The pandemic disrupted the world for sure but there was one silver lining – it accelerated the pace of adoption of digital technology like never before. The Covid-19 virus virtually disrupted the way we lived, studied, worked, shopped, dined, transacted, and did business. Business models had to be tweaked, digital technology had to be adopted or improvised in a short period to get the companies up and running. This was the need of the hour as companies scrambled to adapt to the smart technology or face the threat of extinction.
In the traditional model of working, if you wanted to open a bank account or a trading account, it involved a trip to the bank, filling up some forms and submitting physical self-attested photocopies of documents. It was a messy, time-consuming affair that could take 3-5 days to complete. After the onset of Covid-19, people were reluctant to leave their homes but business could not suffer. Banks, NBFCs, Brokerages and Insurance Companies needed to find a genie who would solve this problem for them without any risk or compromise of data integrity.
The Video KYC and the Unified Account Opening platform have provided a paperless remote alternative to the traditional manual KYC and account opening process. The benefits of this customer onboarding solution are clearly evident in the demand for the product after the pandemic.
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Paperless, remote access – Video KYC provides a convenient, quick and easy alternative to the traditional manual KYC. After Covid-19, people prefer remote solutions and find the VIdeo KYC option very suitable for opening accounts.
Faster customer onboarding – Faster customer onboarding is the desired outcome for any process and the Video KYC ensures that KYC doesn’t become a final roadblock for the account opening process. The ease of use makes the entire account opening process smoother, faster and more efficient.
Omnichannel presence – The versatility of the Video KYC platform ensures that it can be used to open any account be it a trading account, bank account, demat account or insurance account. It can be completed in a matter of minutes.
Cost Savings – The elimination of paperwork and the reduction of manpower has ensured that the cost of KYC plummets by a good 70+% reduction and adds to the bottom line in these difficult times.
Elimination of personal visits – The Video KYC has been a godsend for the end customers who can complete the compliance in the comfort of their homes at their own convenience. The risk of making an outdoor trip and contracting the virus is completely eliminated. You can even call it a socially responsible product in these pandemic times.
No compromise on security – The Video KYC platform ensures the safety of customer data and ensures that the security protocol is never breached throughout the process.
100% Regulatory Compliance – Video KYC ensures compliance with RBI regulations while maintaining efficiency and providing a customer-friendly experience.
Awesome User Experience – The most cumbersome part of traditional account opening was the KYC form. Customers are extremely delighted with the Video KYC platform for the ease, convenience and time savings it provides without having to step out of the house.
Tele-sales – Traditionally, companies have relied heavily on field sales and customers call the salesperson home to finally open the account/apply for a loan /complete manual KYC. Due to the impact of Covid, field sales have been replaced by telesales and video-based KYC. This has helped businesses to open more accounts per salesperson on a monthly basis.
The use of Unified Account Opening and Video KYC platforms have yielded several direct and indirect benefits to businesses.
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Visible increase in account opening – The ease of use and saving of time has resulted in a significant increase in the number of accounts opened.
Increase in Revenue – The stupendous increase in the number of accounts opened resulted in an increase in revenues.
Better profit margin as topline increases with a decrease in cost – The combination of improved toplines with reduced costs resulted in a boost to the bottom line.
Faster Turnaround Time – The time saved due to the switch to a paperless process saw significant time savings from 3-5 days to under 15 minutes which was excellent by any standard.
The demand for the Video KYC platform has gone up multifold in the aftermath of the pandemic as businesses rushed to find paperless solutions that would improve the pace of customer onboarding without compromise on health or data integrity. At its peak, Video KYC was used to open 1,50,000 accounts per month for a single corporation of which 60% was in the last 4 days of the month. The combination of an increase in demand combined with a sharp drop in the cost indicated that the product was a clear win-win for all the stakeholders concerned. It is also a reflection of how the pandemic has induced a change in the way companies transact in an uncertain and dynamic business landscape.
Views expressed in this article are the personal opinion of Praveen Paulose, MD & CEO, Celusion Technologies.
