Expert insights: The value in customer data

Banks can leverage customer data to bring immense value to the sector through insights into their clients’ current as well as future expectations.

In a special report, Customer Data, Analytics and Segmentation, MEA Finance Magazine and Avaya established that customer feedback is the driving force behind the revolution or evolution in the GCC banking sector as well as the industry’s resilient growth over the last decade. Customer insight plays a critical role in product development and customer communication in the banking sector.

GCC lenders can optimize customer feedback by synchronizing big data with their CRM and break it down using analytic solutions to gain insight into their clients’ current as well as future expectations. Banks are collecting significant amounts of data as improving customer experience has become central to maintain a competitive edge in an overbanked market.

Similarly, MEA Finance and Avaya highlighted that banks can also leverage customer data to bring immense value to the sector through effective credit management, fraud management, operational risks assessment as well as integrated risk management.

Amid an increasingly challenging operating environment intensified by the pandemic, GCC banks are also compelled to leverage analytics and data-driven capabilities to tap into new avenues of growth, reduce costs and improve efficiencies, drive their digital footprint and bolster their risk and regulatory compliance priorities.

Insights from industry experts

In an interview Ahmad Dorra, Avaya’s Customer Engagement Solutions Sales Leader – the Middle East, Africa & Turkey, said that his organization is supporting GCC banks with their digital transformation journey and he stressed that a successful digital customer journey is built with the principle of what makes a customer experience successful.

“GCC banks are collecting more and more data as improving customer insight in a time of great change becomes a priority, and the analysis of customer feedback and its synchronization with CRM data delivers an effective CX template,” said Dorra.

Devid Jegerson Head of Customer Experience and Platform Development at NBF said that today, digital products and services are enabling GCC banks to learn more and bring customer insights. Jegerson said, “By understanding customer’s needs, the banking sector can have a more accurate picture of its community of customers to serve them better,” adding that the adaptation of the business products via customer data analytics based on clients’ needs will bring real and meaningful impact on the industry’s future.

McKinsey said that the services and products that banks offer their customers can no longer be static and one-size-fits-all instead they should be intelligent, tailored and go beyond banking to address customer needs that may involve both banking and non-banking products and services.

A data-driven approach to digitalization is also helping banks bolster their security systems through the detection of fraud signals and analyze them in real-time using AI and ML to pinpoint illegitimate users and/or transactions before they compromise the entire banking system. Gulf banks are leveraging customer data to bring immense value to the sector through effective credit management, fraud management, operational risks assessment as well as integrated risk management.

Amit Malhotra, General Manager, Personal Banking Group of Commercial Bank of Dubai explains why Data analytics is a vital resource for improved management of information to grow better understanding of your customers. Malhotra also added that use of data will continue to create increased opportunities for banks to profit from better levels of service.

Mamoun T. Alhomssey Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank’s CIO told MEA Finance that the shift to digitization and the adoption of various digital platforms has undoubtedly increased the threat of cyberattacks and security risks, encouraging fraudsters to be opportunistic. However, Alhomssey urged GCC bankers to ensure that tighter security measures and controls are in place.

Apart from analyzing and breaking up customers’ data long after they’re already using a bank’s products, GCC banks should look into developing real-time insights into individual prospects to generate interest to attract more clients or tap into new business models. Deloitte said that banks should have data and analytical experience as well as marketing and measurement capabilities to develop and implement an effective customer-acquisition strategy.

In a report, GCC Banking Trends – 2021 and Beyond, Avaya said that a bank’s analytics should be fast, responsive, adaptable and flexible to enable the firm to address the problem at its root and should give real-time insights for a timely resolution.

To get more insights into customer data, analytics and segmentation from some of the region’s leading finance and technology executives click here to download the MEA Finance Magazine’s Special Report : http://mea-finance.com/special-reports/ 

Download the Avaya’s complementary research report to discover these trends, and Avaya’s view on approaching them. Click here: https://ccaas.avaya.com/emea-cp-6-trends-reg?CTA=21CCS-EMEA-FINTRD-ME-SOC&TAC=21CCS-EMEA-FINTRD-ME-SOC