Thai institutions urged to become 'everyday banks'
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EVEN though Thai banks are now more focused on digital banking, they still largely only consider it as a customer-access channel, which is not enough if they are to ride the customer-experience revolution successfully in the digital age, according to Acce
In many developed countries, banks look beyond digital banking as merely a channel to access customers, and Thai banks should do likewise, as everything digital is becoming an increasingly central part of everyday consumer life, said Accenture’s Asean financial services senior managing director, Jonathan Allaway.
With digital driving a customer-experience revolution, Thai banks should aim to become the “everyday bank” of clients, not only providing basic financial services such as deposits, withdrawals and lending through digital banking, he said.
“The banks should rethink what they can offer in terms of services that involve the lifestyle of consumers, such as entertainment and shopping,” he added.
Therefore, banks should rework a new model – an ecosystem – in building their relationship with clients, Allaway said.
Such an ecosystem creates new roles and new opportunities for banks, which should build a “digital village”, leveraging a nucleus of partners or providers such as small and medium-sized enterprises, merchants and suppliers, he suggested.
The ecosystem benefits all stakeholders, and the banks themselves will have deeper customer relationships and be able to create new profit pools, said the managing director.
Allaway said that with up to 30 per cent of banks’ revenues “fragile”, those that become an everyday bank in the digital age can expect higher operating income.
Institutions can fill a new strategic role in being everyday banks in the digital era by using the advantages of social media, mobility, analytics and cloud computing, he added.
In Asia, there are about 800 million unbanked people, and Accenture recommends to banks that they should start digital banking by offering mobile wallets, which involve small transactions. When consumers become familiar with mobile wallets, a bank can then use its analytics to offer more complicated products, he explained.
