers. CRM for banks help in reviewing the feedback on one single dashboard which further helps in focusing on the weaker segments in terms of service or product. CRM in banking software resolves customer issues at the priority through regular feedback mechanism restricts them to switch to any other competitor.

Customer retention, is therefore, a culmination of seamless digital customer journeys and adaptable strategies on a unified CRM platform. CRM for banks helps in providing a well-equipped platform for understanding its customer’s life cycle from inception to product buying, omnichannel communication & related feedback resulting in effortless customer retention

5 Ways to Accelerate Your Sales with Banking CRM

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Wed, 15 May 2019 07:02:00 +0000

Sales numbers do not talk in the annual results of a Bank. It screams.

That’s why banks are increasingly embracing digital technologies that deploy customer centric journeys for delivering instant fulfillment.

Your bank can significantly boost conversions and leapfrog competition with CRM in banking.

The five steps that boost sales:

1) Enable digital buying journeys
Mckinsey, one of the world's leading business consultancies, states that a customer journey spans a progression of touch points. To improve customer experience, banks should move from touch points to journeys.

Bankers can use visual journey designers that codelessly design, create and deliver digital buying and process journeys that are simpler, faster. A banking CRM can thus empower customers with omni-channel sales and support engagement.

2) AI driven lead management
Not every leads and sales reps are born equal. Matching the right lead with the right rep is critical for establishing the right connects. This is where smart automation and AI comes in. Having a long lead pipeline is exciting. But, manually combining and allocating leads will drown any sales pro in data.

Robotic Automation with AI in a unified banking CRM will quickly filter through a massive database and discover the most relevant sales. It also helps to build a single lead profile that captures position, location, industry, company size etc. AI allows bankers to use a quality score to filter junk leads. It also helps in smart allocation with rules pertaining to parameters like; skill set, experience (rookie to veteran, 0 to 10+ etc.), catchment areas etc. (Pin code, Territories, distance), location (GPS coordinates for the rep closest to the lead). Intelligent analytics also comes into play, for instance, conversion rate efficiency, conversion ratio, responsiveness, activity level (for instance through activity updates inside CRM, integration with LinkedIn Sales Navigator etc.)

3. A 360-degree Sales Action Center
Sales leaders are always on the lookout for that magic ingredient to boost their team productivity. A banking CRM displays holistic lead/opportunity intelligence through integrations and web mashups. The platform fetches data in real time through multiple channels to enable sales team to get actionable insights on their pipelines, leads, contacts etc. Mobility is enhanced through intuitive navigation and data entry screens thus boosting field force productivity.

The platform also eliminates weaving through multiple sources through seamless integrations, thus saving time, costs and efforts. Greater prospect intelligence will empower sales reps to increase their high conversion probability engagement activities. Relationship Managers (RMs) also get real time notifications and alerts of milestones and set up quick follow up meetings.

4. Powerful performance management
Sales teams need a catalyst to rev up engagement activities. That means coming out of the traditional box of target planning. Today's performance management platform inside a banking CRM can track a sales rep previous achievements, compute targets and forecasts. The intelligent catalyst performance modeler goes further and suggests nudge based guided actions to help sales pros achieve and exceed targets. Both sales team members and leaders can review performance in real time and modify sales strategies, if needed.

5. Boost cross sell and up sell ratios
Cross selling and up selling allow banks to grow briskly regardless of their size. A holistic customer 360 degree view with complete product holding intelligence gives executives advance intimation of customer wants and needs.

Bankers, with the help of cross sell modelers in banking CRM, can display relevant product offers that matches with a customer's needs. Intelligent automation designers in CRM in banking combine customer behavioral analytics, big data, frequency scoring, thus, transforming the art of cross selling into science.

A banking CRM driven by AI will help you target the right audience, build profitable relationships, and more importantly, accelerate sales while reducing costs.

How Can Banks Smartly Retain Customers with a Unified Banking CRM?

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Thu, 09 May 2019 07:14:00 +0000

To say that bankers are passionate about customers is like saying Brazilians have a passing interest in football.

Customers are a hotly contested asset in the fiercely competitive banking landscape. In their quest for ‘new’ ones, bankers often forget about the loyal ‘old’. They need to act boldly for retaining the valuable ones that actually deliver the maximum returns over a customer’s life cycle.

