digital banking trends 2021 Archives - RSI Concepts - Top IT Solution Provider Company in Dubai, UAE

April 27, 2022

Digital Branch Transformation Trends for Banks in 2022

The digital solutions and technology is evolving businesses, markets and customer’s demand. These days the general consumer in UAE is very familiar with the digital experience and interaction. The digital have become a part of our daily lives. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the internet penetration and the usage of smartphone is very common, almost 99% of the population is connected with the internet. That is why all types of businesses have started adopting digital solutions to enhance their customer experience and customer journey. Same is applicable to banks and other financial institution too. The banks need to improve the branch performance and branch efficiency as well as they also aim to control the expense. This means the digital solutions are being adopted for two major reasons, one is customer satisfaction and the other is to achieve strategic business goals.

The year 2022 comes with new challenges, the general customer behavior and trends have been completely transformed. Banks always have large daily foot fall, they need to optimize resources to keep the expenses under control and they must also have to improve their service quality as well. Several market researches and studies have shown us that the customer do care equally about the experience and journey they are getting from a business. So the product/service quality and customer experience is equally important. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE there are several banks, in fact in each alternate street there is a bank branch, in such scenarios the competition gets higher, the customer’s demands and expectations also raised, and the customers always have option to switch.

Digital Bank Branch Transformation

Without any digital system in place, the employees and the customers both could face very difficult situations. For employees, it is always a big challenge to manage and control the visitor’s and customer’s flow. The management also faces problems while improving the customer journey without any digital system or tool. Moreover the digital system organizes everything and provides in-depth data insights, which help business to monitor and manage the several business processes effectively. For a bank branch there is always limited number of counters, some are dedicated to exclusive services and some are for all services or queries. It is very difficult for the sales staff and customer service agents to keep the customers disciplined and organized. The line jumpers, small fights, angry customers and complaining visitors are a common sight in every bank branch. However, the banks with an effective queuing policy, an efficient queue management system in place and satisfied staff can easily boost your rankings and reputation.

Branch Transformation with Queue Management System

For any bank the biggest challenge is to effectively manage the daily customers and visitors. Most of the times during busy hours the bank branch can be overwhelmed hence crowd formation, unorganized lobbies, disputes in the queues, unhappy customers, busy staff, and a lot other such problems could occur. All these problems led to increased wait time and longer customer journey, on top of that the negative perception a customer builds about the bank or its branch could be very bad for brand image and reputation. Such problems could have a very negative affect on the growth of the bank in the longer run. That is why most of the banks in Dubai and all around the UAE are adopting digital queue management systems. A queue management system is a combination of software and hardware tools, which allow the bank branch to effectively and efficiently control and manage the queues, which results in better customer flow and quicker customer journey.

Reduce Customer Wait Time with QMS

The most common complaint any customer have from a service provider is the long wait time. For banks the long waiting time is also very bad, it annoys the customer and repeated bad experiences could repel the customers too. Manual customer flow management is very difficult for the staff as well as for the customers and visitors. However, with the help of a digital queue management system the customer flow management and virtual lines can literally transform customer experience. The queue management system have intelligent algorithms and software which automatically controls the customer flow, once a customer signed-up for service the queue management system can automatically put them in appropriate queue. In fact during the waiting time a queue management system can also take decisions in real-time, for example, if a customer need service AA, which is being offered on four counters, the queue management system have ability to analyze the customer flow and the service agent’s performance and then it can divide the customers between the counters to make sure maximum performance can be achieved. This could save a lot of time.

Basically when a customer or visitor signs-up for a queue, the queue management system issues them a ticket or token number, which is their unique queuing ID or place in the waiting line. Hence all customers knows there could be no line jumper, and there is not a chance that any service agent could be able to favor someone, hence a lot many disputes can be prevented and on top of that it also provide a peace of mind to the customers and visitors. The queue management system also reduces a lot of workload of the staff and it can also improve staff efficiency. Without a queue management system the service agents and staff have to control and manage the queues as well, which distract them from their primary task. However, with the queue management system the staff can focus entirely on their primary tasks, which boost their efficiency and performance and also help improving the customer experience.

