Where is the future of customer experiences?

Quick, when was the last time you walked into your local bank branch and for what purpose? Was it to seek shelter from bad weather? Was it to grab free lollipops for your children or free coffee for yourself? If you can't even recall the last time you actually visited a bank branch, then then you're likely not alone. According to Novantas Data Services 74 percent of consumers say...
 
"I can envision a day when I will do all my banking virtually."
A recent New York Times report on the future of money notes that moving forward transformation in retail banking may be so pronounced that, children may even ask, "What was it like to see that old-fashioned building called a bank?"
 
Chandan Sharma, global managing director of financial services at Verizon Enterprise Solutions weighs in.
 
On what's driving these changes
 
Banks have done a lot to take costs out from their organization since the financial crisis, but the industry cannot run solely by taking costs out – it needs to also increase top line revenue. This requires driving customers, driving expenditure of wallet and doing it faster than the next guy.
On technology's role
 
Technology particularly cloud, security and machine-to-machine presents tremendous possibilities for banks to change customer experience and engagement, deliver new products and services in a more agile way and within a dramatically different cost structure.
 
Upstarts in the financial industry and companies born out of Silicon Valley are emulating these practices and bringing new solutions to the marketplace. In turn, banks are trying to react to that and follow the same guiding principles.
 
On solutions that will drive customer experience
 
We will increasingly see rich communications on any device, anywhere, with personalized interaction to multiple end points delivered over hybrid networks. Additionally, multi-channel interactions and collaborations delivered securely via the cloud will start to take hold. Digital commerce to enable frictionless payments and ubiquitous commerce with value for consumers, merchants and financial institutions will continue to be a key driver.
 
At the end of the day, banks that can leverage these technologies as enablers of innovation in a way that helps their customer-facing organizations, as well as their back office, will be the ones who succeed.
To learn more about Verizon's work with financial institutions, visit finance.

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