Even in an age with a focus on digital, at-home solutions, financial services customers are still looking for human, personal interactions. According to The Financial Brand, face-to-face interactions are the 2nd most desired type of communication method with their financial providers, just behind phone calls. A common desire from these customers is to not just feel like an account number, but a real customer, a feeling that is all too often lost in translation across digital platforms.
This is also true in the world of insurance: according to our Independent Agent’s Report Card, 30% of insurance agents 45 and younger prefer to use video chat to interact with their carriers. Across all financial industries, there is a desire for the same face-to-face service to occur at home.
There is a need for remote banking services that doesn’t feel too remote: Customers still largely desire convenient, at-home experiences, but do also desire more human connections in moments of greater need. To get the best of both worlds, financial services can turn to the world of video banking to give users access to face-to-face customer service at home.
Why Do You Need Video Chat Banking?
Video chat in banking is becoming more than just a nice optional feature, but something that will really make the difference for a significant portion of users. Having a virtual teller service available can solve potential issues with traditional customer service methods, as well as ensuring you meet rising customer expectations.
- Enhanced Customer Experience: Offering face-to-face video chat banking for your customers is a great way to provide the more human, personal connection you normally get from in-branch interactions without requiring customers to actually visit your physical location. Being able to see the agent assisting them can help assure customers they’re speaking to a real human, and creates the kinds of in-depth interactions that create loyal, lifelong relationships.
- Increased Accessibility: There’s a number of reasons why customers with accessibility issues may benefit from a video conferencing feature from their bank: Those with mobility issues may find it much easier to get face-to-face time with an employee through video chat rather than going to your branch, or those with hearing issues can find it beneficial to read the lips of the employee as they speak.
- Fraud Prevention: Secure video chat can allow for an easy way to verify that the person on the other end of the interaction is the person they’re indeed claiming to be. It can help both assure customers they’re speaking to a real employee of your institution, as well as give service reps another way to confirm who they’re speaking to is legitimately the account holder.
- Meet Post-Covid Demands: Remote banking services like video banking really took off during and after the pandemic, when a need for robust at-home service grew rapidly. Even now, many people have gotten used to the convenience and ease of these digital solutions, and are still using them regularly.
What are the Key Use Cases for Video Chat?
Many of the use cases that are ideal for video chat banking are those that would benefit from high-touch human interaction, but can also be done entirely online without requiring an in-branch visit. This allows banking customers, credit union members, and insurance policyholders to get all the benefits of face to face customer service with all the convenience of being at home.
- Account Opening: With this crucial, important step for the consumer naturally comes a lot of questions and a need for guidance. Now that potential customers can open an account easily from the comfort of their homes, it pays to make sure they can still get access to the reassuring face-to-face service that makes this big step as easy as can be.
- Financial Advisory Services: People who want some advice about their finances will likely feel much more comfortable talking to someone they can really see. This adds a level of trust and confidence to the interaction that puts a customer’s mind at ease, and creates a more memorable and personable experience.
- Technical Support: Sometimes it’s just so much easier to talk to someone to explain your technical issue rather than trying to type everything out: Being able to open a video conferencing conversation with their support agent can lead to a smoother interaction for everyone involved.
- Loan Applications: Loan application forms can be tricky processes, with a lot of different forms to fill and plenty of stress that comes with it. Video chatting with a support agent can take some of the pressure off, and allows a support rep to turn a potentially stressful situation into a memorable moment where they can truly see the name and face of the person that helped them. Your institution will become more than just their financial services provider, but they’ll be able to have that personal connection.
What to Look For in a Video Conferencing Solution
When you’re looking to deploy your own solution for allowing these remote face-to-face conversations between reps and your customers, there’s a lot you’ll want to consider. You’ll want to make sure your video chat solution is suitable for the purposes of financial institutions, and won’t be creating more problems than it can solve.
- Security & Compliance: As with any other solution being used in the financial industry, you’ll want to make sure that this solution is built with financial-grade security in mind. Make sure that this solution has the security certifications and infrastructure that’s made with the compliance needs of the financial industry in mind.
- Integration with Existing Systems: A video chat function that isn’t already integrated with the systems you’re using will just be another platform to manage, and another headache for service reps and managers. Pre-integrations into OLB platforms, core banking providers, or major insurance partners will make the solution much easier to use and not require a lengthy set up period.
- Seamless Transitions: If a customer or representative decides that a video chat will be the optimal way to talk mid-interaction, will they be able to jump right into one? Or will they need to leave that conversation, go join a new one, and re-explain themselves all over again to someone new?
Why To Consider Glia
Glia’s video chat functionality isn’t a separate solution–it’s a singular part of a larger, Unified Interaction Management platform. Without the typical silos or disconnected experiences you may get from legacy platforms, customers can seamlessly switch between video, voice, chat, AI service, and phone. This makes upgrading to video an easy switch that can instantly improve a customer interaction without a disconnect that will interrupt their experience.
Glia’s one-way or two-way video options can be accessed both on desktop and mobile, and as the rest of the Glia platform is, it’s pre-integrated with many major softwares that financial institutions are already using. Video chat is a clear game-changer for financial institutions, and Glia provides a way to seamlessly access this key functionality without unnecessary disconnects.
To see video chat in action for yourself, book a personal demo with us.
