One of the most daunting things that adds a serious friction point to onboarding new customers via any digitally based process, be that on a phone, tablet, laptop or whatever, is the onerous process of filling out form fields, understanding what to do next, uploading ID verification and the like.
As an example of why many people find this process difficult, especially senior citizens, 30 years ago, someone wanting to open a bank account would simply take a passport and a utility bill to their nearest high street bank. Within a few minutes, they would be the proud holder of an account with that institution. If they needed a loan, a mortgage or temporary overdraft, they would make an appointment to see a bank manager in a face-to-face meeting. Many would say that those were ‘the good old days’ of banking. But nowadays, with global digitalization and the ever-growing hunger for institutions to show increasing profits, employing expensive human beings has given way to digital onboarding and remote account servicing using apps and software.
Consequently, having a new customer adopt any organization’s software for the first time needs to be as hassle-free and seamless as possible, for the obvious reason that everyone wants a smooth customer onboarding experience with a new service provider. This is where a Digital Adoption Platform DAP comes into its own.
A DAP is a highly useful software platform that runs in the background behind the primary package to which it is assigned; a ‘teaching layer’ that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to offer assistance when end-users encounter difficulty in workflow. It also draws upon hyper-personalization to learn about that individual and anticipate when they are likely to struggle before the person gets stuck. Consider also that the primary language of the software in use might not be that of the potential new customer, who perhaps may just have arrived from a foreign land.
Readers of a certain age, perhaps those who also remember high street bank branches, might also recall a deeply irritating Microsoft paperclip assistant called ‘Clippy’, that would pop up if it anticipated you doing something on your computer. The annoying little creature took the humanoid form of a smiling paperclip with eyes, nose, mouth and short legs with a stupid speech bubble that contained a supposedly helpful tip. For example, if you started typing an address in the top right-hand corner of a word document and using the tab key to right-justify that text, Clippy might pop up and announce: “Looks like you’re trying to write a letter, let me show you how…”. Unlike in the film ‘Alien’ -in the open plan office everyone can actually hear you scream. How many laptops were slammed shut or thrown across desks as a result of Clippy’s interference is anyone’s guess.
The problem was that Clippy appeared every time you started to write a letter. Every. Single. Time. Clippy had no idea of your previous experience or IT competence level, so whether you were a Harvard computer science graduate or total PC illiterate, Clippy would joyfully pounce on you. You could turn him off, but then, if you *did* need help, you’d have to turn the pesky thing back on again. Clippy was either all or nothing, you had to take every tooltip he had to offer or just turn him off.
A DAP is like a super-smart version of Clippy, without the associated hypertension!
Imagine you’re an elderly customer, not very IT literate, onboarding to a banking app on your desktop computer for the first time. The DAP assigns you a ‘learning account’, so that it learns what you understand, and where you tend to go wrong on subsequent user sessions. The first time you fill in your address, the form might ask for a street address field before the town address. If the new customer tries to type their entire address into the first field, the DAP might offer a tooltip stating: ‘Please just type the name and / or number of your house and the street into this box’. But crucially, if the next screen asks for the address of your next of kin or that of, say, a nominated mortgage guarantor, the DAP will anticipate the previous error and display the tooltip advice proactively. However, crucially, the next time you type any address into the onboarding screen, the DAP ‘waits’ to see if you get the formatting correct. If you do, it will no longer offer advice where it’s no longer needed.
In short, a DAP is like having a friendly, knowledgeable IT help technician sitting at your shoulder, who only offers assistance when it is certainly required. The result is a seamless customer onboarding experience without the irritation of unnecessary distractions or annoyances.
The benefits to this smooth onboarding process for new customers is obvious. Happy customers make loyal customers. Loyal customers maintain healthy revenue streams, as opposed to a business failure.
But going beyond simply onboarding, the DAP also sits next to the service provider’s software, for any new screens that the user may not have ever encountered, even if they have been using the banking app for months or years. If a customer wants to report a stolen or faulty debit card, or perhaps question a transaction on their statement, the DAP will recognize that this is a new process for the customer, and act accordingly if necessary. Let’s not forget the added advantages of a DAP to the service provider, as the platform provides analytics and data tracking – thus enables User Experience (UX) system designers to enhance the composition of software updates and the layout of user interface dashboards.
DAPs will almost certainly be the next generation of ChatBots, but with the added bonus that they actually work! Soon we’ll be entering a world where the digital onboarding process becomes as smooth as silk for everyone, regardless of their level of computer literacy.
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