When it comes to withdrawing cash or renewing your insurance, most people are comfortable with automated or online services.

However, for the bigger financial decisions or problems, a personalised service and speaking to a real person with professional expertise is an essential for almost everyone.

As such, a huge portion of the financial services industry - mortgages, pensions, insurance, investments, loans, accountancy, and advice services – depends on face-to-face guidance.

But meeting in-person has some limitations, from restricted booking availability and long lead times to difficulties travelling to your branch location. Now the dangers of Coronavirus can be added to the list.

This is where blending in-person services with video consultations has proven a revelation for the industry – below we look at the benefits and show how TIMIFY is used to deliver them.

Personalisation and convenience with video

Some financial services firms have been integrating video services in recent years, not to replace face-to-face services, but to expand their availability and accessibility for their entire customer base.

“Two thirds of consumers didn’t mind which digital or physical channel they used to communicate with their insurer or bank. Their main concern was to be able to get what they want promptly and with little inconvenience.”

Accenture, Global Financial Services Consumer Study

COVID-19 has accelerated this, with consultancy-based services unable to operate in-person and forced to trial video meetings as an alternative.

When these new services are promoted, managed and delivered in a professional way, there are a wide range of benefits, including:

• Video appointments maintain a personal connection, build a trusted relationship and facilitate ongoing advice personalised to each client’s situation.
• Video appointments with a wider range of advisors, at more convenient times. The availability of in-branch advisors is often severely limited, meaning clients wait weeks for an appointment – and ultimately lose interest.
• Video meetings allow clients to speak with advisors on the move from a smartphone, if an urgent consultation is needed.
• Clients with difficulties travelling to your branch can still use video meetings to have personalised consultations with an advisor.
• Offer instant video appointments at the click of a button to allow clients to get advice at the peak of their interest – when browsing products and services on your website.
• Support those with financial problems - the convenience, immediacy, and greater sense of discretion with virtual appointments can make them preferable. Fear and embarrassment, chaotic lifestyles, mental health issues, long wait times and travel costs have all been shown to discourage people from seeking professional debt advice.​​​​​​​
  

• Offer video-based events for groups. This can be used for everything from tutorials, workshops and ‘meet the expert’ sessions to streamed events, product launches and conferences.

As we emerge from the pandemic with consumers more accepting of digital tech in services than ever before, a key competitive differentiator has become true personalisation for clients.

Video-based services allow a significantly larger number of your clients to receive expert guidance, tailored to their unique situation, for some of the biggest financial decisions in their life.

This has led many of our financial services clients to fully embrace the potential, with some firms now switching selected services to only be available by video appointment.

How does it work with TIMIFY?

Successful integration of video services across your business requires much more than just finding a good video conferencing provider.

Omnichannel appointment scheduling, resource management, in-branch technology, marketing, customer communications and performance monitoring are just some key considerations.

TIMIFY provides an end-to-end system to truly integrate professional video-based services into every aspect of your business.

Integrated appointment scheduling with major video conferencing platforms

• TIMIFY offers integrations with Zoom and GoToMeeting, as well as our own virtual meeting platform MeetMe, with each providing a wide range of specialised functionality.
• Video meetings added seamlessly into your booking calendar, allowing clients and booking staff to book video conferences alongside all your other services.
• When a video service is booked via TIMIFY, the video meeting is automatically created with your chosen video conference platform. Joining details are shared instantly with the client and all relevant staff.
• Appointment confirmations and reminders automatically sent to all parties, helping avoid no shows.
• Resources like staff, rooms and equipment can be assigned to particular video services, auto-reserving them whenever an appointment is booked by a client.

Create personalised links for individual services and consultants

• Create custom booking buttons, links or booking widgets for specific video services, aiding the promotion and ease of booking across multiple platforms and channels.
• Booking links for individual members of staff show only their availability, and can therefore be included on email signatures, business cards and invoices.
• A unique booking link can also be made for clients using an ongoing service. All variables unique to their ongoing appointment series can be pre-set, meaning the client only needs to click their personalised link and choose an appointment time.
• The calendar updates in real-time as meetings are booked, rescheduled and cancelled, without the need for manual updating. This means clients using a custom link always see the latest availability, while also avoiding double bookings.
• Decide which services are delivered by video appointment, by telephone or in-person, and create a dedicated link for each.
• Dedicated booking links can also be created to show availability for internal teams or custom groups of employees, making the system highly valuable for internal meeting scheduling (with video conferencing included where required).

Ensure video services are always at your customers’ fingertips

• TIMIFY allows clients to reserve and manage video appointments from any online or offline channel, ensuring continuity of experience even as they switch between channels

“More than half [of 47,000 banking and insurance customers surveyed across worldwide markets] expressed an appetite for a true omnichannel banking experience that would allow them to switch seamlessly between physical and digital channels.”

2019 Accenture Global Financial Services Consumer study

• Omnichannel marketing and communications, with personalised booking links and QR codes able to promote video-based services from any physical or digital channel.
• Regardless of which channel your client interacts with, all data is stored in one, centralised customer database - with the same always-up-to-date customer file used across your entire network of staff, branches and locations.
• Tailor booking forms to gather essential client needs and preferences specific to your video-based services, allowing them to be personalised effectively in advance.

Find out more

If you are interested in discovering more ways that TIMIFY can be used to enhance services in the financial sector, contact our team via the website chat today.

Provide our experts with details of your requirements and they will be happy to prepare suggestions for how the system could be used for your specific needs.