Empathy is the future of open finance
The pandemic has greatly disrupted how we interact with our customers, resulting in the heightened need to understand offline and online behaviors
Daily TribuneThe pandemic has greatly disrupted how we interact with our customers, resulting in the heightened need to understand offline and online behaviors
Iris Yacat | photograph courtesy of ubx
Planting the seeds of the value of empathy will push the adoption of open finance platforms in the country, with improved customer experience promoting innovation and financial inclusion advocacy.
During the Customer Experience, Asia Week 2022 held in Singapore, UBX chief operations officer and chief customer officer Iris Yacat said the key ingredient to a great customer experience is the marriage of online and offline approaches to creating meaningful solutions.
"The pandemic has greatly disrupted how we interact with our customers, resulting in the heightened need to understand offline and online behaviors. This means we must focus on embedding more services in the online experience by leveraging data to capture and measure feelings and sentiments more quickly and accurately. We then follow through offline by guiding our people on the ground to provide an empathetic experience for our customers," Yacat said.
Studies have shown that perceived value, customer support, assurance, speed, and "firm innovativeness" are significant factors for positive customer experience, particularly in fintech. UBX considered these factors by modeling its platform from different perspectives: The customers and the businesses.
"At the individual level, we prioritize human-centered design principles and simple language to create frictionless customer experiences. For businesses, the value of participating in open ecosystems means transforming many aspects of their organization from the systems, processes, and culture; this does not happen in an instant, and hybrid journeys can be a bridge. To quote our CEO, sometimes you have to do non-digital and non-scaleable things to bring them to scale," Yacat explained.
Yacat added that empathizing with customers and acting with agility is the secret to success in the digital age. According to McKinsey & Co., agile business units that follow this method outperform non-agile competitors 93 percent of the time and have higher customer satisfaction rates.
A big part of providing services requires understanding the customer's perspective. In the information age, UBX makes it a point to meet their demand by prioritizing data security and privacy, which is currently the primary concern of both corporations and individuals, Yacat added.
"In open finance, trust is at the heart of everything we do. Empathizing with customers means that their safety and security remain our top priority. Hence, UBX always makes it a point to comply with the latest rules and regulations," assured Yacat.
Only recently, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas mandated banks and financial institutions to strengthen their policies on customer confidentiality. More than ever, major financial service providers must collaborate with the public sector to achieve this goal.
