Digital Client Management: Reinventing the Customer Relationship Configure

In these times of accelerated technological transformation, organizations that do not keep up with the pace of the digital revolution pay a high price. From now on, the most successful companies are those that accompany their customers on a daily basis and proactively listen to their needs. This, at all stages of their journey and on all communication channels. Aware of these challenges, Telindus has put together a multidisciplinary team of experts able to offer companies the most innovative tools to succeed in their transition to Digital Customer Management.

The digital experience changes the game and offers new opportunities to acquire, develop or retain customers. New purchasing, conversion and sales processes... digital technology offers companies innovative and effective tools to reinvent the relationship they have with their customers. "We observe that, in all sectors, customer management is increasingly done digitally," confirms Frank Roessig, Fintech Lead at Telindus. "This relationship is even 'phygital', which means that we have to be able to create a strong link between the bricks and mortar distribution channel and its digital alter ego. Indeed, a porosity of information as well as a continuity of services across distribution channels optimizes the customer experience," he adds.

A full-service and omnichannel experience

"Whether it's a consumer or a business," continues Frank Roessig, "the customer not only wants to benefit from a complete online service offering but also to be able to access it through all the communication channels available to them. They want to be able to consume a service indifferently on their mobile, their tablet, their PC, or by going to a physical location when they feel the need. Moreover, within this omnichannel and full-service environment, the customer expects to be able to chat, exchange messages, have a face-to-face meeting or a video conference. So the omnichannel approach is based on two components: the device itself and the media used on that device."

The online service offering also needs to be as extensive as its physical counterpart. "Over the last 5 years, the usage rate of digital banking services has increased from 65% to 86%. Some online services are of course more popular than others: while 90% of banking customers use digital services to consult their account, online investment advice only reaches 20% of them," explains Frank Roessig. "Today - and even more so following the coronavirus pandemic - customers want to be able to carry out any type of operation online, and at any time. These new expectations challenge the business model of many companies. And for this to work, trust is an essential element," he insists.

Expand and secure new services

That's where Telindus comes in. The company's mission is to ensure that these new digital services are delivered efficiently, securely, and in compliance with laws and regulations. "In the area of financial advice, for example, the MiFID II Directive requires financial institutions to ensure the traceability of any transaction-related communication between them and their clients. This obligation to record - and easily retrieve if requested by the client - applies to all means of communication: physical meeting, email, call from a fixed or mobile line, SMS, chat, or even video. To help the financial sector meet the requirements of the directive, Telindus has developed an integrated tool to record and trace exchanges between an investor and his supplier," explains Frank Roessig.

Until recently, online services were mainly aimed at the younger generation. Here again, the health crisis has changed the situation and seniors have discovered an interest in this type of service. This generational leap implies adaptations to the design and ergonomics of applications. "In the physical world," says the Telindus expert, "it would be very difficult to conceive a point of sale that could suit different audiences. However, in the digital world, declining a service in several forms adapted to various audiences is not only easily achievable, but also much less expensive."

"We're also seeing a lot of digitalization efforts from players in the B2B market," he adds. "First, because digital natives want to work the way they live; but also because many services are proving inefficient. The logistics sector, for example, still consumes huge amounts of paper. Sectors as varied as construction, tourism, agriculture, metalworking, personal assistance, not to mention SMEs, are lagging far behind in digital transformation."

The range of digital tools developed by Telindus goes from digital onboarding - secure customer reception - to omni-device self-service solutions, including a document management system that gives the final customer direct access to his invoices, his consumption, etc. "If the company that calls on us is active in the business-to-business sector," explains Frank Roessig, "the customer care solution we offer takes the form of a corporate KYC. This solution is based on an automatic registration platform that collects and collates the client's company data, such as articles of association, legal information, annual accounts, etc. The information needed for the intake is thus gathered without the end customer having to do anything except validate the information."

Identity management is a key element in digital customer management. The easier and more user-friendly the access to digital services, the greater the danger of information being hacked. "The systems we implement can be accessed from any device, but they are still highly secure," says Roessig. "To achieve this, we use various technologies: identification of the device by its IP address, multi-factor authentication, biometrics, or even artificial intelligence. Some operators in the financial sector have started to apply behavioral models to protect their customers. Eventually, the generalization of this practice will make it possible to verify the identity of a customer by detecting abnormal or unusual behavior," he predicts.

Artificial intelligence at the heart of customer relations

Artificial intelligence and its sub-disciplines, machine learning and deep learning, have become key technologies for securing online transactions. In particular, AI allows for the effective fight against fraud, money laundering and identity abuse. "We were already practicing payment fraud detection for major European banks," recalls Frank Roessig. "What's new is that Telindus has decided to further develop its artificial intelligence capabilities. For example, it is developing systems that can detect the risk of customer attrition," he says. Certain behaviors, certain signs, allow an AI system to deduce that a customer is likely to leave his supplier. If you take the analysis further, you will see that these same technologies can also detect new business opportunities directly online.

More and more customer requests are coming in through chat, email, postal mail, phone and face-to-face interactions. Deploying intelligent systems that scan and interpret these requests before assigning them to the right people to handle them can automate the handling process. These AI systems make responses more efficient, faster, and provide significant economies of scale.

"Today, the customer spends much more time on the supplier's digital platform than on the supplier's premises," notes Frank Roessig. Therefore, the focus should be on the digital sphere: observe customer activities, detect significant behaviors, learn from them and act to provide a personalized service. What's more, the information gathered in the digital space can help enrich customer management. "These AI-based processes are driving a real virtuous circle of service improvement and customer development," he insists. "Working on data enables service improvement, which gives the opportunity to acquire more customers, which generate more data that enables further service enrichment, and so on."

Realizing the promise of digital

"In order to realize the potential of new technologies and provide companies with a comprehensive approach to them, we have chosen to organize specific workshops for them," explains Frank Roessig. "We use these forums to analyze their customer process cycle, to imagine how to make these experiences more fluid, and to identify how to give them a competitive advantage."

These workshops include many stakeholders because the entire value chain of the client company must be represented. In addition to Telindus experts in design-thinking, digital solutions and business specialists, there are also technical experts responsible for evaluating the necessary infrastructure according to the identified needs. "We sometimes invite end customers to the meeting to get their feedback on the proposed ideas," adds Frank Roessig. "Based on this, we can then scale up the solution - or part of it - based on the lessons learned."