Bank computer problems can quickly become a nuisance for customers. They usually don’t realize how much institutes and financiers are already using IT systems when providing advice.
Bank computers are problematic for customers in three cases: firstly, when they have to answer questions on the phone using stupid computer voices. The situation is much more drastic if access to your own account is disrupted due to computer problems. The third case is the worst – but customers usually don’t even notice it: when the computer combines personal, statistical and market data in such a way that they are happy to conclude a contract, even if it doesn’t have to be a really good offer. In any case, it’s good business for the bank.
Hardness Sales reality
How this works became clear this week at the “Handelsblatt” “BankenTech” conference in Frankfurt. “We ensure that more people can fulfill their dream of owning their own home,” said Marcus Fienhold, chief computer officer at the money broker Interhyp. What Fienhold reported had nothing to do with dreams, but with hard sales reality. The Interhyp computer system ensures an optimal “customer journey” (literally: “Customer Journey”). In every significant situation in contact with customers, the following is considered internally: “What leads to deals?”
According to CEO Fienholt, the following is being analyzed: “How does a customer convert on the phone, via video or on site in a conversation?” “Converting,” in sales professional parlance, means moving from an interest to closing a deal. An artificial intelligence named Roberta has been in use at Interhyp for three years. They assess the customer, the house to be purchased and the area in order to then find the right advisor for the personal transaction. Also the question “Which consultants have converted well in such cases?” will be answered electronically. This has already led to “significant improvements,” said Fienhold.
Reservations with banks
Representatives of conservative banks were far more reserved on the sidelines of the event than the faction of sellers and brokers. The unrestrained use of data that customers have disclosed in other contexts is problematic. “We are not allowed to evaluate the data,” said a banker.
But banks work with external computer service providers. Melanie Kehr, who is responsible for information technology on the board of the state development bank KfW, said that it is often a “black hole” what service providers get from banks and how they process it. “That’s where I have the biggest stomach ache,” said Kehr, who suggested that the industry commit itself to avoiding purely commission-driven data processing.
A question of Data security
It’s not just about what is done with customer data. It is also about the security of customer data itself. Three weeks ago, the “Handelsblatt” reported on the theft of 144,000 data records from the service provider Majorel. Postbank, ING, Deutsche Bank and Norisbank were particularly affected.
Deutsche and Postbank have been struggling with massive computer problems for six months. After years of back and forth, Postbank customers were to be switched to the computers of the parent company, Deutsche Bank. After that, many accounts were and are inaccessible to the owners – and the trend is decreasing.
Some computers are ancient
For Deutsche Bank, which has gradually taken over Postbank since 2009, computer problems are part of everyday life. The then bank boss John Cryan called the systems “lousy” eight years ago, and two years later they spoke of “antiquated”.
Old systems are typical for the industry. “We sometimes have lines of code that are 30 years old,” said Boris Brandwirth from Atruvia, the cooperative banks’ data center, at the “Handelsblatt” conference.
What resonates with customers
On the one hand, old systems need to be renovated during ongoing operations. At the same time, new applications and modern services need to be integrated into the computing systems. This doesn’t always work to the delight of customers. Two Google managers presented an artificial computer human at “BankenTech” that independently answers customer questions. The assembled engineers were enthusiastic about the state of the art. The non-engineers found it wooden, silly and unpretentious.
Hope for customers came from Robert Pineker from Union Investment, the cooperative banks’ fund management company. In the future, callers in call centers will no longer have to exchange a lot of personal information with a computer voice: “A bot can do all that.” Bots are computer programs that work independently.