Banks need a customer service platform that’s actually built for finance

A version of this article first appeared in BAI’s June Executive Report: Elevating customer service across the enterprise. You’ll find insightful coverage in the issue on SMB customer care, practical AI use, the customer-talent connection, plus much more.

We all know the phrase “one size fits all.” We’re often quite skeptical of its promise.

For some products, it makes sense. Yet there are many other cases in which trying to be accommodating in all circumstances will require sacrifices to overall quality. You might accept a baseball hat or a Halloween costume listed as one size fits all; you’d be skeptical viewing a pair of shoes or a t-shirt the same way.

When developing a customer service solution, there are two distinct paths to take when considering its function: you can either develop the solution to be as broad and widely adoptable across as many industries as possible ( “horizontal”), or you can develop a solution that is tailored to one specific type of customer ( “vertical”). Vertical solutions that specialize in a specific industry will often have benefits that a general-purpose solution will lack. Especially in the world of finance customer service, these benefits can be crucial for future success.

Four reasons why I believe banks and credit unions should reconsider favoring a vertical customer service solution over a horizontal option.

You need support that understands your business

In the world of Software as a Service (SaaS), it’s rare that the relationship between customer and vendor ends right after the purchase; it almost always remains as a steady, constant partnership. This can be ensured with a team of talented staff who genuinely understand the needs and regulations of the financial industry, allowing them to provide the required specialized help.

With a solution not specifically designed for the financial industry, support teams will be able to help with the product but not have genuine insight into what financial institutions need or their common challenges. Banks couldn’t guarantee that a customer-success representative would truly be able to understand issues and navigate industry-specific problems.

Another feature you might miss out on with a horizontal solution is a lack of insight into how industry peers are taking advantage of the product. A lack of specific industry benchmarks for comparison could limit your ability to understand exactly how much value you’re getting from your chosen solution.

You need a platform that integrates with tech unique to financial services

A customer support solution aimed at a generalized audience will likely not provide integration with an online banking platform, loan origination software or other financial services software a bank needs it to run on. That means you’ll need to spend extra development time and cost getting the solution to work where and how your users will need it. Furthermore, troubleshooting potential issues with these integrations will prove more difficult, as there will likely not be any preexisting documentation or training for this setup.

Having a strong, pre-established integration with the fintech partners, from digital-banking platforms or loan-origination systems, that you’re already using is a great benefit of using an industry-specific solution. This ensures that your prospective customer service software has robust and relevant integrations that you’ll use, which will provide functionality and limit additional costs.

You need someone who understands financial institution security and compliance

The financial industry is particularly sensitive when it comes to security. Working within this space requires a wide range of compliance concerns to ensure that personal finances are kept safe.

For a general customer support solution, they may not all be compatible with these considerations: any customer service software without compliance with PCI DSS, SOC 2, SOX, Finra or other cybersecurity standards may find themselves inadequate for protecting sensitive financial information.

Ultimately, it’s more cost-efficient

As stated earlier, if a customer service solution doesn’t have native integrations with the platforms, then it will take further development time and cost. Additionally, if this solution hasn’t been crafted with the specific workflows of your industry in mind, you may need even more resources to make the solution work for these use cases.

A horizontal solution may look cheaper up front, but it will likely have a lot of additional hidden costs when it comes to setting up the solution to work best for your business needs.

Jay Choi is Chief Product Officer at Glia.