Technology could enable reaching out to new customers: Study

Technology could be a huge enabler to reach out to a new segment of customers and explore untapped markets in the financial services market, a CII-PwC study released here said today.
The banking industry has already leveraged the mobile phone opportunity and now it is time for insurance and asset management industries to follow suit, the report said.
These sectors need to develop innovative mobile phone applications to assist the sales process for agents and brokers, rather than restrict the scope of applications to vanilla activities such as quote generation or providing product information, the report released here during the CII summit on financial distribution said.

Given large volumes with lesser margins involved, technology needs to be extensively used to maximise benefits as well as return on investment (RoI), the study said.
Mobile and tablet-based selling as well as customer service need to become focus areas, apart from continuing to leverage established channels in the sector, the report said.
The report stated that the country's six largest cities account for 10 per cent of the country's bank branches, while at the other end, there are eight districts in North Eastern India, with just two or less branches each.
With steady growth in branches over the last three years, there is a clear opportunity to expand reach through either branch expansion or focussing on alternate distribution channels, the study said.

Using social media mining tools, companies could assess customer sentiment regarding product propositions and brands to create highly specific solutions, the report said.