The global pandemic has reinforced the need for businesses to be ‘shock-ready’. Jamie Broadbent, Head of Digital and Innovation at RBS International, considers where the banking industry fits into this digital world
No one in the banking sector is unused to disruption – the past decade has seen more seismic change than perhaps at any other time in history.
The coronavirus crisis has intensified the sense that banks are facing extraordinary upheaval and how they fit into the broader business ecosystem.
Blockchain, open banking, emerging challenger banks and the growing muscle of the fintech sector have created a sense of disruption that few have seen before. Creating a ‘shock-ready’ business is crucial.
While the intensity and scope of this disruption was already presenting a challenge, the global pandemic has compounded this. “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face,” boxer Mike Tyson once said.
The current coronavirus crisis represents not only a challenge but also an opportunity to focus in on how customer needs have changed and how they will continue to evolve.
The pandemic has had a marked effect on the use of cash, the suspension of face-to-face interaction and a whole set of concerns for clients grappling with unprecedented uncertainty.
However, rather than trying to predict and plan for every possible scenario, the ‘shock-ready’ business focuses on instilling a sense of agility – so that if the unexpected does arise, the company is ready to adapt swiftly and meet whatever challenge appears.
This has led to some interesting changes, as traditional methods, boundaries and hierarchies have all been challenged. The industry must put the right people around the right problems and empower them to make important decisions.
Simply aiming to return to ‘business as usual’ is unlikely to equip any firm with the necessary tools to survive.
As we move through the crisis, the big question is: how do you take all those new innovative ways of working, and the rapid-response mindset that we’ve had to employ, retain them and make them part of the way you work going forward?
As the economy unlocks and various operations reconfigure, for many businesses the emphasis will fall on developing a recovery strategy. But where will their bank fit into that? Do businesses really see their banks as partners in their success or simply a passive provider of sometimes opaque services? Tackling this perception will be the next big challenge.
Few businesses put banking at the top of the ‘favourite admin tasks’ list, but this is something that can change.
We all want to have a better relationship with money. So the future customer experience will see banks stepping into this role to help individuals, families and businesses to really thrive by improving their relationship with money.
This happens through the delivery of transparent, easy-to-understand financial products and services, which removes friction and effort that we associate with banking – and allows people to get on with living the lives they want to as financial services are taken care of in the background.
Our innovation won’t be defined through offering shiny new things all the time. Instead it will be the simplicity of the services and the added value we can offer clients.
Those services are set to increase in both scope, scale and specificity as digital technology continues to drive much of what customers want.
Banks must not only invest time and money in new technology, but also in identifying exactly what customers’ pain points are.
Central to that is retaining a human face in a digitally led bank – building seamless and connected digital experiences but making sure we can connect with people and treat them as individuals.
While challenger banks are redefining some of the digital tools and channels that can really impact on customer experience, the need for a human face remains.
Find out more: visit www.rbsinternational.com
• This advertising feature was first published in the Digital Edition of Businesslife in December 2020