Digitisation of the customer journey: a performance lever for lending institutions

Optimisation of the customer experience is without any doubt one of the key elements in the transformation of the banking sector. To achieve it, lending institutions can rely on the digitisation of their customer journey and customer relationships. It was this that led Sofiap, a specialist in real estate credit and personal loans for employees, to introduce a digital solution to improve the customer experience.

Sofiap is a subsidiary of La Banque Postale, its majority shareholder, and the SNCF, its historic shareholder, and is part of a genuine social project. “Rather than participate in schemes to control or reduce rents, we aim to support companies who want to encourage the acquisition of property by their employees, regardless of their age” declares Laurent Permasse, Chairman of the Board of Directors. For this reason, the lending institution markets a loan offer and credit insurance at reduced rates to public or private groups. What are the benefits for employees? Reduced borrowing and insurance rates, thanks to a financial contribution by the company they work for, in the form of a benefit in kind subject to tax, or payment of the Value Sharing Premium (PPV) which can be used to pay the loan which also benefits from favourable tax treatment.

“Over and above the promise of acquisition of property that Sofiap offers, our aim is to reinforce the employer brand of our customers, who can therefore increase their employees’ loyalty. In addition, our offering is part of an approach to promote mobility and flexibility, which are strategic issues for the companies that we support,” explains Laurent Permasse. In 2022, over 5,000 customers who ask the bank for a mortgage will receive a loan offer within 15 days, once Sofiap has all the documents required for their application, thanks to rapid appraisal and the presence of a single interlocutor from the start to the end of the journey.

Digital technology supporting a personalised customer experience

According to Laurent Permasse, lending institutions believe that to acquire new market shares and develop customer loyalty they must offer a high quality experience, involving continuous improvement of the customer journey and relationships. But how should this concern to continually renew the customer experience manifest itself in the customer journey? “By offering a phygital journey in which no channel is imposed, at each stage in the loan application. Subscribers must therefore be free to personalise their journey and their customer experience as they wish and according to their needs”. It therefore involves allowing users to choose their own experience: in-person, by phone, by video call or alone with their computer to carry out certain actions such as credit simulation, submitting supporting documents and electronic signing of the offer.

A successful customer experience necessarily involves in particular the bank’s ability to enable its customers to change the communications channel if they wish. To digitise its customer journey and achieve this goal, Sofiap chose the software company Xloan to examine the whole of its decision-making process: simulation, appraisal, acceptance, payment and management, up to the end of the loan. “We must strive to achieve automation and personalisation of the customer experience: to do so we need to work closely with the producer of the solution, ensuring that the business players are closely involved in decision-making. In this instance, Xloan will enable us to save one hour out of the five usually spent on arrangement,” emphasises Laurent Permasse. He aims to obtain a seamless journey for transfer of the customer’s situation and exchange of documents, but also to optimise the time required to arrange the file. His goal? “Move from a CIO-style experience to a business analyst experience, because it is the business that is responsible for the customer experience”. In addition, by fully integrating the digital onboarding solution into their CRM system, banks can count on an even smoother and more flexible customer experience.

Digitise to meet the challenges of the banking market

The credit market, and in particular the real estate credit market, involves major challenges as regards privacy and respect for the confidentiality of prospects’ and customers’ data. From the time of onboarding, subscribers must feel safe with the third party bank to which they entrust their data. By including processes for securing exchanges, secure digital solutions safeguard the relationship and increase customer confidence. Another successful challenge thanks to the digitisation of customer journeys: smoother exchanges and a provisional response obtained more quickly. As Laurent Permasse states, “the main issue is not so much to obtain the lowest possible credit rate as to achieve a high quality and interactive customer experience, combining speed, the ability to listen, and support at each stage in the journey.” To achieve this objective, banks can rely both on the physical channel and the digital channel.

What are the future challenges for customer relationships in the banking market? More than products and services, it involves being able to offer a relationship of trust to each of your customers. For that, it is essential to ensure that you inform them regularly, which means you must perfect your own knowledge of them beforehand. “It is therefore crucial to link your CRM system to your digital onboarding solution. The purpose of digitisation must be to improve the information provided to subscribers, not to reduce their commitment due to a tedious experience. To be a lever for lending institutions to acquire customers and increase customer loyalty, the digital aspect must be omnipresent, but also reflect a real choice by the customer,” concludes Laurent Permasse.