Digital Enablement in Finance: How US Firms Optimize Operations & CX

Our lives revolve around technology. From the messaging apps that allow us to talk to our loved ones to the AI tools that streamline our workloads, we’ve grown to expect digital touchpoints at every corner.

It’s no wonder, then, that US consumers are gravitating towards technology-forward financial services.

According to recent Salesforce research:

• Around 60% of customers expect financial services tasks to be fully automated.
• 86% of customers prefer to make an account transfer digitally.
• 77% of consumers are interested in AI that can detect and prevent instances of fraud.
• 65% of customers want to interact with their insurance agent or provider mostly or completely digitally.

Needless to say, there’s a clear hunger for innovation… Yet many financial firms are failing to satiate this appetite. Indeed, well under half of customers are satisfied with the digital experiences provided by their wealth management and insurance firms (39% and 34%, respectively).

This indicates an urgent need for strategic digital enablement.

Digital enablement in finance: Optimizing operations across 3 sub-sectors

Digital enablement consists of the tools, strategies, and processes needed to implement digital transformation. It’s the essential building blocks for creating real, sustainable change.

When executed well, digital enablement doesn’t just improve your customer experiences and retention rates. It can revolutionize your operations, drive a healthy profit, and futureproof your business, too. So much so, that 46% of financial services executives say improvements in employee productivity (caused by digital transformation) exceeded their expectations. And one in three financial services executives experienced an 11%+ increase in profitability and performance thanks to AI and automation.

But to achieve these results, you must first understand which processes you need to optimize — and how you plan to optimize them.

In the remainder of this article, we’ll explain how US institutions across the fintech, insurance and wealth management space can supercharge their services through digital enablement.

1. Fintechs

Fintech companies may hold the prize for being the biggest digital disruptors in the financial services industry, but that doesn’t mean they can put their feet up. Rapid technology advancements and everchanging consumer demands means there will always be room for improvement.

With that in mind, here are some key process optimization ideas to consider:

• Data standardization and reporting. To bolster compliance and improve ESG efforts, fintechs will need to harmonize their data. Fundamentally, this means eradicating data silos, standardizing processes through templated e-forms, and improving data quality. Reporting and data dashboards will also be critical for measuring progress and providing evidence to auditors.
• Automated compliance checks. Cross-border payments are steadily increasing across B2B and B2C markets, driving a healthy revenue for fintechs. To cope with this spike in demand, as well as comply with AML and data protection regulations, organizations will need to finetune their workflows. With the helping hand of business process automation, you can speed up compliance checks and payment processing without impeding the customer experience.
• Personalized customer recommendations. Give your customers product recommendations and financial wellness advice that speaks to their unique needs. A permissions-based customer portal will allow you to segment users based on their demographic, interests, and buyer behaviors. You can then promote tailored content, offers, and advice that clicks.
• AI-driven fraud detection. Many big names in the financial services industry are already harnessing AI-powered fraud detection, including American Express and Mastercard. To stay competitive, your company may want to adopt it too. With the help of predictive analytics and natural language processing (NLP), you can pinpoint indicators of fraud based on user behavior, language, transaction times and more.
• Competitive user experiences. Turn your customer portal into a slick, easy to use basecamp for your customers with AI search, self-service applications, and 24/7 customer support features. These enhancements will empower your customers to answer pressing queries, submit applications, and request support at a time that suits them.

2. Insurers

American insurers are battling more headwinds than most right now — quite literally. Due to devastating natural disasters and changing climates, many providers are finding it difficult to accurately calculate and price risks. This, of course, is having a knock on effect for customers.

Though it’s impossible to underwrite every risk or pay out every claim, there are ways to improve your processes and customer experiences through digital transformation.

