“Practice makes perfect” can be valuable advice — but not when it comes to onboarding banking or insurance customers. That’s because it’s likely you will only have one chance to get it right.
Today’s digitally shrewd, on-the-go consumers have a very specific vision of the process they expect when opening an account or applying for a loan or insurance policy. And this vision is largely based on the digital experience offered by popular entertainment and retail platforms like Hulu and Amazon.
So how can you ensure you get it right the first time with digital onboarding? Considering that, for example, 52% of banks either don’t measure or don’t know what their customer abandonment rates are, an essential first step for any organization is to get an accurate assessment of factors such as attrition rate, time to onboard, bottlenecks, etc. You can’t take steps to prevent customers from dropping out of your account opening process if you don’t know it’s happening, at what point in the process it’s happening and how your onboarding process stacks up to your competitors.
After taking stock of your current process, it can also be helpful to put yourself in the mindset of the customer and try to envision the type of onboarding experience you’d be wowed by when applying for a mortgage or applying for life insurance:
Make it fast.
I want to open an account in one session — anytime and anywhere. That means I want the ability to enter all of my information via a mobile app or HTML website, if I choose. And fast means minutes — not days (or weeks).
Know that all apps are not created equal.
Showing me the closest ATM or brick-and-mortar insurance office is not exactly the mobile functionality I’m looking for. Think e-signature capability on my smartphone, automated prefill of data from my driver license and verification of my ID through facial recognition.
Clear the roadblocks.
Don’t make me drive into a branch office to give a wet signature to open a checking account, and let me fund my account the way I want (deposit a check with my smartphone or use my credit card). And don’t make me spend an hour on the phone with a representative to apply for a homeowner’s policy.
Communicate with me my way.
Let me specify if and how I want to receive personalized customer communications about my account or policy (email, text, etc.). And give me options if I need assistance at any point in the onboarding process — live chat, watch a video on my mobile device, etc.
Keep your issues to yourself.
I want a seamless experience. Handle all of the complex technical procedures in the background. And I don’t want to have to re-enter my personal information repeatedly just because your organization is siloed and incapable of sharing data between departments.
Fortunately, there are best practices you can employ to create a friction-free onboarding process for each account or policy application — and turn those potential customers into your customers.
For an individualized evaluation of your onboarding process, contact us today about a unique opportunity for a Kofax hosted onsite workshop. We’ll work with you and your colleagues to customize an agenda and develop a roadmap to transform your customer engagement process.
And don’t miss this recorded webinar, Win and Wow Customers—6 Best Practices for Onboarding in Banking and Insurance, hosted by industry experts from 451 Research and the Financial Brand. Learn why and how digital transformation helps onboard online and offline customers.