Digital Signage and the banking sector? Of course.

The pandemic has transformed many sectors. Banking has been one of them. Before the pandemic, we were already witnessing many changes in this sector, such as large acquisitions and mergers. Many of these operations resulted in office closures and the transformation of others in search of a different customer experience: more open spaces, coworking spaces, and more pleasant environments for customers, among other things.

Customers began to look to those banks that made it easier to operate online. Banks that were looking towards the transformation of their branches started to look toward digital platforms. The generational change and its relationship with technology had already pushed toward this type of transformation. With the confluence of these factors, the concept of the traditional bank branch needed a good change.

To summarize: we have bank branches that don't look like branches, far fewer branches, and platform orientation. In other words, the transformation of the "off-line" customer service model and the intensive use of platforms to improve "online" operations. Not all customers want to go to a branch, but not all of them want to interact with their bank only online. In this scenario, digital signage appears with a huge range of solutions that move between both spaces with its usual fluidity, flexibility, and power. Remember, digital signage uses physical communication devices in physical locations but operates from digital platforms. Is the debate about closing all branches and all users going to platforms? No, there is an intermediate option that consists of offering an experience that seamlessly combines both strategies. That is the combination of physical and digital experience combined and transparent to the user.

Let's look at the case of a hypothetical branch. While walking down the street we see a huge display informing us of the services offered by a particular institution. In addition, on the same display, we see some publications on the bank's own social networks. This communication catches our attention and makes us think about a possible change of entity (if we are customers of another one) or helps us to find out about a service we did not know about. We end up entering the bank's website looking for more information. As a result of this search, we download a mobile application that allows us to carry out practically all operations without having to go to a branch. But for some reason, there are some procedures that we have to perform physically. From our application, we request an appointment to be attended at the nearest branch. We go to our branch and there, when we enter, on a discreet display and automatically, we are welcomed in a personalized way and we are informed of which post and which person will attend us, as well as the average waiting time. While we wait placidly in a well-lit and pleasant space, we can observe that there are displays that entertain us with videos, social networks or news that make our wait more enjoyable. This content can be personalized using facial recognition cameras that show the most appropriate communication to the audience that is in the branch at that moment. At the appropriate moment, these displays inform us that we can go to the corresponding desk or office where we will be attended by the employee who has already been introduced to us at the entrance. Once the visit is over, the bank's application thanks us for the visit and informs us of the comments made during the visit.

This whole flow mixes both experiences in a coherent way in a single customer-bank relationship regardless of the medium in which it has been produced. It is important to note that in this example there is an integration between the digital signage system and the system used by the bank in the digital environment. With this integration well done, the entity itself will have not only the data analytics of the application itself, but also of the visits made to the bank branch, being able to later analyze which profiles use more the digital option, the physical one, or the mixture of both.

From here, the system can evolve into more complex scenarios, for example by using sensors in the branches. For the bank, it means even more knowledge of its customers and for the customers a better user experience.

The limit is in the imagination and creativity of the marketing and communication departments, which can continue to create new experiences that attract new customers and improve the satisfaction of existing ones.

Germán Talón, CTO of nsign.tv

About Nsign.tv
Nsign.tv is a complete digital signage platform allowing brands and retailers to connect and interact in a user-friendly and intuitive way with audiences in physical spaces. nsign.tv offers a measurable, centralized form of storing, organizing, programming and reproducing digital contents on any screen, flexibly integrating in scalable digitization projects through AI, Big Data and IoT to ensure differential experiences with clients and users in any physical environment. Based in Barcelona with delegations in Madrid, Valencia, Miami and Mexico City and certified partners in most European and Latin American countries and the USA, nsign.tv manages over 50 million digital assets in more than 20,000 connected devices in 25 countries around the world, and over 2000 users, 150 leading brands and retailers from various sectors like Ikea, Areas, Nespresso, Coca Cola Europacific Partners, Haribo, Unilever, Revlon, P&G, Domino’s Pizza, Spar, Aldi, Electronic Arts and Cinépolis, among many others.