Improve Waiting Experience and Reduce Perceived Wait Time

Have you ever experienced waiting in a queue or on a busy highway that the line we are in looks slower than the adjacent line? This is the trick of our brain, and this phenomenon is very common. People tend to perceive the waiting time more than what it actually is. The brain just thinks that the adjacent line is faster, in reality it could be even slower. However, this same phenomenon is applicable in the customer queues and customer flow management. When people are waiting for their turn, within a few minutes they start thinking that more time have passed however, in reality less time had passed. This is called the perceived wait time. The perceived wait time is always more than the actual wait time. With the manual queuing the chances are the perceived wait time could be much longer than the actual wait time. However a digital queue management system have ability to reduce the perceived wait time by increasing customer engagements.

The human brain reacts strangely when there is something which is unknown, most of the time the fear is the strongest emotion towards the unknown. When it comes to waiting in the queues, if the customers and the visitors don’t know how long they will have to wait, it start irritating them, and they become anxious and depressed also. Which ruin their experience. However, with the help of queue management system the intelligent software engine is capable of estimating the wait time for each ticket on the bases of past stats and real-time data from the system. Hence the estimated wait time can be printed on the ticket or token. Furthermore, there are large display screens installed at strategic locations within the branch which remain visible to everyone. These digital signage displays live queuing information, summary and on-going activities, which also keep customers engaged and reduce the anxiety of the waiting.

All modern day queue management system also have audio announcement system as well. The audio announcements can be made in multiple languages. These features keep the customer engaged and busy, hence the effect of waiting time can be minimized, which improves customer waiting experience. If customers reach to the counter with a calm and cool mind the chances of having a great and satisfactory interaction are high. A queue management system increase customer engagements, reduce actual and perceived wait time, balance workload of the employees and boost their efficiency, and consequently provide excellent customer experience and customer journey.

Branch Transformation with Virtual Queuing

The virtual queuing is a relatively newer trend. The virtual queuing is a modernized form of queue management which allows the customers and visitors to sign-up for the virtual queues using remote channels and mediums. The biggest benefit of virtual queuing is that it can literally reduce the wait time to none. Technically the customer is not required to physically arrive at the branch to sign-up for the queue or to wait inside the bank branch. The queue management system can utilize remote mediums and channels to provide live coverage and updates of the on-going queuing process. This allow the customers and visitors to keep track of their turn and also provide them enough information to let them plan their visit in a way that they don’t have to wait in the bank. The virtual queuing gained popularity during the 2020 and 2021 due to the strict social distancing laws and public health concerns. However, now a day’s businesses and banks all around the world are still utilizing virtual queuing methods to enhance their customer experience.

Third Party System Integration Help Improving Customer Journey

Each bank have a sophisticated digital and IT infrastructure which consists of several layers of enterprise systems and business tools. Some of these tools and systems are used to aid the employees during their daily job roles, and some of them are used for security purposes. There is always one central information center which is connected with almost all other tools and systems. The modern queue management system such as RSI Queue Management System can be integrated with the central information center as well as with any other third-party systems using APIs or Secure Web Services. The integration allow two independent or even dependent systems to share data between each other. The integration allow banks to further improve customer journey and customer experience. Banks can also add innovative features to facilitate various business processes and customer journey steps. These features can help improving customer journey and customer experience reducing the wait time and simplifying the customer journey. However, the modern queue management system’s features also help improving employee efficiency.

Collect Business Intelligence Data

A queue management system is a perfect companion to monitor and track customer journey. The queue management system is capable of collecting system usage and statistical data from each and every touch point of the entire customer journey. Furthermore the queue management system can be used to measure various KPIs (key performance indicators) which can be used later for strategy and planning making purposes. The queue management system can also provide data about the popular products/services and most requested support queries and much more. Such information can be very helpful for planning and understanding the current market trends, customer persona and much more. The queue management systems both traditional and virtual can also have ability to collect direct customer feedback using various channels and techniques. The customer feedback data is a crucial part of business intelligence and it can provide very accurate and important information that help businesses to take informed decisions, set future course and achieve their goals. For banks such data is very crucial to measure the branch performance, making plans to improve customer experience and building strategy for long term future goals.

