e4m-infobip webinar: Digital quotient of consumers has increased by 400x

exchange4media group synergised with Infobip to come up with a series ‘Thursdays with Infobip’ in association with Infobip. The focus is on the rise of digital practices in reimagining the business world.

With increasing numbers of consumers selecting and interacting with Financial Sector services online, the marketers have a renewed focus on customer experience. They are racing to keep up with the technologies and innovations that help meet customer expectations. The sector is also seeing the emergence of newer demographic, psychographic and behavioural segments, and hence the need to make the communication and transactions target-specific and seamless.

As a part of the series, exchange4media curated a two-session Webinar on the 28th of January, 2021. The second session of the webinar was a panel discussion on the topic ‘Future of Indian Financial Sector in A Hyper-Connected Era’ looking at how the finance sector in India will evolve in this phygital world.

The panel saw some expert minds of the marketing industry share their insights on the topic. The session chair was Harsha Solanki, MD-India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka & Nepal, Infobip. The panellists were Aalok Bhan, Director & CMO, Max Life Insurance; Lakshman Velayutham, CMO, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank; Ravi Santhanam, CMO, HDFC Bank; and Sachin Vashishtha, AD & Head, Digital Marketing, Paisabazaar.com.

Speaking about the major shifts that have occurred over the months of the pandemic, Aalok Bhan, Director & CMO, Max Life Insurance said that the digital quotient of consumers has increased by over 400x times in the times of the pandemic.

He further added “Consumers changed overnight at the beginning of the pandemic and are still changing. ‘Touch-free’ has become the biggest need to manage the pandemic. Digital is now not only a boardroom conversation anymore but now has also become a bedroom conversation. The real heroes from the corporate practices are the digital folks.”

Further elaborating on the challenges faced by the banking and finance sector, Ravi Santhanam, CMO, HDFC Bank added that getting the sales team to accept digital. He said “Nothing has changed apart from the fact that people are now ready to experiment with new ways of doing things. The problem with a hyper-connected world is to have the ability to put the data together.”

However, Santharam also feels that digital is here to stay. He added "Once a certain percentage of people adopt a way of doing things, there is no going back. That threshold of irreversibility has been crossed for the use of digital channels."

Digital channels are witnessing exponential growth and according to Sachin Vashishtha, AD & Head, Digital Marketing, digital will keep growing in all categories and sectors.

He said “The pandemic has forced the banking and finance sector to think of digital channels as mainstream channels. This has led to various small finance companies now stacking their data digitally.”

Talking about how the BFSI industry needs to evolve with the changing needs of the consumer in this digitally connected world, he further added “While in marketing we have adopted various technological developments, there is a huge scope for us to adopt these changes, especially in the consumer servicing area.”

Lakshman Velayutham, CMO, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank shared the initiatives taken by him during the pandemic for making the digital consumer experience seamless. He said, “An innovative ‘Janta-Connect’ program was launched to reach out to customers over the phone; during this conversation, we also sensitize its customers about COVID-19.”

He also believes that in the coming future, standardised banking and blockchain systems will emerge to furnish the needs of the digital words.