Unleashing efficiency using intelligent automation in banking and financial services

In today's dynamic marketplace, banking and financial services leaders are grappling with a myriad of challenges that are significantly impacting their profitability, growth and ability to deliver exceptional customer experiences (CX). Increased market risk driven by inflation and rising interest rates, as well as geopolitical uncertainty, are all having an effect on the industry.

In the face of these challenges, forward-thinking banking and financial services brands are seeking innovative solutions to enhance their customer experience, optimize operations and foster customer loyalty.

Achieving banking objectives through intelligent automation

One such solution is intelligent automation, which holds the promise of transforming the industry landscape and enabling organizations to thrive in this rapidly evolving environment.

In a recent live webinar hosted by TELUS International, Ken Mertzel, global industry leader — financial services at Automation Anywhere, shed light on the various ways automation is being used within the banking and financial services industry. While the list of benefits is lengthy, a few of the more prominent use cases are listed below.

• Enhancing compliance and risk management: The highly regulated nature of the industry has led leaders to adopt automation to strengthen their regulatory compliance and risk management, safeguarding their organizations against costly potential regulatory fines.
• Transforming operations with digital technology: According to Mertzel, all banks have some form of digital transformation effort underway. Most banks are looking at how they can leverage automation to drive those transformational efforts, not only in the back office, but in the front office as well. For the latter, automation can streamline various tasks, including recording essential pre- and post-call notes and swiftly responding to customer inquiries with chatbots. On the back end, intelligent automation systems play a vital role in inputting customer information, maintaining databases and handling document management.
• Reducing fraud: Artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced automation technologies are instrumental in fortifying controls related to fraud, compliance and risk. By leveraging real-time data analysis and pattern recognition, banks can detect and prevent fraudulent activities more effectively than ever before.
• Increasing operational efficiency: Automation streamlines operations, eliminating manual processes and significantly reducing labor costs. These efficiencies can be leveraged across numerous applications within the industry. A notable success story shared by Mertzel highlighted the transformative impact of automation on the loan underwriting process. By harnessing intelligent automation, lenders can reduce the time to close a mortgage from 45-60 days to just 15-30 days and significantly decrease the processing cost by as much as $4,000 per loan.
• Empowering human capital: Contrary to common belief, automation serves to compliment the workforce, rather than replacing it. "Automation is actually an enabler," said Mertzel. "It takes those manual, repetitive, data intensive tasks, and gives them to automation so that people can focus more on strategic analysis and value added activities. This is particularly important given the shortage of labor that the industry is experiencing."
• Improving the customer experience: Automation provides financial services brands with the ability to increase the speed and accuracy of the interactions with their customers, which is critical to providing high-quality experiences. The impact of intelligent automation on CX is already evident in major banks. According to Mertzel, a prime example includes one of their clients — a leading financial group based out of Columbia — that leverages intelligent automation in their front-office operations. As a result of this transformative initiative, the client experienced an impressive 50% increase in customer service efficiency.

While intelligent automation offers numerous benefits for banking and financial services brands, unlocking its true potential requires careful and strategic implementation within an organization.

The future of banking and financial services: Unlocking customer experience potential with intelligent automation

Join experts from TELUS International and Automation Anywhere, a top cloud automation platform, to learn how banks and financial services firms can leverage automation to enhance the customer experience, optimize operations and foster customer loyalty.

Watch the video

Best practices for unlocking CX potential through automation

Automation holds the key to revolutionizing front- and back-office operations, driving unprecedented efficiency and enhancing the overall customer experience.

And yet, according to Lori Branton, global vice president of client success at TELUS International, in order for brands to get the most value out of automation, there are best practices to consider.

• Continuous evolution: Implementing automation is not a "one and done" solution, says Branton. It needs to be continually revisited and evaluated for opportunities. "You need to treat a bot like an employee — as an extension of your digital workforce — where they are accountable for performance improvements and also may need refresher training from time to time."
• Top-down transformations: The most successful digital transformation journeys occur when initiatives are prioritized by an organization's executive leadership, says Branton. "Where there is a willingness to explore new ideas, process and policy enhancements," as well as, "a willingness to explore evolved efficiency and CX digital success metrics and targets."
• Prioritize customer journey mapping: It's important for leaders to think about how automation fits, end-to-end, into the various stages of the customer experience journey. From capturing a potential customer's attention with personalized search and product positioning, to keeping them satisfied as a loyal customer with proactive alerts and personalized tools, every stage of the journey can benefit from intelligent automation. "You should be thinking about not only how it is today, but also reimagining the journey of the future and meeting your customers where they want to be," adds Branton.
• Leverage the expertise of a digital CX partner: Navigating the complexities of effectively implementing automation can be challenging, and this is where a skilled digital CX partner becomes invaluable. According to Branton, a partner like TELUS International will take the time to dig in and get to know a client's automation business goals and objectives. "We identify opportunities to optimize the processes in place and augment them with technology solutions and refined metrics that create a more convenient, personalized and simplified journey for customers."

Embracing these best practices will enable financial services brands to stay ahead of the curve and succeed in delivering excellence to their valued customers.

Reach out to our team of automation experts to see how we can help create a customized intelligent automation solution that will transform your organization and help you stay ahead in today's dynamic marketplace.