Here's how financial services sector can survive upheavals

Dinesh Jain
Teradata India

The financial services sector has never seen so many upheavals in quick successions as it has done over the last decade. First, there were all the bubbles that burst which exposed the Wall Street big wigs. Second, people lost faith in products which were touted to be safe havens for retirees and those looking to make a quick buck. Also read: RBI takes further step to stem rupee's slide against USD Third, we are in the midst of seeing the whole capital structures of governments going through a churn which is yet again exposing the shaky foundations of the financial services providers, players, and regulators alike. In this uncertain environment consumers have lost the basic trust on the system and any financial services provider ought to sit down and think of how to steer their boat upstream towards growth, re-building trust and just being relevant for the people (which they used to take for granted earlier). Enter the 3 men who must now steer this boat and their dog that must bring the lost values of loyalty and trust back in the game. Innovation in customer experience, Innovation in core products, Innovation in service delivery and Trust Innovation in customer experience The challenge for financial services here would be to deliver simpler and more intuitive experience for its customers. It calls for pooling the entire firm’s design expertise into a singular team to focus on customer experience design –be it visual design, interaction design, interface design, website and mobile site design, website/channel ergonomics, widget design, etc. Its philosophy should to make things simple and enjoyable, through “responsible design” so to provide everyone with tomorrow’s digital services. Simplicity cool enough to draw the customers and intuitive enough to keep him coming back. A good example is what Bank Simple is doing with its internet and mobile based customer interfaces. Innovation in core products These times are funny. While on one side the customer has transformed into an informed, needy and egoistic creature who demands everything to be tailored to his specifications, on the flip side are growing pressures from regulators towards “inclusion” which demands very low cost structures and standardization. The current application portfolios of most financial services players are grossly inadequate to meet this. In the world of finance, (often harmful) product “mutations” happen when people with the same education, background and experience are asked to find new opportunities and innovations. It calls for a product development process with deeper insights that might uncover brand new needs or desires that are untapped. That is not to say that evolution in your core product portfolio should stop. Quite the contrary. By seeding an innovation pipeline separately from a product maintenance pipeline, you build opportunities to grow healthier and stronger – for the long term. Innovation in service delivery Imagine you have the customer interested in your products and your brand experience, but are you geared up to deliver the same through your customer services? The customer has evolved into a creature that needs instant gratification and he is barely loyal and likes the businesses who take time to understand him and cater to his whims and fancies. So innovation in the third key piece of the puzzle is equally important. It starts from providing the same services experience that smaller specialized financial service players provide in terms of visual appeal, context information, turnaround time and managing expectations. The banks are not mere fighting with other banks but with retailers, payment service providers, gaming sites, social networking, etc. and hence they have to think beyond point interactions. _PAGEBREAK_ Trust Finally focus on trust, the glue that will bind all the innovations together. Trust is fundamental to open innovation. Without everyone involved believing they can rely on the good faith of the others, little of real consequence will happen. Trust comes at many levels – internally as well as externally. The most difficult situation faced by most innovation leaders working with open innovation is that they are alone. This is a new way of doing things, and it will develop many corporate and customer antibodies in the form of people who just want things to stay as they have always been. Another consequence is that people feel threatened by something that is new and doesn't seem to match what they have seen in the past. So initially there might not be much support for this new way of thinking from anyone within the company or from the customers. They might see this could be interesting but once they begin to understand that you have to make significant changes in the way you are dealing with external stakeholders, they begin to raise obstacles rather than see opportunities and that’s where you need to innovate to build trust. The author is the country manager with Teradata India Pvt Ltd.