Tag: personalization

A data-driven customer experience certainly has a nice ring, but can your organization deliver on the promise? What we're really getting at is whether you can provide convenience and personalization throughout the customer journey. Using data to personalize the customer journey About half of consumers say personalization is the most important aspect of their online experience. Forward-thinking lenders know this and are working to implement digital transformations, with 87 percent of business leaders stating that digital acceleration has made them more reliant on quality data and insights. For many organizations, lack of data isn't the issue — it's collecting, cleaning and organizing this data. This is especially difficult if your departments are siloed or if you're looking to incorporate external data. What's more, you would need the capabilities to analyze and execute the data if you want to gain meaningful insights and results. LEARN: Infographic: Automated Loan Underwriting Journey Taking a closer look at two important parts of the customer journey, here's how the right data can help you deliver an exceptional user experience. Prescreening To grow your business, you want to identify creditworthy consumers who are likely to respond to your credit offers. Conversely, it's important to avoid engaging consumers who aren't seeking credit or may not meet your credit criteria. Some of the external data points you can incorporate into a digital prescreening strategy are: Core demographics: Identify your best customers based on core demographics, such as location, marital status, family size, education and household income. Lifestyle and financial preferences: Understand how consumers spend their time and money. Home and auto loan use: Gain insight into whether someone rents or owns a home, or if they'll likely buy a new or used vehicle in the upcoming months. Optimized credit marketing strategies can also use standard (and custom) attributes and scores, enabling you to segment your list and create more personalized offers. And by combining credit and marketing data, you can gain a more complete picture of consumers to better understand their preferred channels and meet them where they are. CASE STUDY: Clear Mountain Bank used Digital Prescreen with Micronotes to extend pre-approved offers to consumers who met their predetermined criteria. The refinance marketing campaign generated over $1 million in incremental loans in just two months and saved customers an average of $1,615. Originations Once your precise targeting strategy drives qualified consumers to your application, your data-driven experience can offer a low-friction and highly automated originations process. Alternative credit data: Using traditional and alternative credit data* (or expanded FCRA-regulated data), including consumer-permissioned data, allows you to expand your lending universe, offer more favorable terms to a wider pool of applicants and automate approvals without taking on additional risk. Behavioral and device data: Leveraging behavioral and device data, along with database verifications, enables you to passively authenticate applicants and minimize friction. Linked and digital applications: Offering a fully digital and intuitive experience will appeal to many consumers. In fact, 81 percent of consumers think more highly of brands after a positive digital experience that included multiple touchpoints. And if you automate verifications and prefill applications, you can further create a seamless customer experience. READ: White paper: Getting AI-driven decisioning right in financial services Personalization depends on persistent identification The vast majority (91 percent) of businesses think that improving their digital customer journey is very important. And rightly so: By personalizing digital interactions, financial institutions can identify the right prospects, develop better-targeted marketing campaigns and stay competitive in a crowded market. DOWNLOAD: A 5-Step Checklist for Identifying Credit-Active Prospect To do this, you need an identity management platform that enables you to create a single view of your customer based on data streams from multiple sources and platforms. From marketing to account management, you can use this persistent identity to inform your decisions. This way, you can ensure you're delivering relevant interactions and offers to consumers no matter where they are. WATCH: Webinar: Omnichannel Marketing - Think Outside the Mailbox Personalization offers a win-win Although they want personalization, only 33 percent of consumers have high confidence in a business' ability to recognize them repeatedly.4 To meet consumer expectations and remain competitive, you must deliver digital experiences that are relevant, seamless, and cohesive. Experian Consumer View helps you make a good first impression with consumer insights based on credit bureau and modeled data. Enrich your internal data, and use segmentation solutions to further refine your target population and create offers that resonate and appeal. You can then quickly deliver customized and highly targeted campaigns across 190 media destinations. From there, the Experian PowerCurve® Originations Essentials, an automated decisioning engine, can incorporate multiple external and internal data sources to optimize your strategy. *Disclaimer: When we refer to “Alternative Credit Data," this refers to the use of alternative data and its appropriate use in consumer credit lending decisions, as regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Hence, the term “Expanded FCRA Data" may also apply in this instance and both can be used interchangeably.

