What are the main trends emerging in your restaurant, and more generally in the sector?
Celine Ansquer : First of all, our customers are more digitally active, and increasingly use only mobile, at the expense of the desktop. They go there independently to consult their accounts, make an appointment or transact. They also connect much more often – more than one in two days on average.
This was combined with an increased urge from our consultants to benefit from their experience. In addition, the number of customer meetings has increased by 5% and 40% of them take place remotely. Finally, the payments ecosystem is also undergoing a phenomenal transformation. We can think of contactless payment of course, but also of mobile and instant payments that are developing a lot. All this generates new habits and new uses, to which we must provide solutions.
What are the current developments in your retail and online banking?
We offer several models that allow us to offer customers the best of digital: BNP Paribas experts and consultants; Hello Bank, a completely digital bank that is aimed more specifically at “millennials” and freelancers; our private bank; and, of course, support for professionals, entrepreneurs and other corporate clients.
Finally, all these different types of customers have the same needs: digital, simplicity, accessibility, immediacy and, at the same time, support, competence and advice. Even the Nickel account fits perfectly into this proposed service model, with a hybrid component. The device is based on digital, but also on a physical network represented by tobacconists.
What are the priority projects?
We have to offer solutions that evolve according to the personal situation of our customers: expansion of the family, purchase of real estate, creation of savings, preparation of a property…. But also according to the appetite for digital more or less developed according to the profile.
Our first challenge is to continue to offer more and more omnichannel paths between the telephone, the application and the branches; and to be able to navigate between these channels in an even more fluid way than in the past. The electronic signature, up 40% in one year, also helps us a lot in the dematerialization of contracts.
Another big area of development: the personalization of the customer relationship must increase in power. If a customer contacts us by phone for a question or a problem, thanks to artificial intelligence, he can directly access the consultant who will provide him with the most efficient answer possible. And it is up to us to direct the client as quickly as possible to the right consultant. We need to be able to do the same with emails through semantic search.
The small pebbles that the customer sows also allow us to get to know him better to suggest targeted information at the right time. This can take the form of personalized banners in real time on which to bounce, flash alerts when you want to be informed of the payment of your salary, of a possible refusal of direct debit, of a balance reached on an account …
You want to develop beyond purely banking needs: in what form?
Indeed, we want to capitalize on our network of start-ups and partners. The goal is to go beyond the simple purchase of real estate. We also need to be able to offer insurance, moving assistance, etc. All these non-banking services aimed at helping and reassuring the customer.
This can take another form with our student clients. The latter not only need an account opened for them with a card, and possibly a loan for their studies, but they may also need help with their mobility, driving license or housing deposit. We must know how to go beyond the initial need for which they turned to us.
Another key element: our employees and consultants must benefit from the same symmetry of attention. We need to be able to offer them a workstation with the highest digital standards. For example, they have access to ARI, our Intelligent Research Assistant, where they can have, if necessary, a reminder about a procedure, tariff or product sheet, which will facilitate their research work in all our databases.
Every year we register several million connections on this ARI: it is our Google home! This is essential because consultants are the first link in the customer relationship. These innovations will help them hone their experience and support. I will return to these points in more detail during my June 23 speech at the In Banque 2022 conference.
What are the new data challenges?
With all the data we have about our customers, we have the opportunity to be even more relevant and at the right time. Our key professions revolve around data scientists to work on these models in the best possible way and add value to this mass of data. For example, on responsible investing, we propose in the “My Accounts” application to define a carbon footprint, because this is a growing concern among our customers.
Thanks to the start-up Greenly, which analyzes account transactions (travel, consumption, savings, etc.), customers can become aware of their carbon footprint. He can then have access to educational content and we can offer him actions to compensate for this footprint. This is one example, among many others, of what we can offer, thanks to the data collected from our customers.
Interview conducted by the In Banque team before Céline Ansquer’s speech at the conference on June 23, 2022, of which L’Usine Digitale is a partner