Voice is the new frontier for growth and innovation in consumer banking

Agility is not something typically associated with traditional, largescale financial services organisations in the consumer banking sector. The reason for this is relatively clear: these organisations, operating in highly regulated markets, are often lumbered with complex legacy infrastructures and are therefore slower to implement technologies and processes that might make them more nimble in the face of uncertainty.

Fortunately for the consumer banking sector, things are starting to change. The pandemic acted as the required nudge for many consumer banks to begin investing in technologies that would make them more responsive to the ever-changing needs of the customer. Nowhere was this clearer than in the area of conversational data, unlocked by voice capture programmes and AI-driven analytics. This technology became something of a necessity for many consumer facing banks with lockdowns implemented, working arrangements switching to hybrid, and customer communications thrown into a state of flux.

Voice capture became a lifeline for many banks forced to maintain in-office compliance standards in a world of remote working. However, as value from investment in voice capture and the power of conversational data was realised, many innovative consumer banks have started to recognise its potential elsewhere. Whilst this innovation may have been prompted by something beyond their control, many banks have come to see the newfound flexibility and improvement in customer experience.

Voice capture as an opportunity for CX

To understand the potential of voice capture in improving the customer experience processes in consumer banks, one must consider the extent of communication that occurs via voice. Whether it’s phone calls to contact centres, in-branch conversations or internal discussions regarding issues, a significant amount of insightful data (that can lead to more efficient customer resolution processes) is held here.

What’s more, this all-important voice data is not found in an average CRM but instead in call recordings that can tell banks about much more than just the effectiveness of their customer relations – right down to the customer’s emotional responses and their likes and dislikes. For the customer, calls to their banks that are not resolved first time round are a significant pain point as they can escalate into an around 11-13 additional interactions to reach a conclusion. This is frustrating, not least because the customer often must explain their reason for calling multiple times.

The most innovative consumer banks have used their investment in voice capture technology to garner actionable insights and learnings from these conversations, reducing the number of customer interactions and improving the first-time resolution rates. In fact, companies that use voice data combined with AI to identify the top reasons for repeat calls and provide better firstcall resolution training. This decrease in repeat calls results in significant savings for large organisations making it a worthwhile investment.

How voice technology is tackling bad actors

However, it is not just the much-discussed area of customer experience for which investment in voice capture is yielding new benefits. Banking and financial services industries are finding voice an invaluable tool in tackling bad actors inside and outside their organisations.

HSBC, for instance, has said that it reduced telephone banking fraud by 50% by authenticating customers through their unique voice identifiers, showing how voice data can be used to protect consumers. From a regulatory standpoint, according to recent research finance workers are ten times as likely to share inside information and make inappropriate comments during phone calls and video chats than over email and other text-based platforms. With call recording, AI and analytics technology, organisations can stay ahead of this problem, analysing voice conversations, spotting patterns and flagging potential issues.

There is also the increasingly tricky issue of keeping customer records up to date in an era where communication with one’s bank is far from homogeneous. Consumers are increasingly instigating communications across multiple channels, including voice-based smart devices, and this has significant ramifications for businesses - both from an operational and regulatory standpoint. Consumer banks that prioritise ownership of conversational data will set themselves apart from competitors and stay ahead of these developments.

Beyond the initial benefits to compliance, voice capture technology offers a wide-ranging roster of possible innovations to improve operating processes. It is also clear that the importance of voice is only set to increase – 50% of consumers in the US and UK now own a smart speaker, an estimated 128 million Americans use voice assistants, and voice assistant usage is growing globally in cars and other settings where interacting with a screen is less accessible. These developments show that voice is expanding as the key medium consumers expect when communicating with organisations. Banking and financial services institutions must stay one step ahead of this trend and offer the level of service their customers expect.

Richard Stevenson, CEO, Red Box

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https://www.ft.com/content/6e0b0150-9af0-4a63-b2b709448defc98d