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In today’s digital age, customers are constantly connected and seeking instant solutions to their needs. This is where micro-moments come into play. Coined by Google, micro-moments refer to those brief instances when people instinctively turn to a device to fulfill an immediate desire or find information. These moments are crucial opportunities for businesses, including banks, to connect with their customers and influence their decision-making process.
This article explores how to take your bank sales strategy to new levels using customers’ intent-rich micro-moments and Next Best Actions/Offers (NBA/NBO).
Pitfalls of traditional marketing campaigns in banking
Many financial institutions have become proficient in understanding their customers by gathering large amounts of data on their preferences and behavior. Based on this data, banks traditionally send marketing campaigns to clients, informing them about new services or promotional offers, covering segments of clients based simultaneously on client preferences or banking history.
Despite all the customer knowledge collected, this method has some pitfalls that affect sales conversion since it addresses a broad mass of people without considering the message’s relevance, context, or usefulness when each customer receives it.
More often than not, the recipients will not be paying attention or, even worse, they will perceive the message as spam because it is not relevant or interesting to them at that particular time.
Next Best Actions in Banking: Real-time Decisioning Beyond Digital Interactions
Let’s face it: your customers only spend a few minutes per day in your banking app and other digital channels, which is where a large investment was made to improve usability and create a frictionless customer experience. A large investment just for a few minutes of engagement.
But what happens when you try to initiate a conversation outside your digital channels, where your client spends most of their life? There are countless opportunities and micro-moments when the bank can be proactive with context-aware recommendations and offers for the customer to meet their immediate goals in real time.
So instead of fishing in the ocean with a net, no matter how segmented your “ocean” is, how can you effectively engage your customers and generate interest in your offers in real-time?
Micro-moments in banking
While most financial institutions have integrated some digital approaches into their marketing strategy, the savviest bank marketers are now analyzing their users’ daily routines to determine when those users might need the FI’s products, services, advice, or insights.
For banking, micro-moments are the fragmented instances throughout a customer’s day when they engage with their finances or encounter situations where financial services can provide value.
Micro-moments in banking extend beyond digital channels and encompass various touchpoints in customers’ lives. These moments occur when individuals engage with their finances or encounter situations where financial services can provide value, even outside the digital landscape.
By recognizing and capitalizing on these micro-moments, banks can establish a stronger presence and create personalized experiences for customers. By doing so, banks can not only enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty but also generate sales opportunities by providing relevant products and services.
Online Micro-Moments
In the digital landscape, online micro-moments play a significant role in banking, offering numerous opportunities for banks to engage with customers and drive sales.
These micro-moments occur when individuals interact with digital channels, such as websites, mobile apps, or social media platforms, seeking immediate financial information or solutions.
By harnessing the power of marketing automation, banks can effectively capitalize on these micro-moments, providing personalized experiences and relevant offers to customers in real-time.
Here are some examples of online micro-moments:
Real-Time Financial Assistance:
Online micro-moments present an ideal opportunity for banks to offer real-time financial assistance. For instance, when customers visit a bank’s website or mobile app to check their account balance or review transaction history, marketing automation can analyze their preferences and behavior to deliver personalized offers, such as tailored savings or investment options.
Moreover, if customers are exploring mortgage rates or loan options on the bank’s website, marketing automation can instantly provide them with customized offers, repayment calculators, or appointment scheduling with a loan officer. By delivering timely and relevant information during these micro-moments, banks can enhance the customer experience and increase the likelihood of converting prospects into sales.
Personalized Notifications and Alerts:
Marketing automation enables banks to leverage online micro-moments by sending personalized notifications and alerts to customers. These notifications can include updates on account activities, transaction confirmations, or reminders for upcoming bill payments. By proactively engaging customers with relevant information, banks can foster a sense of trust, demonstrate their commitment to customer service, and generate potential sales opportunities.
For example, if a customer receives a notification about a limited-time credit card promotion that aligns with their spending habits, it can spark their interest and encourage them to explore the offer further.
While online micro-moments provide valuable touchpoints, customers also engage with their finances outside the digital realm. This highlights the need for banks to employ a holistic approach that seamlessly integrates offline and online experiences.
Offline Micro-moments
Let’s face it: your customers only spend a few minutes per day in your banking app and other digital channels, which is where a large investment was made to improve usability and create a frictionless customer experience—a significant investment just for a few minutes of engagement.
If you want to make a real difference in how your bank interacts with its customers, it’s essential to consider what happens when they are offline, which constitutes the majority of their time.
But what happens when you try to initiate a conversation outside your digital channels? There are countless opportunities and micro-moments when the bank can be proactive with context-aware recommendations and offers for customers to meet their immediate goals in real-time.
Here are some examples of offline micro-moments that you can consider in your marketing and sales strategy:
At a gas station
Consider a customer who is refueling their car at a gas station. As they pay at the pump, this presents an opportunity for banks to offer relevant services, such as fuel rewards credit cards or personalized financing options for car purchases.