Conclusion

The year 2022 is dominated by the digital interaction and digital experience. Businesses from Dubai and all around the UAE are also investing huge amount in digital experience and digital interaction with their customers. In fact the market have evolved so rapidly that it is quite hard for several businesses and industry sectors to keep up with the pace. The customer expectations have also become very high. Now a days the customer expect from their favorite businesses/banks and brand to offer modern features and digital interaction. When it comes to banks and their branches the customer’s expectations have become slightly higher. A well-organized customer flow and simplified queuing process can offer best customer experience. The customer experience and customer journey is the key point in any business’s success. If its customers are happy and the employees are performing well, it is just a matter of time and the business will definitely achieve its goals and objectives.

In this blog we have discussed how a queue management system could transform a bank branch. If you want to learn more about the subject or looking for a reliable queue management system provider in Dubai, UAE. Please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

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August 8, 2021

2021 Digital Branch Transformation Trends

The 2021 is the year of change and transformation in Dubai and all around the UAE, especially how the digital and online solutions got integrated within our daily lives, it have completely changed the expectations and behavior of the customers. Earlier people were not so adoptive towards the high-tech solutions, rather prefer more traditional approaches and methodologies. Now a days, everyone is familiar with the usefulness and convenience of the digital solutions. The marketers and the administrations are also embracing digital and high-tech solutions knowing that it could provide a great competitive edge in customer journey transformation and customer happiness. The COVID situation and the past experience in 2020 have given the rise to the contactless payment, self-service and social distancing. Especially the banks and other customer service sectors are already trying to keep up with this new trend. Apart from the contactless payment, the entire branch experience and customer’s expectations are driving the innovation and technological solutions to the next level.

Earlier businesses were afraid that the very advanced digital solutions might not gain popularity among the general consumers, however in 2021 the digital branch transformation have reached to a new level. The customer experience, customer behavior and operational efficiency are the most influential factors on the digital transformation. The businesses are seeking methods and ways to preserve precious customers and improve customer retention while also trying to reduce expenses to ensure higher profitability and revenue generation. Here are some of the 2021 trends for digital branch transformation in Dubai, UAE:

Digitalization and Automation of Customer Experience

As the 2020 situation was totally unprecedented, which suddenly halted a lot of business operations. However, the banking sector and the customer service industry was quicker to adopt to the digital solutions to aid the social distancing and closure of the branches. The smartphone applications and the digital service through online gain popularity. Customer feel more comfortable using the digital platforms to avail a service. After that, now when the businesses have resumed all over the world, here in Dubai and all other emirates of UAE the customer behavior have completely changed, the customer experience and customer journey are setting up new trends. Business have to change their practices, processes and methods at a very higher pace in order to meet the demand and expectations of the customers. It doesn’t mean that all older queue management systems and other customer satisfactions solutions have become irrelevant or useless. But the point is that the customers are expecting and hoping to see a digital and automated kind of business processes and customer journey.

Minimizing the Gap between Customer’s Expectation and Your Capabilities

Since the customer’s expectation and market trends have been changed, the business need to focus on smart solutions and methods which can reduce the gap between the customer’s expectations and your capabilities. It is crucial to keep this gap at the lowest, else the customer will switch to another brand. The UAE is a very large market with too many businesses are operating and more are joining the market on the daily bases which raise the level of competition. Customers have too many options, and due to the impact of the pandemic and the new methods and processes to handle that impact the customers are already concerned, and it is an estimation that 8 out of 10 customers are willing to switch if their current service provider failed to meet their expectations and needs. Here are some of the well-renowned gaps between customer’s expectations and a business’s operational capabilities:

Cultural Gap: This gap is common when the top level management is not customer centric, the organizational culture and tradition flows from top to bottom. In such scenarios the staff won’t be able to satisfy the customers.
Value Gap: The gap between the actual quality and features of products and services and the expectations and needs of the customers is known as value gap. This gap is very common where the communication is not so strong and business is not getting customer feedbacks.
Emotional Gap: When the communication gap is too much or the marketing and communication efforts are not in the right direction the, feedback is not taken the customer complaints are not solved the customers feel emotionally distant from the brand and think the business doesn’t care about them much.
Marketing Gap: When a business markets and advertise its products and service with overpromising content and the actual products and services doesn’t meet the expectation the customers, the customer feel disappointment and eventually switch to the other brands.

