Customer on-boarding and origination in a digital world

Updated On : May 2018

Customers today have high expectations of a flawless experience, enhanced efficiency and sharp responsiveness while interacting with a bank. Customer on-boarding, other than welcoming a new customer, is an opportunity to gather relevant information and learn about the customer and their concerns and interests. The first step towards improving customer experience is a fully digital on-boarding experience. Digital customer on-boarding have proven to reduce operating costs while also enabling banks to be nimble and more responsive to customer needs.

In the present financial scenario, it is crucial to for banks and other financial institutions to retain their current and old customers while acquiring new ones. Hence, today banks are seeking to provide an end-to-end digital purchase and contracting experience that is simple, personalized, and frictionless. Banking institutions are racing to keep up with an increasingly mobile and multi-device customer base.

Why is digital customer on-boarding necessary?

It is important for financial institutions to establish and prove themselves in the beginning itself because a lot of high value customer relationships start from low-value small transactions like opening an account. E signatures have been successfully used by Banks, credit unions and other financial service providers to digitize lower value, high volume use cases like retail account openings. Now they are turning to higher value transactions – which are typically mediated scenarios with more complex workflows. With on-boarding platforms coming on the scene, for handling more sophisticated contracts and transactions, there is a shift to digitise more complex on-boarding transactions as well.

Customers expect convenience with over 90% of millennials using mobile banking. Both millennials and ultra HNW clients expect a mobile experience and take it for granted.

Digitization of details frees up the staff and allows them to instead spend time engaging customers in conversations which helps them to promote and cross-sell high-value, and often more complex, products and services. For example, because of a completely digital process, it is easier to upsell products like loan insurance, adding additional revenue.

The benefits

The most direct way financial service providers can improve on-boarding is by ensuring the process remains fully digital. Digital Customer on-boarding is all about speed, tighter compliance, fewer errors, less manual work, and meeting expectations for a great modern day experience.

• There is a new customer at the end of the process : The major advantage is that having taken the time and effort, the financial institution actually gets the chance to acquire a new customer, by on-boarding the customer and selling them their products and services.
• Client centricity : Keeping your client at the centre of your focus is the only sustainable way to grow a business. It implies not just collecting data and bearing an inevitable administrative inconvenience, but also understanding the prospect’s needs. A digitized workflow allows the process to be built around the users and their preferences.
• Simplicity : The procedure itself and the information involved are easy to understand and follow. A big benefit is moving from paper to data which allows for better rearrangement, user friendly and interactive information and digital signatures.
• Instant gratification : A client wants immediate response, feedback and confirmation Digital on-boarding allows to cut down on completion time. Moreover, all procedures are followed and all validity checked at the data entry part thus lessening time too.
• Efficiency : One of the most important benefits of digital on-boarding is efficiency. Because of system guided data validation - data errors, internal handling effort and time are all minimised. Here are some of the ways digital on-boarding brings in efficiency.

  • Workflow rules eliminate errors : All data and signatures are captured correctly the first time itself whereas a manual process results in errors like missing signatures and empty data fields on paper forms.
  • E-Signatures save time and energy and expedite the process : compressing it from days or weeks to a single session.
  • Mobile-first customers now have an alternative to paper : It is easier and more convenient to sign on a mobile device besides being personal and accessible than on desktops or laptops. Giving customers the advantage of e-signatures using their personal smartphone removes barriers and gives customers the freedom to choose their method of transaction.