Making a purchase
Similarly, when customers make purchases in a store, such as buying a new TV or furniture, banks can leverage micro-moments to provide tailored financing options, including credit cards with exclusive benefits or installment plans. Banks can enhance customer satisfaction and drive sales by offering convenient and customized financial solutions at the moment of purchase.
Traveling
Traveling abroad often involves various financial considerations, presenting micro-moments for banking. For example, when customers are at the airport, banks can offer currency exchange services, international debit or credit cards with competitive exchange rates, or travel insurance.
These micro-moments help customers address their immediate financial needs while traveling and enable banks to establish a presence in a contextually relevant manner.
Additionally, during international travel, customers may encounter situations where they need to manage their finances on the go, such as accessing funds, tracking expenses, or receiving alerts for foreign transactions.
Banks can leverage mobile banking apps, notifications, and real-time support to cater to these micro-moments, ensuring seamless financial experiences for customers wherever they are.
Next Best Offers (NBO) and Next Best Actions (NBA)
In the banking industry, leveraging next best actions and next best offers can significantly enhance the customer experience and drive sales. These strategies involve utilizing data analytics and insights to identify the most appropriate actions and offers for individual customers at specific moments, including offline micro-moments.
By employing next best actions and next best offers, banks can significantly improve the customer experience by providing personalized recommendations and relevant offers. These strategies enhance customer satisfaction and create opportunities for upselling, cross-selling, and generating incremental sales.
Furthermore, by integrating offline micro-moments analysis into these approaches, banks can ensure a seamless and contextually relevant experience, leveraging customers’ offline interactions to drive personalized online interactions and vice versa.
Next Best Offers (NBO) and Next Best Actions (NBA) allow banks to promote products and services in real-time as soon as a customer transaction is detected AND it relates to a product or service that the bank wants to offer. For instance, if a customer books a trip, the bank can offer its travel insurance.
Banks have a significant opportunity to capitalize on micro-moments by offering added value. The goal is to enhance and transform these micro-moments from good to exceptional. By amplifying and reinforcing the value of a positive experience, banks can remind customers of the additional value they are receiving with their offer.
Various types of products can be promoted, such as credit cards, financing, insurance, loans, expanded credit card limits, overdraft expansions, and sponsored offers with restaurants, cinemas, and shopping centers.
Latinia Next Best Action (NBA)
The Latinia NBA (Next Best Action) Real-time Decision Engine is a powerful tool designed to boost sales, deliver value, and foster customer loyalty. By leveraging a combination of transaction information, customer intelligence data, and advanced business rules, this software enables banks to offer relevant products and services precisely when clients are most receptive.
The formula for success lies in the equation: Content + Context = Relevance. This is achieved by using three key concepts:
- Transaction Information: The Latinia NBA software utilizes transaction information, including details about what, when, and where a customer engages in financial activities, including offline micro-moments. This data helps create a comprehensive understanding of customer behavior and preferences.
- Customer Intelligence Data: By tapping into customer intelligence data, such as demographics, preferences, and past interactions, the Latinia NBA software identifies who the customers are and tailors recommendations accordingly. This personalized approach ensures a higher likelihood of engagement and satisfaction.
- Advanced Business Rules: The software employs advanced business rules to analyze the transaction and customer data. These rules allow for real-time decision-making and the generation of context-sensitive recommendations, ensuring timely and relevant interactions with customers.
Benefits for the bank
The convergence of Latinia NBA software and the concept of micro-moments presents an exciting opportunity for banks to revolutionize their customer experiences and drive exceptional results.
By leveraging the real-time decision-making capabilities of Latinia NBA and recognizing the significance of micro-moments, banks can deliver personalized, contextually relevant interactions that profoundly impact customers’ financial journeys.
Sales Enhancement
Latinia NBA enables banks to turn potentially negative situations into positive experiences by providing real-time, context-sensitive recommendations and offers. By leveraging the software’s capabilities, banks can seize opportunities to upsell, cross-sell, and offer additional products or services precisely when clients are most receptive.
Value Delivery
Banks can deliver value-added services and assistance to their clients. By leveraging the software’s insights, banks can offer relevant products and personalized recommendations, enhancing the overall customer experience and satisfaction.
Loyalty Cultivation
By offering customers relevant and timely recommendations, the Latinia NBA software strengthens customer loyalty. Clients appreciate receiving offers and assistance when they are actually receptive, leading to increased trust, engagement, and long-term loyalty.
In conclusion, the Latinia NBA Real-time Decision Engine empowers banks to optimize their interactions with customers. This software facilitates the delivery of personalized, context-sensitive recommendations and offers by utilizing transaction information, customer intelligence data, and advanced business rules.
Ultimately, it allows banks to boost sales, provide value, and foster lasting loyalty by delivering the right message to the right customer at the right time.
Categories: Customer Insights, Marketing & Sales