These are just a few example, there are so many other things that can cause your customers to switch. The important thing is to understand what your customers think about your business, what their needs are and what their expectations are, then make plans and strategies to improve everything for your customers. It is important to understand your capabilities and limitations too, for example, if you want to compete and you must have to keep the cost to a certain level then the strategy should have to be made in a way that your products and services can offer at least the most anticipated features. This way any such gap can be reduced to improve the trust and brand impression. This will significantly improve the overall efficiency and operational capabilities of the branch.

Going Contactless and Rise of Virtual Queuing

Not only in Dubai, UAE but all over the world business have witnessed that the branches who are offering contactless and virtual queuing are attracting more customers than the regular branches. The customer behavior, market trends and the customer’s expectations have completely transformed the business practices, methodologies and in some cases the entire customer journey has completely changed. Going contactless, digitalization and automation have become the new norm. All sorts and types of businesses are preferring contactless operations, the eCommerce are emphasizing on contactless deliveries and the business are offering methods of contactless payments and all that. The QR Codes and digital interfaces are taking over the usual paperwork and much more. It is extremely crucial that a business tries to offer as many contactless services or service steps and processes as much possible. At least what touch points can be converted to contactless should be converted to contactless. Businesses should seriously think about offering less than least personal contact inside their branch.

Virtual queuing is an excellent technique to control the number of customers inside the branch. It help preventing crowd formation. The virtual queuing is also very helpful in implementing social distancing policies. The virtual queuing also enables the customers to sign-up remotely for the queue and then wait in virtual lines, without being physically present in the actual line inside the branch. The customers can sign-up from SMS, Calls, Email, Smartphone Apps, Online Portals, QR Codes and much more. This gives them a sense of trust and confidence. In addition the virtual queuing also prevent long wait time, in fact the customers can directly arrive at the counter when their ticket is called without any wait. Waiting is the most negative factor in customer experience. Less wait and quicker service delivery make customers happy and satisfied. Moreover the virtual queuing also have other benefits such as it empowers the staff and reduce their work load. It automates various process and enables a single agent/server to serve more customers in a single shift. This improve the operational capabilities and increase profitability of the entire branch.

Rise of Self-Service and Interactive Kiosks

Another excellent technique used by many businesses in Dubai and all across the UAE is offering self-service solutions and interactive kiosks. The self-service means that a customer is being provided with an automated digital system/interface which allow them to avail the service all by themselves and there is no need of any staff assistant throughout the process. The customers can reach at the self-service stations or portals and avail the service by themselves without any wait time. It enables instant service delivery with 24/7 availability. Each branch these days should have a dedicated section for the self-service customers which will not only improve the customer experience but it will also be very helpful for the staff and it will reduce their workload. Obviously not everyone is familiar or I would rather say ‘comfortable’ in operating at self-service interactive kiosk, so the regular counters will be there to serve them, this also help businesses to reduce the people in the waiting area and to implement the social distancing and other policies easily.

There are so many different types of the interactive self-service kiosks which are being used to offer a variety of services. We are using self-service kiosks since a long time and almost everyone living in Dubai or anywhere in UAE must have used one once or at least say them. For example the vending machine is a self-service kiosk, the ATM is a self-service cash counter and other such services which everyone uses on daily bases. These self-service interactive kiosks comes with a variety of hardware and software features and functionalities. Some interactive kiosks also allow customers and visitors to do the registration process from a medium size touch screen interface. Earlier the physical keyboard and track pad were used but now a days on-screen keyboard and touch panels are popular. Moreover the Emirates ID, Printer, Scanners, Passport Scanner, IRIS, Biometrics, Cash Deposit, RFID Scanner, QR Code reader, etc. and many more such devices can be integrated with the self-service interactive kiosks. All these technologies are very helpful and enables the businesses to innovate new and unique solutions for their customers.

Technologically Advanced Queue Management System

A queue management system manages customer flow and is majorly responsible for the customer journey and customer experience in any branch. The queue management system is very important. As different businesses have different needs and different internal business processes and mechanisms so a queue management system must have to be efficient enough to improve all customer experiences throughout the entire customer journey. We always recommend a tailor-made solution that can efficiently boost overall productivity and profitability of the business. A queue management can have a variety of software and hardware components however we will discuss some key points that every business should consider while choosing a queuing solution for them. The very important factor that you need to consider is the type of your services. Whether a service can be delivered through a single counter or is your services or some of your services are stepped services that require your customers to get served through multiple counters for a single service deliver. These things will define the type of the queue management system.

