A snapshot of CX in finance: trust as a guiding principle and a new Consumer Duty

All Access: CX Financial Services featured seasoned experts from across the globe with a wealth of unique experiences and insights.

The event included two panel discussions and trust was an underlying theme across both, specifically how to ensure that building customer trust underpins approaches to generative artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) as well as how in the UK, the Consumer Duty is giving financial services providers the opportunity to deepen customer trust and gain a competitive advantage.

RELATED CONTENT: Top fashion brands share their advice
on digital CX and sustainability

Trust can make or break financial services providers’ generative AI strategies

Our second session of the event, Generative AI in financial services: the potential risks and rewards, explored how generative AI can be applied to financial services.

An audience poll during the session found that 40 percent of attendees were planning to invest in generative AI over the coming 12 months, and 47 percent were planning on investing in conversational AI. Made possible by our lead sponsors at Coveo, the panel featured Devin Poole, senior marketing manager at Coveo in conversation with Simon Separghan, who has worked at Virgin, EDF, Barclays and, most recently, was managing director of customer experience and contact at NatWest Group.

When asked about the most significant use cases for generative AI in financial services, Separghan emphasized the potential for LLMs to improve market visibility and information availability for customers and agents alike. “[financial services providers will have] the ability to take knowledge that is inherent in the organization and turn that inside out”, Separghan explained.

Additionally, generative AI will provide financial services institutions (FSIs), with immediate access to external knowledge and information, making it easier for providers to follow market trends and ensure that agents have access to the most up-to-date information when helping customers.

He noted that when agents and customer service representatives have to hand off a customer query to another person in the business because they do not know the answer to a customer query, Net Promoter Score (NPS) can drop by 70-80 percent, or up to eight points.

Generative AI and LLMs, he said, should be viewed as an opportunity to equip each agent with the most relevant and current information to serve customers better and ultimately build trust in agents.

Devin Poole agreed with this, saying: “We want to continuously build trust with our customers. A big part of that is having the right info at the right time.” Poole acknowledged that while some providers may be “worried about what might leak out of our own organizations”, barring staff from using LLM technology is not the answer. Instead, Poole argued, FSIs should provide a more secure alternative to the most popular public LLMs, or, as he put it, a “buffer layer” to ensure the tech is used safely and effectively.

RELATED CONTENT: How to leverage AI in the contact center

Another promising use case for generative AI in FSIs is improving personalization. When polled, a third of our audience confirmed they were planning to invest in personalization in the next 12 months.

Separghan stressed the importance of transparency, stating that if organizations are clear about how they are using customer data and AI, and how it will benefit them, those customers are more likely to accept it. Poole expanded on this, warning that personalization must not be driven solely by a public LLM but must be based on an organization’s own data. Generated responses should be informed mainly by FSIs’ own data to ensure high quality, accurate responses that provide value to customers and agents.

Risks posed by generative AI in financial services

When asked about the greatest risks that generative AI technology may pose to FSIs, Poole and Separghan agreed that the potential to damage customer trust was a key concern. Poole pointed out that “LLMs are not built to give you a correct answer”, which raises concerns around the accuracy of information outputted by LLMs. In risk-averse organizations, accuracy is essential, and FSIs are unlikely to gamble on this. Separghan added that there are many questions to be asked around ethics and AI bias, and that FSIs will need to have clear structures in place to ensure that systems are not “infiltrated by bad actors”.

While generative AI clearly presents complex questions and risks around customer trust, the opportunities presented by this evolving technology to CX professionals in financial services, are vast.

Why the UK’s Consumer Duty regulation is providing FSIs with a new opportunity to build customer trust

Our opening session of day two focused on Consumer Duty, the UK regulation instructing that FSIs must prioritise consumer needs when designing and marketing new products and services.

Titled How to prepare for the Consumer Duty and deliver a better customer experience, the panel saw Chris Mounce, digital training and enablement specialist at our sponsors, Evaluagent, leading a discussion between himself, Tony Crane, consultant at Crane Consulting, and Hasintha Gunawickrema, former chief control officer at HSBC UK.

Rather than viewing the regulation as an inconvenience, the panellists argued that FSIs should see it as an opportunity. Despite Consumer Duty being a UK regulation, Mounce opened the panel by asking “why should anyone beyond UK borders care? For me, the answer is simple – it’s trust.” He went on to explain that “trust in FSIs is fragile. Consumer Duty serves as a foundation to rebuild that trust.”

RELATED CONTENT: How the UK’s Consumer Duty will reshape CX

Gunawickrema agreed that building customer trust must be a key guiding principle in decision-making at FSIs, saying that “the regulator is empowering the industry to make the right decisions. [It is saying] ‘you can compete vigorously to get the best outcome for your customers’.”

When asked about potential penalties for failing to adhere to Consumer Duty regulations, Gunawickrema expanded on her previous point, saying “we don’t know if there will be a penalty figure, but history has proved to us that if you’re not customer-centric, there will be an impact [to your FSI] financially.”

Further to this, Gunawickrema referenced the rise of fintechs, pointing out that most successful fintechs have embraced operational transparency and earned the trust of consumers, so much so that they have been able to seize market share from other, more established firms.

Tony Crane highlighted the need for firms to carefully monitor their progress in compliance with Consumer Duty, beginning with gaining a deep understanding of which data needs to be captured. Crane said that AI is a “gamechanger” in this, and that firms that embrace AI in a meaningful way that customers understand will build customer trust and gain a competitive advantage.