A webinar conversation hosted by Digital Frontiers Institute reviewed the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in better understanding and serving the needs of customers. It highlighted the CFPB’s use of digital channels to receive and process customer complaints in the United States. The public complaint database, now with nearly 1 million complaints filed, is now a powerful tool for assessing and sharing best practices for financial service providers and for incentivizing a response to customer needs.
Engage
Along with better understanding the needs of customers, many Financial Inclusion Week conversations underscored the importance of customer engagement. Engagement can take many forms, but the common thread is that better customer engagement is necessary when introducing new digital channels and products, and that it becomes much less costly through these digital channels.
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FIinancial Inclusion Week 2016 Roundup
The Sakchyam Access to Finance Program in Nepal also focused on using digital channels to hear the customer voice. During their conversation (pictured at left), which focused on how to keep clients at the center of their technological initiatives, participants highlighted gathering client feedback through digital means – and also committed to incorporating that feedback into Sakchyam’s own bank agent training program.
VisionFund International’s webinar highlighted a new application that it is using to better extend products to smallholder farmers and manage risk. The application automates the calculation of loan size and term by drawing data from over 80 data points on geography, crop type, and location. This approach and evaluation helps to prevent over-indebtedness while ensuring healthier repayment rates and client satisfaction. Early testing has shown this system also leads to improved Social Performance measurement. because information is captured in one system, and loan officers can spend more time discussing impact measures as opposed to calculating appropriate loan size.
Click the photo above to view the VisionFund International webinar and learn more.
The Financial Inclusion Week Story Continued...