Moreover other factors such as how many counter do you have or your policies such as priority customers, dedicated customers and such other details should be considered. The digital signage are an essential component of a queue management system however the size of the display screen and the placement should be decided strategically that at least one screen is visible from anywhere in the waiting room so that the customers don’t have to get up from their seats or get discomfort to get the view of the screen. The announcement system and the queuing information should be multi-lingual, at least Arabic and English is must to have. Then the counter plates and other signs should be included in the system as per the requirements. It is better to have remote management, virtual queuing and customer feedback modules in the queue management system. The centralized information center is must to have so the head office can manage and monitor all the connected branches. The queue management system should be able to offer flexible and easy sign-up methods such as interactive self-service kiosks, remote sign-up, virtual queuing and smartphone compatibility. Last but not least, a better queue management system should be able to collect and capture data from various touch points of the customer interaction to compile business intelligence data which can later be useful for decision making and policy making.

Collect Customer Feedback and Business Intelligence

Business in Dubai and all around the UAE in fact all around the world often overlooked the importance of customer feedback and business intelligence. However, these two are essential for evaluation and improvements. Business often spend huge amounts in customer satisfaction solutions, products/services, operational improvements, infrastructure and other solutions but how a business will know if their all efforts and investments are going in the right direction? The customer feedback and business intelligence is the only way to know that. A customer feedback is direct measurement of the customer happiness and customer satisfaction. The customer satisfaction is considered to be the direct measurement of the overall progress and development of a business. That is why collecting customer feedback and gathering business intelligence data from various touch points and KPIs (key performance indicators)are crucial to understand the impact and effectiveness of all your efforts and investments.

Moreover collecting customer feedback, gathering data and getting the indicators can’t be beneficial unless actionable reports are compiled from this data. The reports are based on the in-built system analytical engine and statistical processing, which is mandatory to have. It is extremely important that the reports and data collected from various systems and KPIs is completely in-line with the internal evaluation processes. The data has to be compiled in various reporting formats. The corporate reports should be produced for the higher management to let them take decisions and upgrade their policies. The detailed and summary reports should be produced to pinpoint the areas of improvements. The KPIs and employee performance indicators should be collected to assess the employees. The business should have to think critically when planning the reporting and business intelligence modules. That is why we always recommend customized queue management systems which are dedicatedly designed for the very specific needs of the business and are tend to be more efficient.

Conclusion

The year 2020 have completely changed the entire business landscape in the entire world. Business have recovered fairly quickly and are very eager to keep a hold on their existing customers and also attracting more customers to ensure a steady growth. In the new landscape the marketer are focusing more in communication and better customer experience. The customer journey transformation is absolutely necessary. The business will have to abide by the government policies, the regulation and social distancing laws and the safety and health of their customers and the staff is also top priority. Which is why business are seeking new methods and techniques for branch transformation. As suddenly we all went online and everyone has to interact with the digital services and business and organizations also have to switch to the digital platforms, the acceptance level of the digital and automation got very high among the general consumers. In fact people now expect some kind of digital and technology-backed interaction with their favorite brands and businesses.

The customer experience is extremely important, if your customers are satisfied they will be more loyal and if they are unhappy they will immediately switch without any second thought. The competition in the market is very high, the customers have too many options. But we also understand each business have their own limits, capabilities and a finite stream of precious resources. So we always recommend our customers and readers to think critically and try to minimize the gap between the customer’s expectations and your operational capabilities. The virtual queuing is another great tool to deal with today’s scenarios. It is absolutely necessary that you implement a queuing solution which resonate with your internal organizational structure and add value to both the customer experience and to the management and operational efficiency. The self-service counters and terminals are also a great strategy to boost customer experience. In order to evaluate all those efforts and investments and the overall efficiency and productivity of the branch the customer feedback collection and business intelligence is a mandatory feature for any branch transformation tool. Businesses are reporting huge gains from the policies and strategies made on the bases of business intelligence data. RSI Concepts is a leading name in Dubai, UAE in branch transformation solutions, queue management systems, customer feedback systems and other customer journey transformation tools, if you need any help feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

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