Signing off for the year

This will be my last blog post of 2013 (hey, no cheering, you know you will miss me really!)

It's been an eventful year for yours truly. I recently became Group Editor, FStech and Retail Systems and have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge thus far. I'm looking forward to taking the sister titles forward; lots of stuff on the horizon, including a redesign of the magazines and a new member of staff to work across both publications. And I'll be hitting the ground running in 2014 with the FStech Awards (shortlist to be announced in the New Year, followed by the judging day in late January and the big night in March...phew, lots to get through). 

 

OK, I'm off to eat Waitrose Heston mince pies, drink cheap sherry and generally be merry. Thanks to all who have supported and worked with FStech and Retail Systems this year. Happy Christmas and here’s to a prosperous 2014!

#epicsocialmediafail

This amused me. Stacy Keach reads a selection of #AskJPM tweets. Watch it here.

In case you missed it last week, JPMorgan Chase was forced to cancel a Q&A session on Twitter after the public responded with a barrage of abuse and questions. The bank asked followers to post questions for an executive using the hashtag #AskJPM. One user tweeted: 'Is it true that, while you don't always spit on poor people, when you do, you have perfect aim?' 'Can I have my house back?' another asked.

It was eventually forced to pull the plug, tweeting: 'Tomorrow's Q&A is cancelled. Bad Idea. Back to the drawing board.'
 
 

How FS firms can rebuild trust and improve customer engagement

Guest blog post by Andrew Hayward, COO, m-hance

When’s the last time you returned to a restaurant after a bad experience or purchased products from a company who provided shoddy customer service? As consumers ourselves we acknowledge that without trust there can be no viable relationship between businesses and their clients.

Speaking at the recent Regulatory Policy Institute’s Annual Competition and Regulation Conference, Christopher Woolard from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) stated: “Probably the biggest single issue is without engaged consumers, firms have all the wrong incentives. Firms that are focused on customer service and good value products can’t win significant market share from incumbents – even those who treat their customers poorly or like cash cows. This leads to a vicious circle where lack of consumer engagement makes other competition problems worse.”

Faced with sluggish growth, uncertainty about the future and greater regulatory compliance, there is a desperate need for financial services organisations to become closer to their customers for the right reasons. To achieve this, firms must excel by:

• Offering relevant, high quality products and services that are compliant with FCA regulations
• Listening to customer feedback and acting on it by demonstrating a clear audit trail
• Placing customers’ needs first to improve the overall experience
• Proactively taking action to address potential issues and points of pain

Leading integrated financial management, document management and CRM solutions  enable financial services companies to audit their customer interactions, maximise sales productivity, improve cash flow and become more competitive in the marketplace through improved customer service and engagement. By securely maintaining quality, up-to-date and accurate data which is instantly accessible, integrated systems enable customers to be automatically kept informed about relevant offers and products whilst ensuring firms do not fall foul of tightening FCA regulations. Automating manual service processes also saves your employees significant amounts of time which can instead be focused on strengthening customer relationships and generating additional revenue in addition to cutting admin costs.

Businesses that persist with spreadsheets and standalone systems will never gain a comprehensive view of financial, sales and marketing data to determine what is and isn’t working in order to make informed decisions about how and when they engage their customers. In contrast, integrated software systems turn real-time data into actionable insight, enabling you to quickly establish what stage your customers are situated in the buying cycle and when is best to contact them with the right offer which is tailored to their needs.

Building trust takes time and effort but can provide considerable benefits in the short and long term. In the financial services sector, where competition is intense, the need to improve customer engagement is even more crucial. With ever increasing expectations, the need to have the right systems in place to effectively understand and allocate appropriate messaging and resources to clients is therefore vital.

Integrated business technologies offer firms the opportunity to really get to know their customers. By providing timely and accurate data, finance and CRM systems significantly improve productivity and help generate sustained future opportunity and revenue streams through better targeting. This leads to increased customer loyalty and a long lasting relationship that benefits both sides, as well as boosting the reputation of the financial services industry at a time when it really needs it.

Further information here.

The new iPhone: the dawn of biometric?

Guest blog post by Sascha Breite, head of future payments, SIX Payment Services

Even by Apple’s usual standards, it’s been a big couple of weeks. The release of new software update iOS 7 and the much-anticipated launch of the new iPhone have combined to create a greater-than-normal buzz around the brand. Add to this the recent Interbrand list, naming Apple above Google or Coca Cola as the highest valued global brand, and it’s easy to understand why the launch of the new iPhone has created waves beyond the mobile handset industry.

This is particularly true of the payments industry, where mobile payments continue to dominate the discussion. This is a space which is currently experiencing significant flux – from PayPal to PingIt, Znap to Zapp, iZettle to Intuit, it seems as if everyone wants in on the mobile payments action. The only remaining barrier, it would appear, is consumer trust in mobile payment products.

