Improving banking process efficiency with Zoho CRM

Improving banking process efficiency with Zoho CRM



Banks act as a bridge between borrowers and lenders, thereby facilitating millions of transactions each day and play a key role in the functioning of the economy. Some of the many functions performed by banks include:
  • Acting as a custodian for people's money
  • Helping corporate organizations in disbursing salaries to employees
  • Providing loans for real estate, business, personal, educational and healthcare purposes.
  • Offering credit & debit cards.
  • Insurance schemes for people, assets and organizations.
On top of this, they contribute a decisive role in the functioning of the world economy and their importance keeps increasing with each passing day. One of the key areas where banks have been forced to reinvent themselves is the area of customer acquisition and engagement for their various services. Services like credit/debit cards, housing loans, vehicle loans, education loans, insurance, gold schemes etc have gained increased traction these days. Many banks have begun to provide these services, which means banks have to compete between one another for acquiring and retaining customers in these areas. While this might appear like a complicated problem statement, it is straightforward and calls for only one solution - the need for an efficient, robust CRM system. 
 
Let's say Sam, a popular business owner, owns a bank account in the nearby ABC bank. The bank has introduced a car loan scheme and is currently trying to sell it to its existing customers. Sam, who frequents the branch, has a credit score that makes him a prime candidate for the car loan scheme. In the conventional methodology, the bank has to run through its database, wasting hours and resources to identify potential account owners. A CRM system, on the other hand, can run an automated workflow for the end to end process that can complete the entire prospect scanning process effortlessly. Let's look at how Zoho CRM improves the overall process.
 
Suppose that Sam too was looking to avail a car loan and was scouting for various car loan schemes in the market. Sam hears of the bank's offer and wishes to avail a car loan. Let's now see how Zoho CRM's functionalities can turn the tedious, manual loan process into a cakewalk.




Blueprints, a process automation feature in Zoho CRM can be considered as an online, automated replica of the banking process. It takes care of the entire process without human interference and makes it error-free. It not only automates the process, but it also validates the data by capturing the critical details accurately. The above is a sample snippet of a basic blueprint process for automating the loan approval process. 
  • It starts with the collection of required data. 
  • Once the documents are submitted, it will initiate a manual verification of check for the documents mentioned in the transition by triggering an alert to the required banking personnel. 
  • After the cross-check is completed, it will then validate whether the applicant is eligible for the loan. 
  • When the validation is completed, the respective fields in the CRM will be updated and any further loan approval checks such as verification of the customer's transaction history would be initiated. 
  • Finally, after the completion of the entire verification cycle, the branch manager's approval. Upon confirmation, the system will credit the loan amount to the applicant's bank account. 
The time duration for each record can be viewed in the reports tab. Through blueprints, banks can reduce the time taken to process loans, gain visibility on prospective customers availing loan schemes and save tremendous time and manual effort which is otherwise spent on mundane manual processes.

Benefits of using Zoho CRM in Banking:

Eliminates need for rework 
A study states that employees can save two hours of their workday through automating mundane tasks, which is 360 hours in a year! Freeing employees from core repetitive tasks gives them more time and energy to focus on other prior tasks. It not only frees up the employees time but also prevents human errors which result in more time spent to correct those mistakes. 

Reduces room for errors
When dealing with sensitive data such as Knowing Your Customer (KYC), there is no place for errors  because the stakes are high. It might expose the bank to financial risks or even a lawsuit, resulting in bad reputation. Through automation, human interference can be eluded and an error-free and more streamlined process can be ensured.

Presents great opportunities to upsell
Sam's loan is approved: Using this knowledge, the system can automatically recommend other financial services and products to the respective segment of customers. It paves the way for better customer retention. To acquire a new customer, one has to spend five times as much as retaining existing customers. Retaining customers increases revenue because they become brand advocates, prompting them to engage in repeated business with the bank.