Think about your current customer onboarding process for a moment. Perhaps you have automated some of your processes (nice work!), but in others, error-prone, manual tasks are dragging your efficiency down.
Of course, you’re concerned about compliance, but the day-to-day worry is often about attracting and keeping customers. This worry can be overwhelming if you (and your customers) are mired in frustrating, paper-based account opening tasks that span weeks.
Maybe you’ve taken the initiative to beef up your compliance processes by adding staff. But unfortunately, your costs have increased and you have fallen short in improving your compliance and reducing your risk. Often, it can seem as if you have to choose: Do you dot all the ‘T’s and cross all the ‘I’s to remain compliant (which adds complexity when tackled traditionally)? Or do you prioritize a frictionless onboarding experience (since customers and complexity don’t mix)?
It’s time to retire this false dilemma. Compliance does not have to come at the expense of customer satisfaction.
The key is building a framework that eliminates complexity, while adding functionality. An out-of-the box, one-size-fits-all system can’t give you the flexibility you require as your business grows, and the needs and demands of your customer base inevitably evolve.
So how can you make your processes work for you – not against you?
Deploy a modular software framework that is flexible and actually embraces change. With process automation, you can create a highly adaptable workflow that can quickly respond to change—whether that’s changing market conditions (such as new and/or evolving regulations), customer expectations (demand for self-service/mobile onboarding) and whatever else is on the horizon.
Customer-Friendly, Compliance-Friendly
Imagine if onboarding and compliance processes could work together. That’s what an agile, open digital transformation platform can enable.
In a basic scenario, let’s say our customer wants to open an account or apply for a loan via a mobile device. Our customer can snap a photo of their ID or completed application document, and the data is automatically extracted and integrated into the correct workflow, and routed to the appropriate department or employee. There are no manual tasks required, and errors are eliminated.
Robotic process automation extracts and verifies customer data against third-party sources to execute identity verification, Know Your Customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), fraud prevention and other needed regulatory compliance checks. Since software robots work 24/7 and deliver a 100% accuracy rate, our customer won’t face a long wait for an approval. It happens in minutes, not months. And your staff won’t need to worry about manual keying errors that can create delays.
E-signature and verification technology allows our new customer to sign any new account paperwork on a smartphone or tablet, eliminating the need for a branch office visit to deliver a wet signature. Your customer’s experience is hassle-free and fast. And your compliance is strengthened through accurate data.
Even after the value realized during these initial information-intensive interactions, long-term benefits continue, including the ability to:
- Schedule automatic, periodic customer due diligence (CDD) re-checks (these also can be triggered by a customer submitting notice of change of address, etc.).
- Automatically produce a complete audit trail, while avoiding repetitive tracking and reporting activities that waste staff time and bank resources.
- Engage customers through automated, personal follow-up communications across multiple channels (online, mobile, print) using intelligent templates.
- Enable managers to identify process bottlenecks and make insightful comparisons to historical performance through built-in analytics dashboards.
- Help staff ensure approval criteria are applied consistently using rules-based workflows that can be easily modified as needed.
A customer-friendly, compliance-friendly digital experience creates tangible value that reverberates throughout the organization. It streamlines operations, helps win and keep clients and ensures better compliance and reduced regulatory risk. To learn more, download the ebook 5 Ways Not to Lose a Banking Customer and the white paper KYC Sparks an Automation Revolution.