Strategy

6 ways financial services companies are orchestrating personalisation

Australian brands including RACV, IOOF, MLC Life and Frollo share learnings about how to put personalisation into practice


Personalisation has never been important in the way brands provide experiences to their customers. And in a world where digital is the primary vehicle of engagement, and data is exchanged, customer expectations on how personalised experiences need to be are higher than ever.

During this week’s Salesforce Financial Services Summit, part of the wider Dreamforce virtual event, several technology and business leaders from leading Australian financial services institutions and fintechs detailed ways personalisation is increasingly coming into the how they orchestrate products, services and communications.

Here, we highlight six learnings from these brands on what it is taking to make their personalisation efforts effective.

Make it meaningful

For RACV, personalisation is about relevant, meaningful communications and digital interactions and empowering frontline staff to better anticipate member needs, said CIO, Idris Shamsi.

“It’s fundamentally about recognising members across all channels and interactions, getting all that data together and into the hands of our frontline teams… then leveraging this to inform our key member journeys throughout their lifetime,” he said.  

Recognising this, RACV has been focusing on core journeys such as the first year of membership, claims experience, renewal journey, breakdowns and also milestones including birthdays and membership anniversaries in order to personalise engagement.

Make digital end-to-end

Executing with digital as an end-to-end principle and approach was also reflected as key by RACV. Its head of Salesforce and integration, Simon Baldock, said since completing its business transformation and adoption of Salesforce technology, the organisation has established two dedicated delivery squads to focus on delivering end-to-end digital experiences to members.

“That ability to have very convenient digital experiences is key to our members, especially in our busy lives when we have kids at home and we’re engaged in back-to-back virtual meetings,” he said. “When customers do need help through our assisted channels, our technology transformation has made it simple through things like live chat for seamless handover to our contact centre team members. When a member calls up and speaks to us, the single customer view we get through Service Cloud also really helps with transfers.”  

Digital is the starting point too, with slick, intuitive self-service interfaces for everyday transactions, Shamsi continued. “We applied human-centred design to make the right experience choices. We also do things in-channel to assist members including chat assistance, and we have click-to-call coming soon,” he said.

“If an interaction is interrupted, we have a log that provides frontline members with insights to pick up where interaction may have dropped off.”  

Make it productive

RACV has gained significant business agility, Baldrock said, off the back of its tech overhaul and digitisation efforts. And it’s using these gains to further innovate and personalise experiences.

“The combination of the new technology stack plus new operating models means we have completed 60+ production releases in the last year, compared to 3-4 in the legacy environment,” he said.

“It means we can be really responsive to our staff, member and business needs and be adaptive to the really challenging environment over the past 12 months.

Make it a two-way exchange

For Frollo founder and CEO, Gareth Gumbley, optimising customer experiences through digital and data is about fostering a two-way value exchange. Frollo’s Open Banking platform is being used as the foundation for a consumer app that helps consumers manage their finances in a personalised way.

An example of the platform is action, is Frollo’s work with Canstar to power a new personal finance app. This enables customers as well as Canstar to gain a complete picture of their financial lives.

“Canstar has traditionally operated one-way. With Open Banking, the business can look at products customers are using today, how they are using them and if they are getting most value, then identify opportunities to help them rapidly switch,” Gumbley explained. “Ultimately, this is delivering more engaging experiences, personalising that in the buying experience, while giving Canstar richer data on what customers are using to date and where they are able to switch.”  

Make it a nurturing experience

IOOF manager business solutions and initiatives, Matt Peterson, meanwhile, said personalisation is coming to the fore in better supporting its financial planning B2B customers.

“Data in last couple of years and our ability to customise data has been exponential. We know a lot more about our advisors and have centralised a lot of information to tailor those experiences,” he said. “We also want to nurture new people to the industry, so customising experiences for them is very different to someone who has 25 years’ experience.

“It’s a similar proposition for end customers. Every customer is different and has a unique financial journey they want to go on, with different needs and objectives. We are tailoring to the advisor and customer to achieve their goals.”  

End-customer examples of personalising stretch from reminding customers they’re on track to hit their financial goals, to pointing them in a direction if they’re not hitting the retirement goals or supporting cashflow management.

“People want support with these things but want something that is digitally enabled and personalised to their own journey,” Peterson added.  

Make it about employees, too

MLC Life has also been increasingly using data to inform customer journeys in recent years, GM partner and customer experience channels, Tim Roso, said. This has had the additional benefit of better supporting employees.

“There have been interesting examples of how this has made it easier for employees, particularly in our contact centres. For example, to understand what types of inquiries will come in when we send various marketing messages, then what they can do about that on the spot,” he said. “We route calls to the right teams, customers are ready and willing to talk to us, and employees are ready with information about next-best offer, type of complaint they might be calling about or the type of action they need to take. All of this makes their [employees’] lives easier.”  

Ensuring employees are also informed through personalisation is key to taking out a lot of effort in interacting with MLC as an organisation, Roso said.

“Financial services companies have a lot of data about product and customer info to make it easier to interact in the customer’s channel of choice. Or if we’re offering solutions to potential needs, that it’s targeted to the individual, rather than just a ‘did you know we have X’. It takes less cognitive effort for a customer to then evaluate whether they want an offer from a financial services company,” he added.

CMO's first-ever State of CX Leadership survey is now open, and we’re looking for all those official and unofficial customer leaders and senior managers to complete the survey! This inaugural report is going to take a critical and important look into Australia’s CX leadership, from role and remits through to skills and priorities.

We need all responses in by Monday 27th September 2021, so please complete our survey now!

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