CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
You’llneverbankalone alone Nathalie Larue, Executive Vice-President of Strategy, Marketing and Personal Services at Canada’s Desjardins Group, explains why we could all do with a digital friend It’s 2008 and you’re getting ready for your annual financial advice meeting with the bank. You arrive at the branch in good time. In your hand is a folder containing the previous year’s bank statements. You take a seat in a small booth and await the arrival of your personal financial advisor. Obligatory small talk out of the way, you slide your folder across to them, certain that your impeccable filing system will earn you a gold star off the bat. The advisor opens the folder, takes a cursory glance at the statement on top, then pulls a sheet from a large stack next to them. ‘Our best savings account ever, just for you!’ it r eads. With that, the advisor gets up to refill their coffee. Fast forward to 2018, and you’re logging on to your bank online to make a
quick transaction for a utility bill. As you receive confirmation of the transaction, a message appears at the bottom of your screen. ‘Hey, you’re regularly paying a few different bills. Did you know there’s a pre-payment transaction type that we offer in our mobile app? I can help you to set one up, if you like?’ You sit back, take a sip of your coffee, and relax as your digital banking assistant does the rest. “We’ve built into our channels a digital personal assistant that will identify the right financial products for you,” says Nathalie Larue, Executive Vice-President of Strategy, Marketing and Personal Services at Desjardins Group. “This technology automatically analyses your patterns, behaviours and information to give you advice that, in the past, would have necessitated
a lengthy meeting with a dedicated advisor. We’re seeing fewer and fewer of these types of appointments taking place, and therefore needed to find a way to establish a digital relationship with our clients that can still offer the same level of personalised financial advice. Our digital personal assistant is the perfect solution in a world where people do their banking 24-7,” she says.
Designed to attract Based in Quebec, Desjardins is one of the biggest cooperative financial institutions in North America, having served the Canadian population for more than 100 years. As a cooperative, the bank is technically owned by its members, and can in
Digital friends: They have your best interests at heart
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