Verint's Ziv on the surprising answer to the fintech threat

A digital tsunami has swept away many incumbents and transformed music, books, advertising photography and is now threatening to do the same to hospitality, travel, insurance, venture capital and many other industries.

Leading insurance companies and financial organisations are investing in fintech technologies and start-up companies. However, only a handful will likely emerge as real winners.

Unless you can invest in all or most of these potential disruptions, chances are this roulette may land on a number you didn't bet on.

So what can incumbents do to sustain their place in this new world? What advantage will fintech technologies have a hard time replicating?

Human engagement is the surprising answer.

While customers are eager to self-serve themselves through a wide range of new digital channels, research shows they still demand access to human touch and engagement, especially for emotional products and services such as insurance.

A Verint survey of more than 24,000 customers across 12 countries, in collaboration with research firm Opinium and research and advisory firm ID, provided some surprising insights on how to strike the right balance between digital and human customer service.

When asked about the future of customer service the vast majority (83%) believe that speaking with a customer service representative on the phone or in-store will always be important. 74% of consumers don't like dealing with companies that don't provide a phone number on their website.

For ongoing regular communications and account management online and email are typically preferred especially for the younger generations. However most consumers across all generations demand human interaction for more complex tasks when something critical happens, such as an insurance claim or a complex question.

The research also found that a human touch promotes loyalty. Customers that have a good customer experience in person or on the phone behave more favourably towards brands than online.

They are 27% more likely to sign up to an organisation's loyalty program, 38% more likely to renew their product or service even if it's not the cheapest and 19% more likely to leave a positive review. On the other hand consumers are 57% more likely to do nothing following a positive customer experience on digital channels than in person.

This customer preference is in contrast to what most businesses are planning to invest in which includes mostly chat (which less than 5% of consumer mentioned as a preference) and mobile apps (less than 10%).

There is another overlooked upside to human interaction. In order to provide exceptional customer experience, businesses need to deeply understand the shifting customer preferences, questions and emotions; customer surveys alone don't provide that deep insight.

Through mining human interactions such as phone calls - deep customer insights emerge and leading firms are already leveraging these new opportunities expressed by consumers and acting on them faster than their competition.

This will likely be one of the most important competitive advantages of the digitally disrupted future.