The hidden function and its importance in the digital era.

Consumers are more connected, and with the number of people connected to the internet topping 4 billion people this year, it is growing exponentially.

This, in conjunction with the fact that 80% of consumers research a buying decision online (Adweek, 2014 ). means that companies connecting the dots need to ensure their digital customer experience is seamless.

Many companies spend thousands, even millions on sales and marketing, capturing a consumer’s attention, providing insights and information at the right time but fall over hopelessly when having to onboard and decide, based on risk, whether to accept a credit customer or not – the hidden function!

“Digital” encompasses more than the obvious areas of business, and one such important area is customer origination. This is a collaborative effort between risk and marketing – ensuring companies are finding the rightcustomers.

Tools such as Credisense allow companies of all sizes to deploy a sophisticated omni-channel approach to digital, automated customer origination whilst satisfying their risk mitigation strategies, utilising advanced analytical scorecards and rules engines.

Considering that businesses that have superior Customer Experience bring in 5.7 times more revenue than their competitors that lag in such efforts ( Retail Customer Experience, 2017), the performance and financial results of companies doing this well prove this is a particularly important area of business to get right.

When you combine this increase in revenue with the reduction in bad debt of on average 15-20% when utilising scoring and credit decisioning (The Power of Automated Decisions, Decision Intellect, 2014) it makes for a compelling business case.

With growth in the number of people connected online and the growth of the internet as a channel, ensuring you have a seamless digital experience and customer onboarding is not just a requirement for businesses with large budgets, but any organisation wanting to survive and flourish.

Are you customising, personalising and automating any of the onboarding processes? How much sales has your company lost and how much marketing budget wasted on customers who have dropped out of your marketing funnel due to an incomplete or outdated origination engagement? These are all questions sales, marketing and operational leaders need to ask.

After surveying 620 companies for digital readiness, it was found that 50% of companies are below parity level when it comes to digital channel proficiency (Centric Digital, 2018). Of the 50% getting this right, data shows with a great digital origination strategy average an increase of 20% on conversions and acceptance rates (The Power of Automated Decisions, Decision Intellect, 2014) showing a significant benefit to getting this right.