Digital transformation is no longer a “nice to have” in the Financial Services and Telecoms sectors. It has become a necessity as ongoing macroeconomic factors continue to impact consumers and businesses. Businesses that stand still are at risk of falling behind as competition intensifies and consumer expectations increase. Less digitally savvy organisations will struggle to keep up with those that have already embraced digitalisation to improve the accuracy of credit decisioning and streamline the application process.
Digitalisation ensures faster processing time and a better customer experience. At the same time, it reduces the risk of fraud – a valuable fact for any business as the number of fraud cases increases.
Digitalisation is a top business priority
Businesses are increasingly focusing their attention on digitalisation. In our 2022 Business and Consumer Insight Report, 62% of business respondents said that investing in the digitalisation of their core business processes was a critical or high priority. 60% increase budget for digitalisation of customer experience. A successful digital transformation is essential for companies to achieve their two main objectives: improving protection against fraud (65%) and improving the experience of customers (60%).
Moving from a manual process to a digital one can help businesses protect their customers against increasingly sophisticated fraud threats and allows them to deploy dynamic workflows that prevent a slow and inefficient application process. These factors are highly relevant, with 59% of consumers abandoning an application in the last year and 67% concerned about fraud when interacting online.
Improve internal efficiency
The simplicity of the application process is becoming a more important factor for consumers in the decision process when getting a loan or credit. We are living in the convenience economy where consumers are often frustrated by having to wait.
By introducing more automation into operational activities businesses can streamline workloads and reduce manual intervention. As investment in technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and cloud-based software increases, it’s important that businesses partner with trusted AI/ML experts that can handle the complexity of this technology and help them maximise the potential benefits.
Improve external efficiency
As mentioned earlier, improving fraud prevention and the customer experience are this year’s top priorities for businesses. Finding the balance can be difficult, however, with more robust fraud prevention tactics often leading to a more cumbersome and time-consuming application process. With consumer expectations around speed and convenience arguably at an all-time high, this is a difficult balance to get right.
A fully digital onboarding process can create a smoother, more personalised, and quicker experience that also reduces the risk of fraud. Take ID verification as an example. Our research found that 66% of consumers would find digital ID verification enjoyable and 60% of companies are increasing the budget for digitising the customer experience.
When you consider that 43% of consumers are unlikely to use a company with a slow application process, it’s clear how digitalisation can benefit both consumers and businesses. Introducing a digital solution such as electronic ID verification can drastically reduce friction and improve security.
The future is fully digital
The reality of our modern world is that we expect convenience more than ever before, this is especially true when applying for a credit card, loan, or mobile phone contract. We expect to complete a simple application and see the results within minutes rather than days or weeks.
Businesses that prioritise investment in this digital transformation have a much greater chance of meeting these expectations. By implementing the latest digital tools for both their internal and customer-facing processes they become more appealing to consumers and better equipped to prevent fraud. The end result is more convenience, simplicity and security – all powered by digitalisation.