This is precisely why any change to the UK’s most popular handset – the iPhone 5 has been Britain’s number one handset for seven consecutive months – will be taken seriously by payments professionals. Take, for example, the decision by Apple to not include Near Field Communication (NFC) technology in the new model. A number of commentators have chosen to see this as flat-out dismissal of NFC, suggesting this signifies the end of the road for contactless payments. And while it is true that without Apple backing NFC technology will struggle to reach mass market, I am not convinced by this argument. There are a number of popular Google products – Google Maps, iOS Passbook, to name a couple – that would greatly benefit from in-built NFC technology. Apple will join the NFC market, but only when they see fit to do so.

The far more interesting development, in my opinion, is the inclusion of biometrics in the iPhone 5s. The fingerprint identification technology removes the need for a passcode to unlock the screen, and consequently paves the way for mainstream consumer familiarisation with biometrics. In other words, the iPhone 5s may well do globally for biometrics, what the Oyster card has done for contactless in London. And if we bear in mind the current consumer distrust of mobile payment technology, the significance of this becomes all the clearer.

Biometrics are certainly a secure method of identification, reducing consumer security concerns around new technology. Apple is placing the chances of a random unregistered fingerprint unlocking an iPhone at 1 in 50,000, a significant five times better than the four-digit PIN currently used. What’s more, it’s a great way for consumers to engage with new identification technology – and after all, isn’t half the mobile payment battle to do with identification anyway?

While Apple’s developments may not necessarily illustrate an obvious interest in the payments market, it is clear that these changes will have far reaching impacts – most notably on consumer attitudes towards biometric identification. But that isn’t to say Apple has closed the door on NFC. Watch this space, for there is sure to be more.

Mobile payments: friend or foe?

Guest blog post by Tony Virdi, Head of Cognizant's Financial Services Practice for the UK and Ireland 

VocaLink’s introduction of its new mobile payment service, Zapp, is the latest sign that mobile payments are gaining serious momentum. With the anticipated launch of the UK Payments Council’s ubiquitous interbank mobile P2P payments service next year, we are seeing a major disruption to traditional banking.

To date, it is clear that banks have not been able to truly capitalise on the wider m-commerce opportunity available. The disparate nature of retailers, banking institutions and consumers themselves have placed many obstacles in the road and while many mobile payment and mobile banking apps exist, they have either been platform-specific and tricky to interoperate, or unable to fulfil banking and payments standards.

Mobile payments technologies themselves are in their infancy; their continued evolution is affecting tried and tested payment acceptance processes. Services like Square, iZettle and Paylaven are disrupting traditional merchant payment providers while at the same time, smartphones are becoming payment acceptance devices, thereby reducing the time to bring on board new merchants and also reducing cost of transaction.

As new wearable devices such as Google Glasses and the iWatch arrive on the scene, their ease of use will allow customers will complete even more digital transactions on the go. This all means that banks are increasingly focusing on m-commerce as a means of both providing better customer service and meeting demand as well as enhancing their top lines. M-commerce provides banks with unique opportunities to develop complete and holistic payment solutions in collaboration with retailers and telecom providers so as to provide customers with seamless, safe and secure ways of paying for the goods and services they buy on their mobile devices.   

However, with an increase in mobile payments also comes risk. Whether anti-money laundering (AML), fraud, device theft or shoulder surfing, this is no different to any other new technology. In the case of mobile payments, these risks converge with those of the financial services and telecommunications industries. For example, big data analytics helps such organisations comply with industry regulations and better manage risk. As a result, the regulators, telecom operators and hardware vendors will all need to work closely together to parry the threats of fraud and have the technology and processes in place to achieve this.

Only once these problems have been overcome will the market flourish. Above all, ensuring a good customer experience should be the ultimate goal for all parties involved – mobile payments need to be easy and risk free. With constant movements in the industry and new players entering the game, the wind of change is rife and it is progressively being driven by consumer demand as they seek new channels for payments (and communication). Banks must embrace this disruption at pace to retain their relevance and move with the times.

Waxing lyrical

The latest FStech videocast is now online, in which I discuss some of the financial sector technology stories that have caught my eye over the past couple of weeks.

This includes the news that Fidelity Investments is testing a Google Glass markets app. The US FS firm's R&D arm, Fidelity Labs, is participating in a Google early developer programme, and is working with a prototype of Google Glass to better understand the technology and how it may benefit customers.

It has issued a concept video entitled 'A day in the life of a Fidelity customer using Google Glass'. And it has also released its first experiment with the technology, allowing customers to receive, at market close, quotes from the major indexes.

You can watch the videocast here.

Latest FStech videocast

The latest FStech videocast is now online.

In this one, I give the lowdown on the FStech Multi-Channel Banking Conference, which took place last month. There is also a full review of the conference in our July/August, due out next week. Click here for subscription details.

You can watch the videocast here.

Happy viewing!