Customer Experience

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One of the most exciting things about financial services innovation is our growing ability to deliver personalized customer experiences. For example, consider a customer who enters a shopping center during the holiday season. By leveraging decisioning software, lenders can proactively offer that customer more credit—in real-time. The person has the financial ability to get what they need and doesn't have to experience a rejected transaction based on previous credit availability. What's behind such personalized offers? They are powered by the latest data—information that goes far beyond traditional credit ratings and references. For the holiday shopper, that may include geolocalization and behavior data that project a customer's likelihood of reaching a credit limit while shopping. The information empowers lenders to provide that personalized experience at the exact right time. But to make that possible, the data must be interoperable across systems, analytical and operational environments, and third-party data providers. Looking ahead, the financial service companies that enable this interoperability will be able to innovate faster, compete better, and scale their personalization to ultimately win more business. Why interoperability matters Our most recent Global Decisioning Research Report denotes consumers' evolving expectations and the increasingly vital role data and analytics play in meeting their needs. Financial service companies must leverage data to understand customer circumstances better, changing risk profiles and emerging credit needs, especially as we move out of the pandemic. Indeed the right data can help lenders support customers across their entire journey. But utilizing data to improve the customer experience is not as straightforward as it seems. The amount and diversity of the data available are huge. And the data required to power personalized products and experiences are not always readily accessible, well-formed, or high quality. As a result, data integration projects often take longer and cost more than many financial service companies anticipate. Legacy systems add to the complexity and expense. The evolving open standards for data interoperability are helping alleviate some of these challenges. But companies still need to determine which standards and platforms to use. Selecting the right ones can accelerate innovation and prevent expensive stops, starts, and detours down the road. Cultivating a healthy ecosystem The good news is that these challenges are surmountable. The first step is to understand where your organization is in its data interoperability journey. Then you can create a strategy that makes data-based innovation easier, faster, and more cost-effective. For example, consider: Prioritizing industry-leading open standards for interoperability. Requiring CSV and JSON data formats is smart; both are currently ubiquitous across the industry. Using standard APIs to share data. For example, Rest APIs using Swagger provide a description of the API, the data and facilitate the discoverability and use of the API. Exploring API aggregation services and marketplace platforms. These make it easy for developers to add services and for your organization to put them to use. Leveraging low-code data integration tooling. This helps you remove data silos and empower staff to navigate older, traditional data integration methods until they evolve to use open standards. These actions can make a significant impact on your company's ability to take advantage of various data sources now, as well as set your organization up for the future. Data meets decisioning Selecting the right decisioning software is a crucial way to facilitate the steps noted above. As you consider decisioning solutions, look for products that allow you to publish and consume data using open APIs and simple visual drag and drop approaches. In addition, evaluate the core data management capabilities of potential solutions, and prioritize those that can natively also support semi-structured data. For instance, applications that allow you to leverage frequently changing data sources ensure that when a source evolves, only the specific areas loading the data are impacted—not the wider solution. Lastly, as mentioned above, solutions that provide lightweight, low-code middleware allow you to leverage third-party data no matter where you’re at in your interoperability journey. Those new sources of data will inform and enhance your customer's experience.   Stay in the know with our latest research and insights:

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As we enter the beginning of the end of this global crisis, the role of data, analytics, and credit risk decisioning takes on even greater significance than before. Consumers face uneven roads to recovery, with some ready to spend again and others still mired in pandemic-related financial stress. And businesses of all sizes report their operations are recovering but there’s still a way to go. A key difference we saw is that companies that adapted to serve customer needs digitally are faring much better. Our 2021 Global Decisioning eBook, Navigating a new era of credit risk decisioning, looks at how consumers are stabilizing their finances and how businesses are returning to growth. A recent survey among 9,000 consumers and 2,700 businesses across ten countries worldwide reveals the importance of lenders prioritizing digital transformation, and the role of advanced data and analytics in enhancing the customer experience. The pandemic fall-out is impacting everyone differently: 1 in 3 consumers remains concerned about their finances – paying bills and managing credit Whereas high-income households are no longer reducing their discretionary spending Navigating this varied credit landscape requires a deep understanding of customer needs on both ends of the spectrum. However, business confidence in the consumer credit risk management analytics models dropped over the past year from 71 percent to 61 percent. Smaller lenders with revenues ranging from $10M to $49M have seen the sharpest decline from 72 percent to 57 percent in the past six months. Adapting data and analytics to a rapidly changing customer base: Almost 50% of businesses surveyed said their dedicate more resources to enhance analytics One-third of businesses are planning to re-build their models from scratch Recalibrating credit models is one thing, but lenders also need to rethink their data sources to better understand current customer profiles. The data inputs generated by the pandemic have impacted credit risk models and machine learning applications in unexpected ways. For example, widespread payment holidays and government stimulus programs may be masking customers’ true financial circumstances. According to Recovery Insights, a separate study published by Experian North America: Delinquency prior to the pandemic is a strong indicator of future risk. Accounts exiting an accommodation period are 2x more likely to become delinquent than are accounts that never received an accommodation. Payment on debt during accommodation indicated a reduced risk for subsequent delinquency. Amidst the pandemic lockdown, consumers turned online to manage finances and connect with lenders – including older consumers.  And while the pandemic pushed consumers online out of necessity, now that they’re there – it’s become a preference – as overall digital gains are holding above pre-pandemic levels. Lenders have a new digital imperative to meet consumers’ evolving needs for continued digital engagement. Consumer expectations of digital experiences 55% of consumers have higher expectations of their digital experience since Covid-19 began 43% of consumers surveyed age 70+ reported digital banking throughout the pandemic 14% of consumers surveyed age 60-69 applied for a new loan or card online The importance of a digital-first approach has revealed itself and many companies have put a digital customer journey in place since Covid-19 began. The future, however, is more than providing online services. It’s about knowing your customers well enough to anticipate their credit needs and using tools to automate the process and reduce risk. Adapt or lose customers 9 in 10 businesses have a digital customer journey in place 1 in 4 consumers have taken their business elsewhere because a company didn’t adapt to their digital needs Online customer experience and credit risk management are more connected than ever before. And, businesses need technology that supports the entire customer journey, from onboarding to customer management to collections. Five digital investments businesses are prioritizing the new era of credit risk management: Implement new machine learning models for customer decisions Increase digital acquisitions and engagement Understand their customer base (affordability, value, behavior) Automate customer decisions Increase value of existing customers Access the report here to get more consumer trends and find out what the future of decisioning means for businesses looking to return to growth. Stay in the know with our latest insights:

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