With an abundance of loan options in today’s market, retaining customers can be challenging for banks and credit unions, especially small or regional institutions. And as more consumers look for personalization and digital tools in their banking experience, the likelihood of switching to institutions that can meet these demands is increasing.1 According to a recent Experian survey, 78% of consumers have conducted personal banking activities online in the last three months. However, 58% of consumers don’t feel that businesses completely meet their expectations for a digital online experience. To remain competitive in today's market, organizations must enhance their prescreen efforts by accelerating their digital transformation. Prescreen in today's economic environment While establishing a strong digital strategy is crucial to meeting the demands of today’s consumers, economic conditions are continuing to change, causing many financial institutions to either tighten their marketing budgets or hold off on their prescreen efforts completely. Fortunately, lenders can still drive growth during a changing economy without having to make huge cuts to their marketing budgets. How? The answer lies in digital prescreen. Case study: Uncover hidden growth opportunities Wanting to grow their business and existing relationships, Clear Mountain Bank looked for a solution that could help them engage customers with money-saving product offers while delivering a best-in-class digital banking experience. Leveraging Digital Prescreen with Micronotes, the bank was able to identify and present dollarized savings to customers who held higher-priced loans with other lenders. What’s more, the bank extended these offers through personalized conversations within their online and mobile banking platforms, resulting in improved digital engagement and increased customer satisfaction. By delivering competitive prescreen offers digitally, Clear Mountain Bank generated more than $1 million in incremental loans and provided customers with an average of $1,615 in cost savings within the first two months of deployment. “Digital Prescreen with Micronotes supplied the infrastructure to create higher-quality, personalized offers, as well as the delivery and reporting. They made prescreen marketing a reality for us.” – Robert Flockvich, Director of Community Outreach and Retail Lending at Clear Mountain Bank To learn more about how you can grow your portfolio and customer relationships, read the full case study or visit us. Download the case study Visit us 1The Keys to Solving Banking’s Customer Loyalty & Retention Problems, The Financial Brand, 2022.

From desktops and laptops to smartphones and tablets, consumers leverage multiple devices when engaging with businesses. For financial institutions, it’s important to identify and track consumers across devices to deliver personalized offers and increase opportunities for conversion. The problem with cookies Marketers have traditionally used cookies to determine what their audience’s interests are based on their browsing activity and past purchases. An example of this is when a user browses a product on a website and then leaves without buying. Later that day, they see an ad on social media featuring the same product they viewed earlier. While this may seem like an effective way for financial institutions to target or prescreen consumers, cookies are very limited — they can’t capture or connect a user’s behavior across multiple touchpoints. In other words, if a consumer were to browse a website on their mobile phone and then switch to their laptop, the business would view these sessions as two different visits from two different people, resulting in inconsistent messaging and a disjointed user experience. This is a huge problem because devices don’t decide to convert — people do. To reach the right consumers with the right message wherever they may be, financial institutions must look beyond cookies. This is where people-based marketing comes in. What is people-based marketing? People-based marketing takes a more personal marketing approach. Rather than targeting devices, people-based marketing connects businesses with real people, helping them understand who their customers are, what they’re looking for and how to engage them in more meaningful ways. It does this by gathering customer data from both online and offline sources to create a single customer profile. Let’s look at an example of people-based marketing by revisiting the scenario above. A user is browsing a company’s website on their mobile phone and decides to switch to their laptop. By capturing a single view of the user with a people-based marketing solution, the brand can recognize them and resume their experience on the new device. What’s more, the brand understands the user’s intent at that stage of their customer journey and leverages real-time data to make relevant offers and recommendations, helping further personalize their experience. Benefits of a people-based marketing approach To create better-targeted credit marketing campaigns, financial institutions must ensure they have the right data and technologies in place. Experian’s industry-leading database technology provides the freshest, most comprehensive consumer credit data to help organizations optimize their lending criteria and marketing campaigns. With Experian’s people-based marketing solutions, financial institutions can: Reach the right people: Leveraging fresh consumer data allows financial institutions to target the best prospects for their business needs and avoid making preapproved offers to nonqualified consumers. Deliver personalized credit offers: By gaining a more complete view of consumers, financial institutions can ensure they’re sending relevant offers to users where and when they’re most motivated to respond. Enhance their retargeting efforts: If a user isn’t ready to convert upon their first interaction, organizations can reach them on another device to reinforce their messaging in more personalized ways. Provide frictionless, omnichannel experiences: Seamless identity resolution allows organizations to accurately recognize consumers across devices, leading to more precise targeting and cohesive customer experiences. Reduce marketing spend: By focusing on the right audience with the right message, organizations can avoid unlikely prospects and reduce wasted marketing spend, all while increasing response rates. Expand their reach: With rich insights into their clients’ interests, demographics and behaviors, financial institutions can target prospects who share similar characteristics and are likely to convert. Leveraging an effective people-based marketing strategy is crucial to delivering personalized and consistent customer experiences in today’s multi-device world. To learn more about how Experian can help, visit us today. Learn about our people-based marketing solutions

