How Serviceability Tech Can help BFSI industry for logistical efficiency

Nishith-Rastogi
Nishith Rastogi, Co-founder & CEO, Locus

Expectations are moving targets, thereby creating the need for institutions to regularly track and understand how they are Performing Against Customer Expectations (PACE).

The PACE index for the banking sector does this annually, in a global study spanning 8,000 customers and 500 small businesses. The 2016 survey revealed that the Indian banks were near the bottom of the global PACE rankings, performing seven points below the global average. It concluded  India was behind the curve where other banks were finding their greatest success – technology-driven convenience.

With consumers across all generations demanding connectivity with their bank providers at any time and from anywhere, the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) entities have started sending service executives to the their doorsteps as opposed to keep them waiting in long queues outside their branch offices.

The executives assist customers in opening accounts, loan discussion, asset verification, paying insurance premiums, collecting Easy Monthly Installments (EMIs), cheques, and demand drafts, etc. and processing their requirements in real time. They also make visits to rural areas that do not meet the logistical requirements of having a dedicated bank branch.

Digital disruption has made Knowing Your Customer (KYC) more important than ever before. Nowadays, biometrics and e-KYC have stepped up to replace paper-based systems. The use of fingerprints, retinal scan, digital signatures, One Time Passwords (OTPs) etc. not only augments personal security and privacy, but also attenuates cost.

However, the new RBI regulations now mandate firms to collect and upload a common KYC to a central repository. This has weighed heavily on digital payments banks and broking firms, as it puts them at par with traditional banks.

Last year, Thomson Reuters surveyed 800 financial institutions and their customers across the world to reveal that 89 percent of the customers did not have a good KYC experience, while 13 percent of them ended up changing their financial institution as a result. The firms have attributed the numbers to the rising cost and complexity involved in KYC compliance, with the lack of personnel and high volume.

Among said impediments, the one that is in the hands of the firms is the former. BFSI firms have been looking at over 60,000 leads a month. The lack of appropriately skilled people on the road has led to an increase in the number of employees on the field, adding extra cost to the company. And the thing with banks is, the lesser the cost they endure, the better the customer gets served.

Upon receiving a lead, the firms have to identify the customer’s address, fix or modify a service slot as per the customer’s convenience, even account for instant ones, and assign the right lead to the right service executive based on the locations. Companies are barely managing a daily coverage of up to eight customers a day per executive.

For the numbers mentioned above, that is the equivalent of maintaining 20 fleets of 10 riders each, or vice-versa. Now comes the daunting task of overseeing it all. It appears to be a situation where you will not be able to leave the drawing board. Locus, however, begs to differ.

Locus’ Serviceability Tech allots convenient time slots for the customers, be it instant, scheduled, or a reschedule. The advantage is two-fold with Skill-Based Routing: ensure the right executive is assigned to the right pin-code or locality best suited to them, while also considering the skills respective to the task in hand, by attaching relevant information and documents to each one.

You would not want a KYC agent assigned to a lead involving loan discussion. Overseeing and tracking multiple fleets in real-time is also made easy with a Control Tower view. Locus has helped executives top 12 visits per day, while also reducing fuel costs in the process with Route Optimisation.

Reducing the number of interactions customers have with their respective firms, without compromising on compliance, is the key towards consistent experience. Losing customers over one step in the initial stages, after all the effort spent on making them consider it in the first place is nothing short of an anti-climax. A positive and efficient customer experience is a differentiator for the BFSI institutions that are able to deliver.

About Locus

Locus is a state-of-the-art technology platform for optimising logistics operations using proprietary algorithms, powered by data analytics tools. Locus helps enterprises reduce logistics costs with increased efficiency, on-time deliveries and a delightful end-customer experience.

 

(The article’s writer Nishith Rastogi is Co-founder & CEO, Locus. The views expressed here are personal and do not reflect the stance of Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd.)

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