Banks giving a virtual 'walk-in' experience

MUMBAI, INDIA: Nowadays, a tech-savvy customer prefers 'e-ways' to carry out his/her banking, financial services and insurance transactions, which help him/her save money and time to a large extent. However, the 'walk-in' experience in retail banking or insurance outlets has not completely died down, as it still remains the most satisfying for majority non-tech savvy customers.

But, since the executive-customer ratio is insufficient in these organizations to meet the large customer base that prefer the 'walk-in', there's a time gap happening between the customer and the executive, who attends to him/her.

Now, it has become a thing of past. The BFSI sector has started deploying video-based collaborative solutions to address these kind of situations.

Says Avinash Purvar, senior vice president — Sales, Cisco, “The idea is to open new service channels to customers than the traditional ones. Video solutions provide a 'face to face' experience to the customer in terms of seeking information and advices onservices and products.”

For instance, he points out, a high net income (HNI) customer requires higher level of services and information, which a normal customer executive might not be able to fulfill in a time-frame. For such customers, a video call to any expert executives would be of great help.

In addition, the video solution allows enterprises to maintain the uniformity of information, while the expert advises and shares information with their customers. The solution can be deployed by small enterprise with 15-20 end points as well as large enterprise with 300-400 end points spread at different locations.

Since most enterprises use customer relation management (CRM) applications, the expert would have access to customers' profiles at the back-end while advising the customers over video calls, Purvar explained.

Importantly, the collaboration tools such as video solutions allow enterprises to up-sell and cross-sell its products and services to tap new business opportunities with existing customers. For example, a bank which offers banking products and services can use the tool to put its new insurance offering to their customers.

This trend is growing fast in India and is encouraging for Cisco's business. Among the enterprises in India that have deployed Cisco's collaborative video solutions include HDFC, SBI, PNB, National Insurance Corporation, LIC, BOB, IDBI, ICICI and YES Bank.