“As an industry, fintech is known for creating compelling and personalized online journeys. But that experience can suffer if the fraud-prevention routines are perceived as burdensome by consumers,” said Kathleen Peters, Chief Innovation Officer for Experian’s Decision Analytics business, in a recent Q&A article with Finovate.  With the proliferation of the digital world, managing digital identity and “getting it right” is crucial. However, as much as it is an opportunity, leveraging consumer identity data can also create a stumbling block for some organizations. Peters cited Experian’s annual Global Identity and Fraud Report, specifically, the consumer concern around online security and the need for industry players to find the right balance between security and a frictionless experience.  “In short, we need the right fraud-prevention treatment for the right transaction; it is not a one-size-fits-all exercise,” Peters said.  The interview also covered the importance of knowing a customer’s identity for compliance reasons and business use cases, dispelling the myth that banks’ efforts around personalization are considered “creepy” by consumers, and the best ways for banks and fintechs to build trust among their consumers.   According to Experian’s Global Identity and Fraud Report, consumers are willing to give entities they trust more data, particularly if they feel they are receiving value. And it’s undeniable that data is at the heart of personalization and building better relationships.  “It comes down to identifying and understanding consumers and their needs. The best way to do that is with a lot of data,” Peters said.  To read the full article, visit Finovate’s website.  Finovate: Experian CIO on Digital Identity, Personalization and Building Trust with Consumer Data  Learn more about Experian Identity

The digital innovation that has come out from the pandemic across businesses of all kinds – and the resulting improvement to customer experience – has been welcomed by consumers and the financial services industry.   However, it created a challenge for those institutions, namely credit unions, who thrived on and were famous for an excellent in-person customer experience. But rather than viewing it as a threat, the savviest credit unions began to look at some of the cloud-based tools this pandemic-induced digital wave brought with it.   To continue to deliver personalized, secure and fast decisions to their members, credit unions are now adopting cloud-based decisioning and fraud prevention platforms. These systems, like Experian PowerCurve, have helped credit unions and financial institutions alike overcome a dependency on manual processes and other potential resource constraints. In doing so, they can to deliver an excellent online customer experience that can handle high volumes of members from a variety of backgrounds, which reinforces the brand promises of trust and personalized customer service.    But it’s not just members who are benefiting from an improved lending experience. Credit unions may want to follow OneAZ Credit Union, who has seen a 26% increase in booking rates after implementing PowerCurve, in addition to a 25% reduction in manual reviews.  With 21 branches and a full-service digital team, OneAZ prides itself on a world-class member experience while helping members exceed their financial goals. They partnered with Experian® to implement an advanced decisioning system that would increase efficiency and further improve the member experience.  “The speed at which we can return a decision and our better understanding of future performance has really propelled us in being able to better serve our members,” said John Schooner, VP Credit Risk Management for OneAZ.  To read the full case study, click here. And to find more information on how Experian can improve your lending experience through automated decisioning tools,  you can read more about PowerCurve here.   

The COVID-19 pandemic has created shifting economic conditions and rapidly evolving consumer preferences. Lenders must keep up by re-evaluating their strategies to accelerate growth and beat the competition. Here's how AI/ML can help your organization evolve post-COVID-19: With the democratization of AI/ML, lenders of all sizes can now use this technology to grow their lending and optimize for strategic growth. Register for our upcoming webinar to see how lenders like Elevate have incorporated this new technology into their business processes. Register now

Security. Convenience. Personalization. Finding the balance between these three priorities is key to creating a safe and low-friction customer experience. We surveyed more than 6,500 consumers and 650 businesses worldwide about these priorities for our 2020 Global Identity and Fraud Report: Most business are focusing on personalization, specifically in relation to upselling and cross-selling. This is frustrating customers who are looking for increases in both security and convenience. It’s possible to have all three. Read Full Report

