Banking continues to undergo hi-tech change, and one of the institutions trying to make sense of it all is TD Canada Trust, which now counts more than 5 million mobile banking customers across its North American operation.
While data analysis plays a growing part in the marketing plans of many major brands these days, for TD, the process plays out with 10 million Canadian customers, 1,100 branches and more than 2,500 ATMs across the country.
Connecting those dots and gleaning useful information to create a useful customer conversation has been an ongoing process, and Peter Husar, vice-president, enterprise customer data and analytics, TD Bank Group, said the company would double down on the data discussion in 2016.
While brand loyalty, engagement and personalization are vital for any digital marketing strategy, Husar said the approach in banking is a little different, since most customers approach financial institutions with a set of objectives.
Good examples could be buying a home, saving for retirement or putting money aside for a child’s education.
For Husar, the challenge is to rein in all the data touchpoints and put it to use in a way that can help customers reach those goals faster.
“My role is in the data and analytics space,” he said. “We are leveraging everything from customer interactions at branches to interactions at call centres, and really focusing it all on the customer to create a legendary experience for them,” he said.
“We’re working to try and help first-time home buyers to recognize the ability to accelerate their savings and to try and make it more comfortable for them along their journey to buying a house, as we know it can be a concerning proposition,” he said.
And much like a mortgage customer’s plan, for TD, the long-game is important.
While Husar was careful about revealing too much company strategy, he did offer one key example of how the bank works in real-time to deliver top service.
“We are trying to use our data assets to identify irritants that drive people to the call centres, so that we can proactively remove those irritants from our ecosystem,” he said.
And with an estimated 39 million customer interactions at TD call centres in Canada for all of the bank’s products and services, there is certainly a depth of data.
And it’s vital to stay abreast of customer expectations—in fact, there’s TD’s high-tech, think-lab in Kitchener, Ont., which operates like a start-up and aims to “disrupt” the bank’s business.
At the Kitchener lab, a room full of computer wizards tries to figure out ways to innovate on three main principles: First, that the customer is at the centre, second, that there’s no hierarchy of good ideas, and thirdly, to be fearless.
Another step in the ongoing customer-centric process has been the recent introduction of Visa’s tokenization technology for the Android app—which TD said was a first for any Canadian financial institution.
Essentially, the technology puts another layer of security on transactions through the use of encrypted “tokens,” which substitute private account information at critical points during mobile payments.
It also aims to make the mobile experience more seamless.
The new process, which TD announced in early March, isn’t dependent on SIM cards or mobile carriers, meaning that it’s available on more phones and for more customers.
“The adoption of Visa’s tokenization solution allows us to deliver a faster, simpler, and more accessible mobile payments experience, backed by a secure technology developed by a global leader in payments,” said Rizwan Khalfan, chief digital officer, TD.
“We continually look for opportunities to elevate the digital experience for our customers,” he said.
Alongside that rolling approach to innovation, another new tweak for Android allows one-button access for mobile payments.
For Husar, it’s simply part of the new landscape for banks.
“We are are seeing a proliferation of data that can help us inform and even then personalize the experience with them even more. It really has accelerated in recent times,” he said.
“In this day and age, there is an increasing demand and expectations have risen.”
