Author:
Andrew MacDowell | Strategic Solutions Executive
at Aditya Birla Minacs
Editor’s Note:
On March 12-14, Andrew MacDowell attended BAI Payments Connect 2012 at The Mirage in Las Vegas where Minacs presented a variety of customer lifecycle management card solutions.
Q. What were the Minacs solutions that you showcased at BAI Payments Connect?
A. BAI Payments Connect has a very specific focus on cards, so we showcased all aspects of our card solutions including sales, service, marketing (including digital marketing and social media), fraud management, loyalty, and prepaid offerings.
Q. What are the hot topics in the payments industry?
A. The driver for most of the clients we met at the show was around increasing customer loyalty. Retail banks have come to appreciate the cost of attracting new customers so they are putting more emphasis on retaining and growing existing customer accounts.
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| Banks are embracing mobile technologies |
As such, customer satisfaction is more important than ever. To facilitate customer loyalty and grow customer relationships, banks are realizing that they need to have a better understanding of their clients through data analytics. They are looking for more accurate ways to segment client groups in retail banking, often by income level or other attributes to enable target marketing. However, the challenge is around balancing the need to gather customer data without infringing on customer privacy.
Whether we’re talking about credit cards or other retail banking products, communicating more effectively with clients (via mobile), branches and branch networks is crucial. In keeping with the theme of better communication though multiple channels, developing a strong social media presence was another important area of interest that we heard about from attendees.
Fraud management was another hot topic. A cornerstone of an effective fraud management program is having the right technology platforms and rules to detect fraud as quickly as possible while minimizing service interference for the customer. There is a definite need for more proactive programs. Traditionally, when banks detected card fraud, they would deactivate the customer’s card and then wait for the customer to call the customer service center. Now, banks call customers within minutes of card deactivation to verify customers and get them up and running with new cards before they even know their cards were shut down. This approach isn’t about relaxing standards but about being more proactive about fraud management.
Q. What were some of the payments challenges that BAI attendees were talking about?
A. Most of the sessions that I attended stressed fraud management and risk, the potential for loss in mobile banking, why it’s happening and how to address it.
Another big concern involved platforms and the need to play catch up with respect to mobile banking. The sheer size of banks prevents them from responding quickly to changing technologies in the marketplace, so many are now in the position of having to make rapid technological advances just to stay in the game. However, to further complicate matters, retail banking customers fall into diverse demographic clusters and have differing comfort levels with technology. So, the question then becomes, how do you best serve those divergent groups—those who want to use new technologies and service channels vs. those who are interested but don’t understand it vs. those who aren’t interested at all?
Q. What were some of the payments opportunities you discussed?
Social media and brand loyalty are two huge opportunities, particularly with the proliferation of mobile devices. Smartphones give people social media and networking ability anywhere, anytime, so banks need to look for ways to leverage this opportunity to better market their services and increase customer satisfaction.
The other big area of opportunity is the transition from paper-based transactions to electronic. In the next 5 years, 11 billion transactions will move from paper to electronic and, if done right, can lead to significant cost savings.
Q. What did you gain from attending BAI Payments Connect?
A. The show helped me understand what’s new and emerging in the payments industry and the technologies that are available to help drive retail banking to where it needs to be to address end customer wants and needs. As service providers, we need to understand the latest tools available to us so that we can create the most cost-effective solutions for our clients.
Is mobile banking the way of the future or will the potential for fraud slow adoption? How can big banks improve their web presence and brand management through social media? Let us know what you think. Leave a comment.