LAS VEGAS – Citizens Bank integrated a “Slack-like” communication model to further digitize the 
onboarding process for customers, according to Mary Fiorille, the bank’s head of consumer unsecured lending business. Slack is a messaging application, widely used across thousands of workplaces.
“For Citizens, it’s as much about the product, as it is about the customer experience,” she said recently at the Retail Banking 2016 conference. Customers want to interact with their bank in a way that meets their own lifestyles, Fiorille added. “So we attempted to build out an omnichannel onboarding process, to make sure that customers know, every step of the way, where they are in the application process in a clear and succinct way.”
As part of the process, the bank integrated a messaging app, dubbed Relay, in 2014, which provides customers with a communication experience similar to the one with Slack. “When a customer comes in we get them wired into the digital communication, and as we go through the origination process, we push out messages right to the customer’s’ mobile phone,” Fiorille explained. “That helps them understand where they are in the process and what they need to do.”
“Slack is a great example of a platform that lets coworkers communicate and actually take actions,” said Matt Gillin, co-founder of Relay Network. “Relay’s system helps drive behavior and pull customers through the obstacles of the onboarding process,” he said at the Retail Banking conference. Gillin added that Relay provides additional levels of security to protect sensitive costumer information. Those include pass-codes and other authentication mechanisms, and can be adjusted by the users.
Learn more about the tech and disruption in the industry at Auto Finance Innovation 2016, May 11 in Fort Worth, Texas. Visit www.autofinanceinnovation.com
