How Artificial Intelligence Helps Banks Understand — and Keep — Their Customers

Having a solid customer base already puts you in a good position. As a rule of thumb, acquiring new customers costs five times as much as retaining existing ones. But to generate revenue from existing customers, banks face the challenge of activating them in a value-creating way and building lasting loyalty — especially given how willing bank customers currently are to switch providers. The solution lies in improving customer satisfaction and customer value, and the key to that is personalization.

With digital transformation, banks now have every opportunity to design their business processes consistently and thoroughly from the customer's point of view. Companies have been processing data for many years and now hold vast data treasures. But this data only becomes valuable once it can be processed productively and once that processing delivers noticeable value to customers.

So how do data points become sales-relevant insight into customer needs? And how can banks know and serve the preferences of each of their thousands, or even millions, of customers?

The answer lies in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.

If Data Is the New Oil, AI Is the Engine

Used wisely, AI expands the ability to optimize sales and marketing processes around customer value. That's because the value a customer perceives isn't just a question of the product offering itself — it's also a matter of timing and messaging. A key factor in sales success is taking into account the customer's situation and receptiveness, and optimizing communication across the entire customer journey and every touchpoint. The goal is the best possible fit between supply and demand at any given moment.

AI is capable of mastering this task with the help of data. Acceleraid's software solutions make it possible to offer each individual customer, at any given moment, exactly what they want at that time — whether or not that desire is even conscious. The path there runs through personalization spanning the entire sales process, built on bringing together and analyzing data already held within the company using various machine learning algorithms.

To do this, customer data from all available sources is identified, combined, and put to use. By integrating CRM, transaction, and user data into a private cloud-based big data infrastructure, data that was previously siloed becomes usable and can be applied to customer processes.

Increasing Sales Across All Channels — From Website to Email, Customer Portal, and Call Center

Here's an example: two different users visit a bank's website at the same time — yet the layout they see, the information highlighted, and how they're addressed differ, tailored to their predicted interests. One might be prominently shown a loan offer, for instance, while the other sees a securities investment offer.

The variant shown is the result of automated data analysis and the resulting estimate of conversion probabilities. The AI factors in every usable, predefined data parameter to create an individualized customer experience in real time. Among other things, it can take into account which channel the user is accessing from, which device, the time of day, and even the weather. The result is automated, personalized engagement that satisfies individual customer needs and creates real value.

"When users only receive information that's relevant to them, it demonstrably increases their satisfaction and the likelihood that they'll complete a contract online. For banks, customer satisfaction is a direct revenue driver — satisfied customers buy more, stay longer, and recommend you more often. AI-supported customer engagement can boost sales for banks by ten to 30 percent."

Michael Altendorf, CEO Acceleraid

Activating Existing Customers with Automated Campaigns

A look at the insurance sector illustrates just how effectively data-driven customer relationship management (CRM) can build loyalty and boost revenue.

Suppose policyholders of a statutory health insurer are to be informed about new supplementary private insurance policies. AI can determine who to contact, when, and through which channel, based on existing customer data. The next step is to offer automatically clustered user groups content tailored to them — for instance, travel insurance might interest one group, while a fashion shop voucher appeals to another. The software automatically determines the optimal time to send each message, as well as the right channel — phone, email, SMS, and so on.

As customers respond, the system continuously learns and refines its strategies. This means marketing and sales teams can always be confident that their initiatives are as effective as possible, while also gaining valuable feedback on customers' current preferences.

Personalization becomes customer loyalty and activation — and, in turn, a direct competitive advantage.

LEAN INTEGRATION INTO EXISTING SYSTEMS

Acceleraid's AI can be deployed easily within existing IT infrastructures. It requires no deep IT expertise and allows for a fast project start.

With just a few clicks, banks can draw the right conclusions from their many data silos, all in one place. Importing even distributed data assets is flexible and simple: data can be sent to the Acceleraid server via an interface from the relevant applications, or simply as a .csv file.

Work that used to be done by hand — compiling target audiences via cumbersome Excel exports and various systems, planning campaigns, and analyzing results — is now handled automatically by the AI, freeing up sales and marketing teams.

RELIABLY GDPR-COMPLIANT DATA PROCESSING

Customer data is sensitive information. Users, particularly in Germany, place great value on retaining control over their personal data. The EU has reflected this since 2018 with the General Data Protection Regulation. Thanks to Acceleraid's German headquarters and its experience in the German and European markets, all Acceleraid solutions are consistently GDPR-compliant and up to date with national and international compliance standards.