The objective is clear: to put the human being at the center of banking operations. And for this, it is necessary to focus not only on technological tools that facilitate the operations carried out by customers, but also on ensuring that, in each transaction, they find the best possible experience.
This is a great challenge, especially in countries like Mexico where it is estimated that six out of 10 adults do not have a bank account.
The challenge of humanizing the banking system
The beliefs that financial products are not safe or that they only work for a high economic sector of society influence a large part of the population to prefer to continue using only cash.
The challenge of humanizing banking involves convincing more people of the convenience of using safe, simple and convenient digital products to make purchases, sales, investments or any other financial operation.
To reflect on these issues, five experts met in the framework of a breakfast organized by Veritran, a global company that accelerates and simplifies the development of digital solutions through its Enterprise Low-Code Platform, in coordination with Grupo Expansión. They were Gloria Nieto, Executive Director of Customer Experience at Gentera; Ignacio Odriozola Garín, Executive Director of Banking Products at Monex; Víctor Tavares, Director of Digital Solutions at Citibanamex; Alex Kuntzy, CEO of Financial Services of Toyota Mexico; and Daniel Aguilar Arias, Vice President of Business Development for Veritran.
The moderator of the meeting was Gonzalo Soto, Editorial Director of Grupo Expansión, who specified that the humanization of banking is an ongoing process that not only has to do with financial culture, but also with the challenge of physical infrastructure.
“There are communities in the country where internet service is intermittent, which sometimes causes Mexicans not to join digital banking,” Soto said.
In this regard, Daniel Aguilar Arias pointed out that digitalization is a tool whose usefulness shines above all when the objective is to increase personalization in the treatment of people.
“Humanizing and digitizing go the same way, to be able to speak to the client in context and feel that the company knows them and knows what they want.”
For her part, Gloria Nieto commented that her vision is one of optimism, verifying that steps are being taken in the right direction, although there are still many challenges that are not pertinent to a single organization, but to all, including civil society, initiative private and government.
“It is also important to promote financial education in Mexico, because there are people with access to banking applications but who do not take full advantage of them: more than 60% of their operations are only for balance inquiries.”
Gloria added that customers must be listened to and accompanied so that little by little they are introduced to the field of opportunities offered by digital banking.
The irruption of a transformational change
From the perspective of Alex Kuntzy, there has to be a balance between the digital part and the human part, because, although sales will continue to evolve towards digital processes, they must be complemented with traditional and face-to-face methods.
He stated that, in Toyota Mexico, 90% of customers are already domiciled, but there is a remaining 10% that has not entered the digital exchange, which does not mean that they are excellent subjects of credit.
“You must never lose sight of the customer, it is always a good idea to listen to him and not think for him, but to know what he wants and give him a solution,” said Kuntzy.
On the other hand, Ignacio Odriozola emphasized that we are experiencing a transformational technological change that forces us to put the customer at the center and ensure that their experience is positive.
“This change is giving us that genuine opportunity to focus on the client,” said Odriozola, who advised that more than understanding the transformation, we must accept it and face it in the most constructive way possible.
While Víctor Tavares said that humanization and digitization, although ends in themselves, are also and mainly means to reach this customer focus always located at the center.
“This also has a positive impact on the economy with the help of models that allow increasing the penetration of banking and promoting financial education, which has been promoted by Citibanamex through courses that more than 17 million people took.”
To conclude, Daniel Aguilar highlighted that the digitization and humanization of banking coexist in a relationship that needs a balance to advance a digital strategy, with the right tools.
“When serving millions of customers, it is impossible to understand them one by one, but using technology to find out their tastes, their needs, their problems helps to be more assertive,” he stressed.
