There’s no denying the rapidly growing demand for unified communications in today’s challenging business landscapes. As we continue to tackle a growing number of issues, from hybrid work to changing customer expectations, UC is becoming a table-stakes investment.
In particular, in the banking and financial services market, UC has incredible value to offer. The UC environment in a financial services landscape allows businesses to deliver the impeccable customer services their clients expect without compromising on critical concerns like privacy and compliance.
In the financial services industry, UC technology is becoming increasingly popular due to its ability to improve efficiency, productivity, and customer experience. Financial institutions are adopting UC technology to streamline communication between employees, customers, and partners. This enables them to respond quickly to customer inquiries and resolve issues in real-time.
One of the key benefits of UC technology is its ability to provide a unified view of customer interactions. This enables financial institutions to track and analyze customer interactions across multiple channels, including email, phone, chat, and social media. By capturing this data, financial institutions can gain valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and needs, enabling them to provide personalized services and better customer experiences.
Several trends are shaping the future of UC technology in the financial services industry. These include:
- Cloud-based UC: Cloud-based UC is becoming increasingly popular in the financial services industry due to its scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. Cloud-based UC solutions enable financial institutions to access communication and collaboration tools from anywhere, on any device, and at any time. This makes it easier for employees to work remotely and collaborate with colleagues and partners from different locations.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML): AI and ML are increasingly being integrated into UC technology to improve communication and collaboration. For example, chatbots are being used to provide real-time customer support and automate routine tasks such as account balance inquiries and password resets. Voice recognition technology is also being used to enable hands-free communication and improve accessibility for visually impaired customers.
- Video conferencing: Video conferencing is becoming an increasingly popular communication tool in the financial services industry. It enables employees to collaborate in real-time and reduces the need for travel. Video conferencing is also being used to improve customer service by enabling customers to connect with financial advisors and wealth managers remotely.
- Integration with other applications: UC technology is being integrated with other applications such as customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and business intelligence (BI) tools. This enables financial institutions to access customer data, financial data, and other critical information from a single interface, improving decision-making and operational efficiency.
The Rise of UC in Financial Services
Financial services companies are in a powerful position to leverage the benefits of a unified ecosystem for communication and collaboration. Privacy, compliance, and exceptional levels of control over the flow of data are all essential in a financial landscape. With Unified Communications, financial services brands can leverage a multitude of critical communication methods for the omnichannel landscape without compromising security.
UC and UCaaS solutions streamline internal collaboration for financial services teams while simultaneously making it easier to track critical data about each interaction. Additionally, the right UC solutions can help teams work more efficiently together on projects for specific clients, even in an environment where remote and hybrid work is becoming more common.
In the financial services space, UC can:
- Increase productivity: By giving teams an all-in-one environment for conversations, collaboration, and essential business knowledge, UC solutions ensure financial professionals can work as efficiently and productively as possible. With many UCaaS tools today now offering access to APIs and integrations to blend in external tools, teams can create an all-in-one “work hub” to keep performance issues to a minimum.
- Improve security: UC solutions create an all-in-one environment for tracking the flow of data and conversations, reducing the number of landscapes IT teams need to track to ensure security and compliance. Increasingly, these tools are also offering a multitude of new and improved tools for security in the finance sector, like biometric voice recognition, two-factor authentication and more.
- Unlock agility: The financial services landscape is evolving at an incredible pace, particularly when we’re looking at a future of Metaverse ecosystems and NFT trading. Companies need to be able to adapt and evolve as quickly as possible. UC’s highly scalable structure ensures that financial services teams can explore new business models, adapt to new work styles, and even onboard new team members quickly.
- Collect business insights: Having an aligned environment for all your communications within the financial services space isn’t just great for compliance. The synchronised data flow also makes it easier to collect crucial business intelligence and insights. As financial services companies continue to strive to stay ahead of the curve, UC solutions can help create more cost-effective and profitable business decisions.
- Boost customer experience: Financial services companies are under more pressure to provide a truly fantastic customer experience. With Unified Communications, companies can align their teams, even in a hybrid workplace, to provide consistent support to all kinds of clients. A more unified communication environment leads to a more efficient and productive team capable of better results.
The Trends Driving UC in Financial Services
Financial services companies need to operate smoothly, adapt quickly, and deliver trustworthy, reliable experiences to their target audience. A UC environment, particularly one offered within the cloud environment, gives these companies the agility to thrive.
With unified communications, employees can collaborate and engage with each other, creating a more cohesive tea, capable of optimal performance across multiple channels. UC can even pave the way for new forms of digital transformation for financial services companies. For instance, investing in UCaaS could open the door for new AI innovations and hybrid work opportunities. Some of the most significant trends shaping UC in financial services today include:
- The rise of hybrid work: Since the pandemic, hybrid work trends are affecting virtually every business, including those in the financial services landscape. The right UC technology should ensure financial services companies can continue to deliver a secure and reliable service to their customers, regardless of where their employees are located. It will also provide financial teams can onboard and provision new specialists from around the world through the flexible landscape of the cloud.
- Unified UCaaS and CCaaS: In an environment like financial services, where demand for excellent experience is higher than ever, combining the “as a service” landscapes are becoming increasingly common. Bringing UCaaS and CCaaS together can provide teams with more support for delivering excellent customer experiences. A combined ecosystem also paves the way for more personalised levels of customer service.
- Artificial Intelligence: AI plays a critical role in many aspects of the financial services space, helping companies better understand their clients with in-depth reports and analytics while also boosting security. The right AI investments in your UC environment can make conversations more secure, with concepts like biometric voice printing to protect customer data. These tools can also act as an extra source of support for your teams.
- The Metaverse: The metaverse is a significant focus point for many financial services companies, as it will pave the way to new economies and new kinds of value for teams to keep track of. Metaverse concepts like NFTs and even extended reality customer interactions may become more common in the financial services space in the future. These concepts will need to be considered in the industry’s approach to unified communications.
Discovering the Opportunities for UC in Financial Services
Financial services represent an incredible landscape for unlocking the various collaborative and efficiency-boosting benefits unified communications offer. By bringing teams together in a more synchronised and secure space, financial services companies can deliver more meaningful interactions their clients are looking for while ensuring they meet the latest compliance standards.
