By Satish Roy
In the hyper-competitive financial market, customer-centric strategies are critical for fintech firms to make their presence felt. This is particularly important in a region such as India – the third-largest fintech market globally with more than 9,000 fintech firms.[1]
As a result, customer experience is critical for thriving and expanding operations in such a landscape. Listening to customers and then adapting strategies to innovate and create novel products can help fintechs penetrate new market segments. Indeed, even the RBI Governor has predicted a promising future for the Indian fintech industry, noting that it is projected to generate $200 Billion in revenue by 2030 while contributing to 13% of global fintech revenues.[2]
A single statistic shows the exciting potential of the fintech space. In 2023, bank account penetration in India recorded an 80% increase.[3] According to industry experts, this would have taken 47 years via traditional methods. Backed by digital initiatives such as UPI, ONDC, Aadhaar and GST, fintech firms have been able to accelerate financial penetration by introducing innovative products and services.
Advantages of Adaptability and Customer-centricity
A customer-centric approach based on listening and adapting can help fintech firms in India lower entry barriers, democratise technology and promote financial inclusion. Consumer-centricity among fintechs must be paramount because the sunrise segment emerged to fill the gaps in customer service left by traditional banks that operated in a slow, cumbersome manner.
Though most companies talk about being customer-centric, many fail to implement this effectively. While listening continuously to customers and designing products or services thereafter as per their needs may seem simple at first glance, this is not the case.
To begin with, it requires real-time monitoring of customer habits and behaviour. In the era of 24/7 connectivity, the criticality of tapping social media as an early warning system of customer thoughts, trends and behaviour cannot be overemphasised. Given the constantly evolving fintech ecosystem, besides traditional platforms, it is important to leverage social media to comprehend consumer preferences and market trends. This dual listening model will help fintechs stay updated on the latest industry happenings while securing a competitive edge over their peers.
In a dynamic environment, agility, adaptability and speedy insights are essential to maintain market competitiveness. While customer surveys, direct email interactions and focus groups help companies understand their target audience, social intelligence has become a cost-effective and powerful means of obtaining real-time consumer insights.
Tapping the World of Social Listening
Each day, customers engage with social networks, online communities and other connected forums to share their experiences and feelings on various issues. Online conversations can offer a wealth of information for financial entities since they reveal the thoughts, actions and behaviour of customers, including pain points in dealing with the world of finance.
By actively tracking social conversations, fintechs can gain invaluable insights about their industry and business, helping them to improve and grow. Through social listening, companies can adapt quickly to recent industry trends and innovations. By monitoring the latest developments in cybersecurity, data breaches and more, organisations can ensure enhanced customer experiences.
Similarly, social listening can assist brands in picking up negative comments and responding swiftly to address consumer concerns. Rapid resolution of problems can play a big role in transforming unhappy customers into loyal, long-term users, boosting retention rates.
Social listening can also be most useful in observing and understanding the strategies of competitors. Consequently, fintech players could evaluate their performance vis-à-vis the competition. Based on consumer feedback regarding peers, fintechs can discover areas for self-improvement to provide better products and services.
Conventional Modes and Patient Listening
Additionally, companies can use conventional means such as real-time monitoring of user behaviour to adapt services as required. Consumer engagement and interactions can also help in knowing their intrinsic needs and preferences. However, while interacting with customers, one must listen to them carefully rather than offering readily available products or solutions.
Often, CRMs (customer relationship managers) are prone to providing potential solutions without entirely understanding the consumer’s problem. Such ‘proactive’ solutions won’t resolve the issue and only end up increasing customer dissatisfaction. Therefore, patient listening followed by well-defined solutions is needed to make sure the problem is addressed to the customer’s complete satisfaction.
In this way, customer experiences can be improved. Yet, while catering to customer expectations, companies should be aware of the current regulatory norms. As regulatory requirements are evolving constantly in the dynamic digital age, a delicate balance must be maintained between the current data laws and customer demands, including issues concerning data privacy and security.
Organisational speed in adapting to changing regulatory guidelines and shifting consumer preferences acts as a key factor in differentiating the kind of success that fintech firms enjoy. Likewise, patiently listening to consumer concerns facilitates greater customer-centricity.
Furthermore, patient listening should be complemented with the right questions posed to customers regarding their concerns. The answers could help adapt organisational strategies, services and product offerings as per their requirements.
One must also note that even as digital tools are used to promote faster turnaround times, empathy and other forms of the human element should not be overlooked. For example, automated systems, chatbots and virtual assistants are useful in ensuring 24/7 access to customer care and allied services. Despite these benefits, they may not always address specific queries or issues satisfactorily even as the lack of human touch becomes apparent to customers.
The Criticality of Customer-centricity
Accordingly, fintech entities must keep listening to customer concerns and feedback to ensure they never lose sight of their customer-centric focus. The relatively slow pace of banks to keep up with changing customer preferences was partly responsible for these conventional lenders losing ground to fintechs. The simple, old-world products and processes of banks in savings, lending and other services were also responsible for making the segment ripe for disruption by fintech firms.
A few years ago, a PwC survey found that 73% of financial sector executives believed that consumer banking was most likely to be disrupted by fintech.[4] That this prediction came true so soon is not surprising, given the speedy, convenient services that the fintech industry provides.
Keeping these aspects in mind, all fintech services and products, including technological solutions, should be user-friendly, easy to use and accessible while being customised according to the needs of diverse customer cohorts. If these varied boxes are ticked, rest assured customers will turn into long-term loyalists and it can also help in establishing a more inclusive financial ecosystem.
(The author is Satish Roy, Chief of Customer Experience – mPokket, and the views expressed in this article are his own)