Here are just a few process improvements to consider:

• Artificial intelligence. Underwriters spend around 40% of their time on non-core tasks and admin activities. According to Accenture, this could total an efficiency loss of up to $160 billion within the next five years. To avoid this, insurers should invest in AI-driven underwriting solutions, which can speed up tasks, boost claims accuracy, and allow underwriters to dedicate more time to risk evaluations.
• 24/7 AI chat bots. 36% of surveyed consumers say AI is a helpful tool for making sense of complex insurance policies. This makes it a compelling digital transformation initiative. A round-the-clock AI chat bot will not only enhance the customer experience and boost retention rates, but will also reduce the number of calls your support team will have to answer.
• Process automation. Only 29% of insurance customers are satisfied with their firm’s policy opening process. This number drops down to 22% when filing claims. Through automated e-forms and workflows, you can streamline key tasks, minimize human errors, and keep customers updated on the status of their claim or policy. With the help of predictive analytics and image recognition, you can also speed up the detection of fraudulent activity, too.
• Secure information sharing. As climate change continues to complicate underwriting processes, insurance providers will need to lean on advice from government agencies and climate scientists. To effectively communicate, collaborate, and share insights with these experts, invest in a secure digital workplace platform. With granular user permissions, engaging communication features, and productive automated workflows and dashboards, you can develop better stakeholder relationships and get one step closer to improving your risk calculations.

3. Wealth managers

Though customer satisfaction rates fare better for wealth managers (compared to banks and insurers), firms shouldn’t rest on their laurels.

As it stands, 59% of customers are unsatisfied with the speed and effectiveness of their wealth manager’s customer service. A further 63% have trouble with services around personal budgeting and financial planning. If left to worsen, this trend of dissatisfaction could result in customers jumping ship.

To keep them onboard, you need to increase value and iron out any customer experience problems. We’d recommend adopting:

• Personalized advice. Customers desire tailored, effective financial advice and relevant investment opportunities. With a secure, external extranet or customer portal, you can distribute this advice to your customers based on their unique demographics and behaviors. They can also choose whether or not to subscribe to relevant news articles and financial advice threads.
• Artificial intelligence. AI-driven chat bots and search functionality can be used to help customers find the right answers to their questions without needing to phone up their relationship manager. With only 41% of wealth management customers able to get an answer to their questions, this may be a high-priority process improvement to add to your list.
• Data analytics and reporting. Investing in data analytics and reporting will help your relationship managers easily digest financial trends and provide more confident investment advice to clients.
• Process automation. Relationship managers spend around 60-70% of their time on non-advisory tasks. This is largely due to manual data processing and paper-based procedures. By automating repetitive tasks, such as client onboarding, relationship managers can spend more time providing value to their customers.
• Generative AI. Provide the same value to your clients without burning out. Harnessing generative AI for basic content generation, emails, or updates, can boost efficiency and free up time for more pressing work — all while enhancing customer satisfaction.

A sustainable approach to digital transformation

Every process optimization we’ve listed has the power to significantly improve your services.

However, it’s important to remember that digital enablement should never be a piecemeal operation. As PWC rightfully observes:

“Simply overlaying new technologies on outdated or inefficient workflows — still the unfortunate reality at many carriers — won’t yield meaningful results. Without centralized data collection and standardized application, you’re unlikely to drive scalable, long-term solutions that benefit more than just pockets of the business.”

In other words, to optimize your operations effectively, you must adopt a digital transformation approach that harmonizes your people, processes and data.

This is where a platform like Claromentis becomes essential. Available on-premise and in the cloud, our full digital workplace solution comprises intranet, business process automation, and e-learning capabilities.

With the full suite in your toolkit, your firm can:

• Centralize your data analytics and reporting efforts via third-party integrations and dashboards.
• Develop secure, permissions-controlled customer portals that allow you share personalized advice, promote self-service channels, and streamline customer support.
• Unify your projects, teams, and internal and external communications to improve service quality and omnichannel consistency.
• Improve collaboration via engaging discussion rooms and a version-controlled document management app.
• Automate repetitive and complex procedures to free up time, improve data accuracy, and bolster compliance.
• Distribute policies and help employees and customers better understand complex fine-print with a built-in AI chatbot.
• Upskill your teams and fill digital knowledge gaps via engaging e-learning courses.

This lays the groundwork for an all-encompassing, sustainable digital enablement approach. One that empowers your employees, drives more accurate decisions, and — most importantly — keeps your customers satisfied.

Ready to take the next step on your digital enablement journey? Explore our solution and its three distinct platforms for yourself. Simply book a demo with one of our friendly experts and we’ll spin up a personalized portal for you to test out.