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Consumers are looking for more complete digital experiences. In the growth of banking channels, personalization of the relationship becomes fundamental. In this case, Banca Widiba has launched a service to communicate with customers through a video banking solution.

The ability to offer a quality User Experience has always been a strategic driver for retaining customers and creating a competitive advantage. In recent years, in many industries, the experience of buying and interacting between customer and company has also shifted – if not mainly – to digital channels.

Digital user experience, consumer expectations

Big Techs are a clear example. Thanks to their vision, technological skills, and ability to use data effectively, they have accustomed their customers to progressively more complete digital experiences. Therefore, the ability to master digital channels and offer a high-level digital User Experience becomes essential to be in line with consumer expectations. Even in the banking sector, customers are increasingly looking for digital solutions and expect a higher quality of consistent services with that of other industries.

The growth trend of digital banking channels over the years is evident. And the increase was further catalyzed by the coronavirus lockdowns, which transformed the habits of most consumers. Even those who were more reluctant to rely on the new channels had to change how they interacted with their financial institutions of reference.

The growth of digital banking channels

The Fintech & Insurtech Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano data already showed an acceleration in 2020, but 2021 was not far behind. In the first half of the year, there was a further increase of 12% of online users compared to the same period in 2020. However, online users increased, and the frequency of home and mobile banking used to carry out transactions. The volume of transactions carried out digitally has grown by an average of 33% compared to 2020.

This data is further confirmed by the results of the survey conducted by the Observatory on Italian consumers active on the internet: payments and money transfers via smartphones are respectively adopted by 54% and 44% of the sample. Therefore, users are demonstrating more and more maturity and awareness of the potential of digital channels.

In addition to providing the possibility of online management of operations to its customers, the number of institutes that allow you to open an account directly online with onboarding procedures that can be carried out comfortably and quickly with just the use of a smartphone or PC, equipped with photo and video camera, is also growing. Consumers seem to appreciate this option, so much so that in the first half of 2021 the average growth in this service (among those who already allowed it in 2020) settled at 5%.

If on the one hand the management of operations through web and mobile banking platforms gradually becomes the norm for a good part of consumers, on the other hand, the human component is still fundamental for the more specific needs and personalized services such as savings management in where interaction still creates a lot of value.

Widiba’s video banking for face-to-face relationships with customers

It is in this context that Dialogue, the video banking functionality recently introduced in Banca Widiba and developed jointly with Kaleyra, fits: Dialogue allows customers to interact with the bank through a new remote relationship channel, which preserves a “face-to-face” interaction mode and guarantees an increasingly evolved customer experience. The functionality was developed after carefully listening to customer needs by combining relationships and technology, according to Widiba’s style.

“We have chosen to invest in video banking further to foster the dialogue experience and interaction with our bank. With Dialogue, customers can start a video call with Banca Widiba directly in private wherever they are, without giving up human contact. This functionality allows the customer not only to optimize time but also to simplify the experience with the Bank”, explains Roberta Zurlo, Chief Commercial Officer Banking & Credit of Banca Widiba.

To facilitate the remote relationship between bank and customers and at the same time safeguard the human aspect of the interaction, Kaleyra has integrated a video communication channel within Banca Widiba’s digital touchpoints through which customers can interact to receive support and request information. Kaleyra Video allows the bank to offer customers a smooth, immediate, complete interaction experience available directly from the bank’s digital channels, combining the physical component of the interaction with the digital one.

“We are happy to work together with Banca Widiba to continue digitizing and, at the same time, humanizing the relationship with customers”, says Mauro Carobene, EVP and Chief Business Officer of Kaleyra. “Our goal is to ensure that companies can offer their customers a customer experience that is as complete and intuitive as possible and accessible directly from the digital touchpoints that the bank already uses.”

Source: The Digital Innovation Observatories