How you can empower your workforce to align a delightful experience with customer needs? By providing an omni-channel engagement that keeps track of digital movements.

Key elements of a unified banking CRM:

1. Frictionless omni-channel experience
Customers value convenience and simplicity. Multi-channel digital customer journeys backed by automated decision processes deliver instant fulfillment. Code-less bi-directional integration inside CRM for banks unifies multiple systems and enables bank staff and customers to view data and continue the same process anytime, from anywhere, and across various devices. A unified platform not only enhances customer experience but also brings down the costs.

2. 360 degree customer action center with actionable intelligence
A holistic 360 degree customer view will give a real time view of customer profile, interaction and transaction history, live case statuses, preferences, purchase behavior and so on. Combine this with intelligent analytics for that can guide agents with next best actions. These will enable bankers to provide relevant offers with instant fulfillment.

3. Relevant product recommendations for customers
CRM for banks combines the power of big data, behavioral analytics, frequency scoring and personalization. Built in cross sell modelers will allow bankers to offer relevant offers based on behavioral insights and white-space predictive analysis (the same process used by Amazon). This significantly boosts conversions and margins.

Banking CRM software transforms cross selling into a proactive process and a precise science.

For instance, 2019 is soon to become the hottest year on record and John is facing a huge power bill at the end of the month, where cash is at a shortage. His bank, based on his previous credit record, transactional history and interaction, offers a customized credit offering with easy repayment schedule.

4. Customer segmentation and AI driven targeted campaigns
Powerful marketing campaigns inside CRM in banking allow users to create simple workflows that will automatically add records in response to customer actions, such as opening emails, clicking links for various personalized offers sent to them. Static target lists can be create with customized criteria from existing customer records.

Generate, score and segment your customers with predictive analytics and customizable templates to look after individual taste of every customer.
Based on these lists with data about customer behavior, history, insights, targeted campaigns are run through CRM for banks.

5. Real Time Assistance
Banks need to keep up with the pace of rising digital purchases. A banking CRM with digital customer journeys can intuitively encourage prospects to complete their purchase journeys with insights gained from behavioral data.

Real time collaboration across teams and rich customer insights from any device will allow bank staff to reduce the execution time and use freed up time for deeper customer engagements.

To conclude:
A banking CRM will empower banks to provide personalized customer engagements and will nurture customers by helping them in their decision making processes and journeys. With its intelligence on preferences and intents, it will display personal offers across devices and channels to customers that will prolong relationships and will open up new revenue opportunities.

Amplify Your Marketing with Powerful Omnichannel Campaigns

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Mon, 22 Apr 2019 11:16:00 +0000

Gone are the days when the marketers used to bombard prospects with product information and then make a guesswork of potential customers reached and leads warmed for follow-ups.

The million dollar question that marketers are asking themselves is: “Are we getting good enough returns for all our investments?”

The beauty of technology-and-data-driven marketing is the ability to optimally plan your marketing efforts, eliminate effort duplicity and reduce budget overheads. Real time dashboards in a marketing CRM helps you to analyse how your marketing efforts are shaping your business and adding to your margins.

Marketing activities backed by data analytics are a game changer in an increasingly competitive landscape. Customers today expect the involvement of automation and artificial intelligence at every step of their engagement journey. For them, automation doesn’t stop just at some programmed algorithms.
Powerful CRM for marketing platforms with campaign designers can handle the huge customer or target databases seamlessly and multiple campaigns simultaneously and take the automation to next level.

For example, you are participating in a global product launch event and you want to target multi regional audiences. How are you going to seamlessly set multiple campaigns across regions and languages?

Through an omnichannel Marketing CRM that has an intelligent campaign designer.

How can a CRM create better marketing campaigns ?

1. By creating a segmented target lists
Sales is powered by leads and service is powered by solutions. Marketing, on the other hand, is powered by customer segmentation. Marketing module in a unified CRM platform, helps you to create dynamic target lists through drag and drop workflow designer that adds leads based on predefined user actions such as mailers clicked or read and links clicked etc.

You can also create static target lists that create leads from existing lead, contact and account records. A powerful CRM for marketing will apply predictive analytics for generating lead quality scores and deploying customizable templates that cater the individual tastes of one customer.

2. Create, execute and manage multichannel, multiwave campaigns
Today, customers of your business are global. Your CRM for marketing needs to have the capability to run targeted campaigns across regions and languages.

