What Is the Crucial Benefit of the Robo-Advisors?

Besides helping to make your customer journey more enjoyable and your customers feel special, the number one benefit is quite obvious – speed.

What do you see as the biggest challenge or limitation of AI technology in regard to the sales process?

The conceptual biggest challenge is to understand the COVID-19 situation (and the possible impact of COVID-19 2nd round) and its opportunity for our business line (for instance, more sustainability – ecosystems – instead of too much product or service focus, better knowledge on the customer insights). I believe that we face a new strategic inflexion point in the payment industry and the implementation of cutting-edge tools can create sustainable business flow with deep customer satisfaction.
If I turn onto the latest technologies, then the biggest challenge to use cutting-edge technologies like AI (incl. machine learning) or robots is our existing and new customers and their tolerance level to accept and to absorb the latest technology. In my opinion, we have to be careful regarding the implementation phase, and step by step gives the newest technology for a broader range of our clients. The AI (incl. machine learning) can help to boost your sales script, but its limitation is that it can be too “machine-like”. I mean, its proposal can be far from reality. If you accept this limitation and cross-check what is proposed to you, you are responsible for the fine-tuning process of sales scripts. In our Sales organisation, we have the Script Committee, where we analyse and suggest new texts for our sales team thanks to the continuous client’s feedback loop.
The most significant limitation of AI (incl. machine learning) is that it is not human currently, and the tolerance level of the B2C segment is low but with a positive outlook. The personal interaction is needed the B2B. We can allocate more time for our key partners through using technologies. It is the vital essence of partner management.

What still needs to be done to fully implement AI to the sales process? What do you wish would be enhanced in the near future?

The near future is a fine-tuning question regarding used technologies. After the first COVID-19 crisis and preparing for the next disaster, first of all, we have to analyse (data-driven solutions and data visualisation) our client’s economic conditions and their growth strategies post-COVID-19 (based on customer insights as input for further analysis). When we understand deeply what our clients want, then we can answer the new challenges of our clients based on their customer insights.
In my view, we have to save the time of our customers to use technologies and leave them to focus on core activity, instead of the banking process. It is the background of the customer-centric behaviour.

What is the number one benefit the robo-advisors bring to sales process?

The crucial benefit of the robo-advisors is their speeds because they can analyse as fast as possible the client’s needs, and according to the client’s characteristics, they send an offer to the clients (Phase 1). When the clients accepted our offer than the robo-advisor (RPA) can send the contract to them (Phase 2). The (offer and contract sending) processing capacity of robo-advisors is significantly higher than human beings; therefore, the customer journey is much enjoyable because our response time is immediate. Our clients feel important, and they do not lose time with decision-making because they have all the necessary information to bring their decision and to choose our ecosystem. If robo-advisors realise any gap within the process (it is not able to send standard offer to the clients because she/he has risky activity), then it sends it towards to payment excellence team who manage the special client needs forward. Robo-advisor informs the clients that we will send our offer within two days.

László KISS is the Head of Strategic Product Sales (Merchant acquiring – POS) / Senior Manager and has been working for OTP Bank Plc since 2016. Primary focus on Merchant Acquisition related to Bank Card Acceptance. Previously, he worked in the Hungarian banking sector in different Controlling and Sales leader positions (at UniCredit, Raiffeisen and AXA Bank where he worked in AXA Belgium, as well). Currently, he participates at an International double-degree Executive MBA programme managed by SEED and the Maastricht School of Management (the Netherlands). Besides, he has been very active in the area of merchant acquiring in Hungary and the Group countries since 2018. “Our strategy has been changed. We are digitalising and thinking about cross borders, creating our future and searching for new & dynamic solutions. Our powerful & influential team works day over day to fit for expectations of our existing and new clients, to support their strategy and as Business Partner to help reach their business goals. We believe that we are the ONE.”
His current focus is on selling established payment innovations from global world to the CEE region, along with his ongoing tasks of improving and strengthening the market position and strategy of OTP customers in Hungary and out of Hungary, as well.