To build an effective digital bank, experts say that customer experience must be the central task. To achieve this goal, in addition to capital and technology foundation, it is necessary to have qualified digital human resources. Banks around the world are pursuing a new trend: enhancing the employee experience.

According to Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB), if the employee experience is increased, it will bring passion to the job and can attract many talented people, thereby creating more creativity to enhance the customer experience. One of the solutions to improve the employee experience is to help them focus on creative and high-value-added work, avoiding boring repetitive tasks.

Mr. Tong Van Tien, Digital Innovation Director of TP Bank, said the Vietnamese banking industry has undergone strong digital transformation in the past two years. Up to now, 95 banks have been developing and implementing digital transformation strategies.

Statistics at 10 large commercial banks in the country show that investment in digital transformation is estimated at up to 15,000 billion VND per year; and spending on digital transformation accounts for 20-30% of the total operating costs. This is a breakout 5, 10 times faster than the time before the pandemic.

However, if you want solutions, you can buy them from suppliers, but finding companions who understand the problem and can apply technology to solve problems is more important.

A representative of Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBBank) said that after the recent scandal related to charity activities of several celebs in Vietnam, the bank developed an integrated technology solution for raising funds for charity, with three parts: charity banking account – fund raising application – charity website.

Thanks to this system, fundraisers and supporters can directly connect, interact regularly, and promptly support campaigns to help the community. It's all done automatically, transparently and quickly.

The solution has become part of MBBank's digital ecosystem. To have such a quick solution, beyond the technology platform lies the sensitivity and intellectual contribution of the bank’s employees.

A generation of digital customers

Mr. Luu Trung Thai, Vice Chairman of MBBank, said that in the past, banks thought digital transformation was an investment in technology, but now realize that digital transformation is a completely different mindset, not just technology. In particular, the development of solutions, the creation of a digital ecosystem will bring advantages, help promote access to customers, understand customers faster and increase their experience.

However, according to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, General Secretary of the Vietnam Bankers Association, the digital transformation of Vietnamese banks is still much slower than the world and not comprehensive.

It is just focusing on digital transformation of retail distribution channels, while other activities such as lending are only semi-automatic. The ecosystem is established but still incomplete. No bank has been able to make lending decisions entirely in the digital environment. The mission to bring experiences to customers is still far away.

Expert Le Xuan Nghia said that while banks globally began to interact with social networks to analyze customer information, Vietnamese banks still have done nothing. Big banks in the world are developing applications that look customers in the eye, but Vietnamese banks are still struggling at the starting line.

By 2025, Vietnam will have a generation of "digital customers". This generation has higher expectations about digital financial products and services. At the same time, with the development of social networks and technology, they can easily compare the convenience of services between banks, and the costs are more reasonable.

Now, Vietnamese banks must quickly switch from shifting products and services as the center to customers as the center by focusing on the improvement of the user experience.

PwC's "Retail Banking 2020" report showed that 40% of customers will leave a bank after a bad experience. On the contrary, improving customer experience will help banks gain a great competitive advantage.

The digital transformation challenges are enormous. In addition to institutional barriers, there are the mindsets of leaders and working habits of traditional bank employees. Without experienced digital human resources and innovative thinking, it will be very difficult to succeed.

Tran Thuy

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