To stay aloft in Digital acquisitions, credit card issuers must carry out a fine balancing act between risks and customer preferences.
The lure is tomorrow's profits. The reality is uncertain risks today.
Customers are demanding quick and convenient application Journeys with special focus on mobile.
Sadly, customers still have to deal with disappointments throughout card acquisition journeys. The following are the main pain inducing stages:
Stage #1 Card research
Unique financial requirements and customer net worth demand unique cards. But often, customers land on a providers website and exit clueless due to a complete lack of information and tools to assist them in taking the best decision.
Stage #2 Card application
Commonly the most painful stage for the customers in their journey. Applying for a financials service requires customer confidence, that often gets lost when a journey lacks expectation and assurance during the process. Jamming every field available in a singular form offers volume and ambiguity, instead of brevity and clarity.
Customers get overwhelmed with irrelevant data entries, technical error messages and inability to upload documents. It gets worse when the issuer needs the physical printing and mailing of the forms for completing the application journey.
Stage #3 Card Support
Credit card customers frequently lament the lack of live support as well as inadequate communication. Lack of customer 360-degree profile and associated intelligence hampers personalized engagement dropping customer satisfaction.
Paving a delightful customer journey
The best card acquisition journey is a paperless two way engagement, with immediate decision, communication and fulfillment. A great digital journey has the following elements
1. An omnichannel start
Customers demand a friction-less application journey that they can start resume and compete across any channel. be it web, social media, mobile or branch. Mobile acquisition journeys are especially important as customers spent at least 6 hours on mobiles as of 2018 (eMarketer).
2. Comprehensive card information
The curse of rotten information can strike both customers and companies hard. Customers should be given complete product information is a format best understood by them.
There should be clear navigation inside the digital journeys and the journeys should provide tools for card comparisons and a rewards calculator for potential benefits. This convenience will empower customers to select the best cards for their financial needs.
3. Indulge customer buying impulses with change ready journeys and automated decisions
Empower the customer with the right credit card offerings at the relevant buying stages with a well designed and intuitive application journey that is easy to maintain and change. Employ analytics in customer segmentation for journeys that deliver quick and automated eligibility decisions.
Issuers should also harness the power of predictive analytics to welcome customers to a broad array of personalized card offerings.
4. Recover abandoned baskets
You can create win back strategies with existing customer data and entice them back with customized plans. Leverage multichannel offerings with personalized promotions and discounts.
5. Influence customers with AI driven insights
Analyze customer behavior in relation to spending and saving habits. Enable them to optimize their spending across travel, dining, shopping, gift cards etc.
6. Intuitive online form filing
Issuers should provide a completely visible and digital application form with tracking and saving ability. There should be real time updates about the application progress and customers should be able to pick up where they last left off.
Seamless integrations with national id systems, credit rating bureaus and other agencies can instantly fetch and fill customer information, calculate eligibility and automate fulfillment decision in minutes. Reduce clicks and keystrokes through check-boxes and drop down lists.
7. Live assistance
Even though customers value independence through self service, they appreciate assistance on demand. Intelligent chatbots, co-browsing make it possible to service teams to support customers in their card buying journeys.
8. Smart documentation
All supporting documents relevant to a customer's requirements should be available for digital uploads, including from mobile. OCR capability will enable the journeys to capture customer information instantly, thus speeding up fulfillment.
Upgrading digital experience through financial CRM will translate to customer acquisition growth. Apply best in class acquisition practices, remove bottle necks from acquisition journeys and design great experience with out of box designers and data driven insights through CRM for financial services.