In today’s ever-changing and hypercompetitive environment, the customer experience has taken center-stage – highlighting new expectations in the ways businesses interact with their customers. But studies show financial institutions are falling short. In fact, a recent study revealed that 94% of banking firms can’t deliver on the “personalization promise.” It’s not difficult to see why. Consumer preferences have changed, with many now preferring digital interactions. This has made it difficult for financial institutions to engage with consumers on a personal level. Nevertheless, customers expect seamless, consistent, and personalized experiences – that’s where the power of advanced analytics comes into play. It’s no secret that using advanced analytics can enable businesses to turn rich data into insights that lead to confident business decisions and strategy development. But these business tools can actually help financial institutions deliver on that promise of personalization. According to an Experian study, 90% of organizations say that embracing advanced analytics is critical to their ability to provide an excellent customer experience. By using data and analytics to anticipate and respond to customer behavior, companies can develop new and creative ways to cater to their audiences – revolutionizing the customer experience as a whole. It All Starts With Data Data is the foundation for a successful digital transformation – the lack of clean and cohesive datasets can hinder the ability to implement advanced analytic capabilities. However,  89% of organizations face challenges on how to effectively manage and consolidate their data, according to Experian’s Global Data Management Research Benchmark Report of 2019. Because consumers prefer digital interactions, companies have been able to gather a vast amount of customer data. Technology that uses advanced analytic capabilities (like machine learning and artificial intelligence) are capable of uncovering patterns in this data that may not otherwise be apparent, therefore opening doors to new avenues for companies to generate revenue. To start, companies need a strategy to access all customer data from all channels in a cohesive ecosystem – including data from their own data warehouses and a variety of different data sources. Depending on their needs, the data elements can come from a third party data provider such as: a credit bureau, alternative data, marketing data, data gathered during each customer contact, survey data and more. Once compiled, companies can achieve a more holistic and single view of their customer. With this single view, companies will be able to deliver more relevant and tailored experiences that are in-line with rising customer expectations. From Personalized Experiences to Predicting the Future The most progressive financial institutions have found that using analytics and machine learning to conquer the wide variety of customer data has made it easier to master the customer experience. With advanced analytics, these companies gain deeper insights into their customers and deliver highly relevant and beneficial offers based on the holistic views of their customers. When data is provided, technology with advanced analytic capabilities can transform this information into intelligent outputs, allowing companies to optimize and automate business processes with the customer in mind. Data, analytics and automation are the keys to delivering better customer experiences. Analytics is the process of converting data into actionable information so firms can understand their customers and take decisive action. By leveraging this business intelligence, companies can quickly adapt to consumer demand. Predictive models and forecasts, increasingly powered by machine learning, help lenders and other businesses understand risks and predict future trends and consumer responses. Prescriptive analytics help offer the right products to the right customer at the right time and price. By mastering all of these, businesses can be wherever their customers are. The Experian Advantage With insights into over 270 million customers and a wealth of traditional credit and alternative data, we’re able to drive prescriptive solutions to solve your most complex market and portfolio problems across the customer lifecycle – while reinventing and maintaining an excellent customer experience. If your company is ready for an advanced analytical transformation, Experian can help get you there. Learn More

Over the years, businesses have gathered a plethora of datasets on their customers. However, there is no value in data alone. The true value comes from the insights gained and actions that can be derived from these datasets. Advanced analytics is the key to understanding the data and extracting the critical information needed to unlock these insights. AI and machine learning in particular, are two emerging technologies with advanced analytics capabilities that can help companies achieve their business goals. According to an IBM survey, 61% of company executives indicated that machine learning and AI are their company’s most significant data initiatives in 2019. These leaders recognize that advanced analytics is transforming the way companies traditionally operate. It is no longer just a want, but a must. With a proper strategy, advanced analytics can be a competitive differentiator for your financial institution. Here are some ways that advanced analytics can empower your organization: Provide Personalized Customer Experiences Business leaders know that their customers want personalized, frictionless and enhanced experiences. That’s why improving the customer experience is the number one priority for 80 percent of executives globally, according to an Experian study. The data is already there – companies have insights into what products their customers like, the channels they use to communicate, and other preferences. By utilizing the capabilities of advanced analytics, companies can extract more value from this data and gain better insights to help create more meaningful, personalized and profitable lending decisions. Reduce Costs Advanced analytics allows companies to deploy new models and strategies more efficiently – reducing expenses associated with managing models for multiple lending products and bureaus. For example, OneMain Financial, was able to successfully drive down risk modeling expenses after implementing a solution with advanced analytics capabilities. Improve Accuracy and Speed to Market To stay ahead of the competition, companies need to maintain fast-moving environments. The speed, accuracy and power of a company’s predictive models and forecasts are crucial for success. Being able to respond to changing market conditions with insights derived from advanced analytics is a key differentiator for future-forward companies. Advanced analytic capabilities empower companies to anticipate new trends and drive rapid development and deployment, creating an agile environment of continual improvement. Drive Growth and Expand Your Customer Base With the rise of AI, machine learning and big data, the opportunities to expand the credit universe is greater than ever. Advanced analytic capabilities allow companies to scale datasets and get a bird’s eye view into a consumer’s true financial position – regardless of whether they have a credit history. The insights derived from advanced analytics opens doors for thin file or credit invisible customers to be seen – effectively allowing lenders to expand their customer base. Meet Compliance Requirements Staying on top of model risk and governance should always remain top of mind for any institution. Analytical processing aggregates and pulls new information from a wide range of data sources, allowing your institution to make more accurate and faster decisions. This enables lenders to lend more fairly, manage models that stand up to regulatory scrutiny, and keep up with changes in reporting practices and regulations. Better, faster and smarter decisions. It all starts with advanced analytics. Businesses must take advantage of the opportunities that come with implementing advanced analytics, or risk losing their customers to more future-forward organizations. At Experian, we believe that using big data can help power opportunities for your company. Learn how we can help you leverage your data faster and more effectively. Learn More