Using the power of technology and automation to deliver top-notch customer and employee experiences
In recent times, customer journeys have taken exciting new directions. Branchless banking has gained momentum for daily engagement, KYC has shifted extensively to digital channels and processing of loan origination, application and disbursement has scaled up exponentially using automation. The force driving many of these changes has been smart automation to deliver benefits in productivity, efficiency, safety and convenience.
Forbes India Influencers of Change, in partnership with UiPath, hosted a workshop which showcased thought leaders from the banking sector narrating learnings from their change journeys. They also shared their broader expertise on trends shaping automation in the financial sector, around the world, at this virtual event.
Moderated by Gautam Srinivasan of CNBC TV18, the panellists comprised pundits from the sector, including Scott Hunter, VP, Customer Strategy & Solutions, UiPath; Anil Bhasin, MD&VP, India and South Asia, UiPath; Subrat Mohanty, Group Executive – Banking Operations & Transformation at Axis Bank and Shripad Jadhav, President & Business Head - Tractor Finance, Crop Finance & Gold Loans Key Leadership Team member Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Commenting on the role of digital foresight in his bank’s rapid response to the pandemic, Shripad Jadhav observed, “Our digital journey began a while ago as we launched our flagship product 811 post-demonetisation. We were able to capture the market in a short span of time with this product. Essentially, ‘digital’ is a culture and large organisational-level adoption is the key to crafting success stories.â€
Coming to the current times, he remarked, “When the pandemic erupted, the extent of smart phone penetration in India was a boon for us. That, coupled with Jan Dhan accounts and the financial inclusion drive, enabled us to keep expanding while fine-tuning our processes.†He narrated how people in Bharat (semi-urban and rural markets), the segment that he is focused on, were very comfortable using their mobile phones, able to chat online and click and upload pictures. All these were the basic prerequisites for the use of mobile banking. “That’s what debottlenecked the customer onboarding journey for us. It also helped us to understand what customers and segments wanted.†However, his bank maintained its ‘phygital’ approach but was able to decide better where to deploy its resources. “We were a relatively new aged player with an affinity for automation, all along the spectrum from conception to product. We also had multiple channels of automation that were customised regionally. All this gave us a clear head-start.â€