A great marketing CRM has a powerful campaign designer with a drag and drop interface that simplifies and automates multi step, multi channel campaigns. Pre-defined templates or AI driven customizable ones deploy personalized offers through several waves of targeted mailers in a single window.

3. Auto-allocation of quality leads
Leads captured through campaigns can be allocated automatically using configurable business rules, including location, product and expertise. There is also an option of manual allocations for contacts and leads.

Assigning scores to leads through intelligent analytics will significantly boost the quality of leads. Powerful business rules can then auto allocate them the right team or sales professional to quick follow and nurturing, significantly boosting conversion rates.

4. Analyzing executed campaigns
Marketing campaigns that are un-quantifiable are worthless. Analyzing campaigns to check the count of delivery, reads, clicks and recorded conversions through customizable reports and dashboards will give real time
ROI intelligence for your marketing budgets.

Actionable insights into campaign performance can be generated and reports can be built with for smarter campaign execution.

Benefits to your business:

1. Alignment with sales
The gaps between sales and marketing can be eliminated by using an agile and scalable CRM software. You can map marketing objectives to sales goals and close the loop between leads generated by marketing and conversions through sales. Shorten sales cycles faster with outbound predictive dialling, context sensitive screen popping, and integrated reporting and workflow.

2. Boost campaign ROI
By incorporating sales strategies into marketing planning, you can trace sales revenues back to marketing campaigns, systematically break down lead capture and conversion rates, monitor campaign performance in real-time with easy-to-use analytics and customizable reports.

3. Right message at right time
Customers hate non-relevant marketing messages with passion. When brands across industries are combating each other for customer attention, it becomes important for you to execute laser-targeted, high-impact, insight-driven campaigns along with personalized messaging across all touch points.

Campaign designers in CRM solutions will allow you to craft personalized messages and send offers with the latest marketing messaging to targeted customers on demand, in bulk, or in real- time during customer engagements.

To conclude:
Powerful drag and drop campaign designers inside CRM for marketing has opened up new dimensions in customer engagement by significantly enhancing marketing campaign execution.

CRM Tips: Ignore These 5 Customer Thoughts at Your Own Risk

noreply@blogger.com (CRMNEXT) — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 10:10:00 +0000

Customer profiling is in vogue these days. Gathering intelligence through their action, interaction, online and offline behavior in order to predict their next move is fine. But, what about their thoughts?

You need to understand what goes inside the brains of today's consumers and how they view business with regards to themselves. Here are five key consumer thinking points. (No, we did not abduct anyone and conduct alienesque brain operations on them).

1. You have no place to hide
The internet has given us the power of transparency. No business information is now safe from the prying eyes of the consumers. There is no place for substandard products or service, they are killed by 'review's even before take off. Its a quality and customer first world.

2. I will benchmark you against the best
Customers now have access to top of line products and services without paying exorbitant amounts. With the help of social aids like Google Now, Instagram, Whatsapp etc. they can instantly explore and compare your products and services to your competitors. In case your competitor shines, the switching time is less than a minute due to the multitude of buying journeys available on every channel. You can take action by designing smart and intuitive buying journeys, with CRM solutions, that hook prospects and engages them at every touchpoint.

3. I have a complex limbic brain
Limbic brain is associated with the decision making process. And the customer's limbic brain has evolved over the decades to be complex and more importantly, fickle. Simply spending millions in ads is not enough. A typical journey includes first identifying a need, conducting hours of online research, watching ads or trailers, discussing with social groups and reading online reviews. And finally a price comparison on various aspects between your competitors.

4. I am unique, powerful and informed
Smartphones have enabled users to literally handle experience and transactions with a few taps. In addition, social media has empowered ordinary consumers to be influencers. They can create monstrous backlash against perceived wrongdoings of any company. The slogan is "guilty whether proven or not". They can buy or cancel with a single tap or click. A truly powerful force that can make or break a brand.

5. Engage with me on every device
Customers today start their buying journey on one device and complete on another. Be sure you have a digital journey that guides them towards completion.

Every business today must have the ability of multi-channel enagagement to support their customers anywhere, anytime and to create multi-channel win back strategies. All this can be powered by CRM solutions, that boosts conversions.

Customers thoughts have evolved along with technology. Take note of the above five thoughts and don't allow the competition be delighted to see the back of you.