FR: Tell us about Instinct Studios and why the industry needs this type of company?
Instinct is a new type of FinTech Company, committed to creating smarter customer experiences to simplify the world of financial services across web, mobile and touch-enabled devices. By making processes effortless and complex data meaningful, we help customers make clear and informed financial decisions. We do this by blending design and technology expertise with a deep understanding of financial services. We work with a range of financial services companies including insurance, asset management, wealth management and investment platform providers.
The financial services sector is experiencing a perfect storm in terms of the need for digital. Following the recent financial crisis the industry has been facing a severe reputational crisis and from a customer experience perspective it’s ranked pretty much bottom versus other sectors. When you combine this with a very active regulator that’s focused on transparency for the customer, you have an industry that is increasingly looking for new and innovative ways to deliver products and services.
FR: You’ve talked about delivering smarter customer experiences – why is this important?
The evolution of technology is relentless and this is driving customer expectations higher and higher when interacting with services. These expectations are even beginning to outpace the rate of technological change and quite understandably financial services are struggling to keep up. Financial decision making has always been an overly a complicated process but in the new digital era it doesn’t need to be this way. Being smarter means putting the customer at the heart of the process and then creating a simple and adaptable customer experience that fits into their evolving digital lives.
FR: Tell us about one of the FinTech innovations you’re working on?
A couple of years ago we set up the FinTech Lab because we were frustrated with the pace of digital change within financial services. The first innovation to emerge from the Lab is Fund Explorer, a cloud based fund information eco-system, powered by our proprietary AMID Technology platform. Fund Explorer is a completely new and interactive way to explore real-time fund information across web, mobile and touch enabled devices. The first customised installation of Fund Explorer went live in March 2014 with Old Mutual Wealth.
FR: How does Fund Explorer help financial services companies and consumers?
Printed fund factsheets are from the dark ages and we think investors deserve better. Fund Explorer gives customers access to up-to-date information that’s presented in a simple and interactive manner. For the first time people can touch and feel funds and access this information whenever and however they want. For companies, Fund Explorer creates operational efficiencies by automating the delivery of fund information, it reduces risk because it minimises human errors and it helps satisfy the ever changing needs of the FCA. We think it represents a massive ‘win win’ for both companies and customers.
FR: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing financial services companies’ in offering a better digital experience?
Companies need to change their mind-set when it comes to digital because customer expectations are rising fast and they will not put up with an inferior service for long. This needs to be recognised at Board level and companies must be willing to invest in their digital future. The forward thinking companies have already recognised that a great digital customer experience is no longer a nice to have, it’s a vital differentiator in a very competitive market.
FR: If you had to educate financial services organisations in one area, what would it be?
I would say that organisations need help with how to embrace and deliver digital change. The whole company needs to be committed to the digital change and this should start at Board level with an appreciation of digital and what that could mean for the business and its end customers. This commitment must then work its way down so that the rest of the organisation is empowered to deliver innovative digital products and services.
FR: How important do you feel social media is – or could be – in financial services?
If you get a group of financial services Heads of Digital together and you ask them what the hot topics are, they’ll most probably mention social media. This is a complete red herring because social media isn’t anywhere near as important as social media agencies would have you think. If you listen to how customers want to be treated and then deliver a great customer experience, people will instinctively say nice things about you on social media. Companies with a sub-standard service offering tend to be the ones that worry most about negative comments on social media. This of course has nothing to do with their social media strategy, but it has everything to do with how good they are at delivering their service.
