The Acting Dean of Engineering and Computer Science of Ashesi University, Dr. Nathan Amankwah, has called on businesses to adopt innovation and technology to enable them to improve on customer satisfaction and retention.
He indicated that the introduction of digital innovations such as electronic statements, mobile money, SMS, among the others, had made transactions and banking easier over the years, indicating that adopting innovation holds the key to the transformation of customer service for businesses.
Dr. Amankwah made these comments at a business and technology stakeholders meeting, aimed at intensifying customer satisfaction using technology, organised by Axxend Corporation, a technology and business consulting firm with over a decade of experience of deploying Microsoft technology as Microsoft partners.
The meeting was attended by representatives of financial and insurance institutions such as Fidelity Bank, Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), Republic Bank, Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG), Universal Merchant Bank (UMB), National Investment Bank (NIB) and GLICO Insurance.
The meeting was also geared toward the creation of innovative ways to transform financial businesses using digitalisation. It also touched on how these institutions can deepen relationships with their customers and maximise profit.
Digital transformation
Dr. Amankwah highlighted customer categorisation and engagement as an opportunity to transform customer service by gathering data of customers and building up on them to identify their patterns to improve the response service as service providers.
He added that businesses which take advantage of new technologies would go ahead of their competitors. However, they need to collaborate with deploying and supporting institutions like Axxend Corporations to leverage on their decades of experience in introducing technology into their functional operations.
Customer service
The Head of Digital Transforming for Axxend Corporation, Daniel Sowah, in a presentation, stated that research indicated four pillars to digital transformation in the midst of global disruption.
The pillars, he said, were engaging customers to explore their new experiences and interests, empowering customers to reinvent productivity and enable a data-driven culture, optimising operations by portfolio and transforming processes, and transforming products by developing innovative products and new business modules.
Innovations Strategist at Axxend, Russell Xorse Damali, disclosed that the firm, through a survey in Ghana and Benin, had developed a better way to improve on services of the customers.
Some of these innovations to improve on customer service are the smart cheque and cash withdrawal, which he emphasised was an intelligent banking assistance that would aid customers to withdraw and deposit cheques at bank without joining long queues for validation.
The rest include self-service forex exchange, contactless deposit, contactless visa issuance and intelligent help desk.
Discussion
At the end of the discussion session, it was agreed that certain factors hindered banks from moving at the speed of digitalisation. The factors included the inability to convince management of financial institutions about new technologies to effectively deliver services. Another concern was cost; the participants stated that the amount of money involved in using new technologies was high, therefore, the institutions preferred maintaining and protecting what they already had.
