Why digital data intake is the first step to digital transformation in banking

It’s time to face a new reality - automation and digitization are disrupting the banking industry, big time. Companies that embrace and take advantage of these changes are seeing numerous benefits - more customers, higher customer and employee retention, and increased profitability to name a few. Companies that don’t, however, may find themselves falling behind, losing market share due to their inability to meet their customer and employee needs. 

But the truth is, digital transformation doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. In fact, keeping up with the times can be smooth and easy - especially if you start with digitizing your data intake. 

The banking sector is falling behind

Modern technology is transforming every industry from transportation to hospitality, and banking is no exception. Financial companies are under major pressure right now to keep up with the latest digital trends, as agile, innovative new fintech start-ups come in with highly convenient customer-friendly technology that disrupts the status quo and captures more and more of the market.

In order to stay competitive, finance and banking companies must make it a priority to keep up with the rapid evolution of technology and the digitization of the banking experience. The name of the game? Keep up with competitive new tech and customers’ high expectations - or fall behind. 

Digital transformation starts at the beginning, with digital data intake

Digital transformation, especially if your company is used to more manual, analog processes, can be a long, intensive process. But you have to start somewhere, and there’s no better first step to take than with digital data intake.

Digital data intake relies on modern, digital technologies for gathering customer information, as opposed to more old-school options like paper or PDF. Instead, a digital intake journey uses responsive, personalized flows that are faster, more relevant, and easier to fill out. 

There are a few reasons why this is the obvious place to begin your finance company’s digital transformation process.

First, it’s relatively easy and affordable. No-code platforms allow you to quickly convert your existing manual intake forms into digital customer journeys without having to hire developers. 

Second, digital data intake has several significant benefits to your business that will make a big difference to your customers and your bottom line. 

[.emph]In short? Digitizing data intake is where you’ll get the most bang for your buck, and you can start the transformation process today.[.emph]

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Digital intake journeys offer a better customer experience

One of the most important benefits of collecting data with digital intake journeys is their ability to provide your customers with a faster, easier experience. Customers now want a process with as little friction as possible - they simply don’t have time to waste. The last thing they want to do is find time during their busy day to go into a branch to fill out forms. 

And if you think that a print-and-scan model is better, think again. Very few people have access to a printer or scanner these days and, even if they did, it’s undeniably inconvenient and time-consuming.

Online forms are a marginally better option, but they pale in comparison to digital intake journeys, which provide a superior customer experience in a number of ways.

Digital intake journeys can dynamically adapt to customer input, such that people never have to fill out fields that aren’t relevant to them. Not only does this save time, but it also creates a feeling of personalization, both of which are majorly important to customers, 66% of whom expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations and 80% of whom point to speed and convenience as two of the most important elements of a positive experience. 

[.figure]80% [.figure]

[.emph]of customers point to speed and convenience as two of the most important elements of a positive experience.[.emph] 

And this isn’t something you should take lightly, because customer experience has proven to be a significant opportunity for competitive advantage, as 74% of consumers are likely to make purchasing decisions based on experience alone. 

… and improve your operations, too

But it’s not only your customers (and, with them, your bottom line) who will benefit from digital data intake  - it’s your operations and processes, too. Because, let’s be honest, employees don’t like paper-and-pen procedures any more than customers do. The process of manually inputting data from a paper or PDF form into a CRM is slow, inefficient, and incredibly prone to human error. 

Automating these processes will not only save you significant man-hours, allowing employees to focus on more needle-moving tasks, but it will also reduce errors and duplicate data entry, which can be very costly mistakes. 

Being able to work with digitized processes will also reduce employee frustration and improve employee engagement and, with it, productivity, as people get to work with smoother, more modern technology that is easier to use, more intuitive, and breaks down less. 

And just as happens when you improve customer experience, improving employee engagement will have a positive effect on your bottom line as an engaged workforce is 23% more profitable and sees 18% lower turnover, the cost of which is estimated to be six to nine months salary per person. 

You snooze, you lose…both customers and revenue

Banking and finance is a competitive industry. In the U.S. alone, there are over 530,000 private and over 1,000 government finance establishments. While only a few large banks once dominated the landscape, disruptors both large and small have destabilized the industry, threatening the business and demonstrating that consumers have a strong preference for convenience and exceptional (read: digital) experiences.

This doesn’t mean that an organization currently relying more on manual processes has no chance for success in the modern banking industry. But it does mean that banks that don’t embrace digital transformation will quickly fall behind their competitors, making digitization an obvious top priority. 

Thankfully, no-code platforms allow for digital transformations with a much lower time and resource commitment than you might expect. Even without any coding experience, you’ll be able to quickly design and deploy digital intake journeys that offer all of the benefits that we discussed above - no new hires required.