Since the beginning of 2020, there have been plenty of changes in our behavioural patterns. The expected 5-year digital adoption has accelerated drastically. With social distancing norms in place, many processes such as visiting a hospital, going to the bank, consulting a doctor at their office, etc., have experienced tremendous change. In response to the pandemic and physical constraints, many businesses switched staff to a remote working capacity and began providing their services online. Some of the most revolutionary changes attributed to digital adoption have been in the consumer, healthcare, and fintech spaces.
Digitization of Healthcare
With respect to the space of healthcare, digital health adoption has been on the rise. This has also increased the access to healthcare for many more individuals. In early 2020, a very small amount of the population had a virtual consultation with a healthcare professional. In comparison, this metric has increased nearly 38x since the pandemic. While the security of health data has been a concern for many individuals, healthcare establishments and health-tech companies ensure to protect the privacy of the patient and comply with all regulatory and security requirements.
Telehealth, on the whole, has not only increased access to healthcare but has also improved the customer’s experience in terms of convenience and time management. This has also led to the rise of several healthcare initiatives launching in tier II and III areas of the country that enable last mile connectivity to people using teleconsultation and IoMT technologies.
Apart from health, the fintech arena has experienced a drastic change as well. Let us have a look at the disruption in the financial space.
Fintech market disruption
The traditional financial processes associated with banks and lenders typically require customers to physically visit the bank to get the process started. Different aspects of the financial process including application, document verification, identity verification, KYC, etc., were carried out at the bank in person. However, since the pandemic, these areas of financial processes have been digitized. Several online identity verification features, online KYC features, and online banking features have been introduced. For the past decade, the digitization of banking across the globe has progressed. The pandemic has only accelerated this trend.
Fintech companies are growing outside the market of mere applications on the play store. Many financial institutions experienced and realised a decrease in customer loyalty and customer experience as the demand for speed, transparency, accuracy, and high tech have been growing. Moreover, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of fintech apps that were downloaded between January 2019 and March 2021 was 149 crores. This contributed to growth by 26 percent per year leading to India topping the global market with finance app installs. According to the overall trend demonstrated by India, there was a 3.3x surge in the number of digital fintech solutions from the first quarter of 2020 until the first quarter of 2021.
The shift of financial services to a digital platform has also resulted in the growth of neobanks that offer services at a discounted rate. This decrease in price is largely supported by the decrease in operational costs including rent for office spaces. In addition to neobanks, other financial institutions have also partnered with several fintech companies to improve customer experience by providing fast, convenient, and transparent services online.
Benefits of video banking
Video banking has been a fairly new concept in the age of digital financial solutions. One of the primary benefits of video banking or online banking is convenience. With an increased amount of convenience, customer retention has increased leading to improved customer loyalty. Here are the 3 most common benefits offered by video banking.
1. 24x7 Support
Physical branches of banks have pre-defined operational hours and provide services only during a specified time window. With online banking, customers can receive support and resolve queries round the clock.
2. Authentication Features
Safety is no longer a concern for individuals using digital banking services. With the progression to the digital world and improvements in data security, multi-factor authentications ensure a significant level of safety.
3. Backed-by Artificial Intelligence
With the help of Artificial Intelligence, the space of online banking has experienced tremendous benefits. Several features such as geotagging, face matching, and other authentication features have been added. This has improved the customer’s trust and loyalty towards the online banking space.
The pandemic has accelerated digital adoption across several sectors. This trend has allowed businesses to retain more customers with the benefits of digital services such as convenience, 24/7 access, reduced time consumption, and other benefits. As most financial services have been shifted to a digital space, the cost at which these services are provided have also been reduced due to lesser operational costs.
(Amit Das is CEO and Co-founder of Kwik.ID-an AI-backed customer onboarding product, by Think360)
