Pol Brouckaert , Director at Netcall Europe , says only by taking a holistic approach to transformation can financial service organisations continue to thrive in the digital age .

anks and insurers have invested heavily in the

B digitisation of their customer channels over the last 25 years . Starting with static information websites around the turn of the century , mobile apps with the advent of the smartphone 15 years ago , and finally , the widespread adoption of chatbots over the last five years .

In today ’ s increasingly connected and digital world , customer demand for faster , smoother , technology-enabled experiences has driven this digital acceleration – with front-end services prioritised in order to keep up . In parallel , the reliance on brick-and-mortar channels has declined significantly . In the EU , for example , approximately 100,000 bank branches have closed in the last 15 years .

Transforming customer-facing processes , however , is only one piece of the customer experience puzzle . Keeping up with expectations requires the optimisation of all processes and workflows impacting the customer journey – even those operating behind the scenes . For example , whilst tasks such as applying for a loan or submitting a claim can now be initiated entirely online – without needing to pick up the phone or speak to an agent – processing these requests still often involves manual work in the background . Whether it ’ s KYC or AML checks , pulling relevant information from supporting documents to support a claim , or verifying financial details to determine loan eligibility .

For too long , these time-consuming backend processes have been left behind on the transformation journey , yet it is these

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