6 Proven Tactics To Enhance Know Your Customer Process

Onboarding customers is tricky. There’s no guarantee that your tactics to bring in and retain clients will yield favorable results.

However, robust know-your-customer (KYC) practices speed up customer onboarding time, improving customer experience drastically.

A typical KYC procedure involves getting customer information to avoid identity theft, financial crimes, and other illicit activities. That way, a company secures customer interests while complying with finance and local laws. This data also allows you to offer the best customer service and overall experience.

Here are the proven techniques to improve the Know Your Customer process.

1. Engage e-Verification

Today, one sentence, endorsement, or tweet can drastically change an establishment’s fortunes. A business that manages 10 signups daily can suddenly get 1,000 thanks to a perfectly executed PR stunt.

Although a pleasant outcome, a tsunami of registrations would overwhelm even the most skilled professionals. Not only would registration be tedious, but there would be significant errors. Records show that about 40% of customers will quit a bank application process that takes just over 10 minutes. For this reason, you must consider electronically verifying your customers using the Know Your Customer (KYC) process.

Electronic verification saves you and your customer time. It reduces onboarding time significantly. E-verification is also user-friendly, enabling customer to connect with you conveniently on their mobile devices.

2. Invest In CRM Technology

The demands of customer relationship management are high. Although you may have skilled professionals overseeing customer relations, manually processing client information in real-time can be overwhelming.

You must invest in CRM technology to keep up with competitors and satisfy customers.  It enables companies to collect and record customer data without hassle. This technology also adds layers of security to avoid identity theft.

CRM technology improves data analysis, allowing you to process data from private and government agencies in real-time. From utility bills to government-issued identification documentation, sophisticated technology automates the collection and analysis of the process.

Leveraging technology also eliminates human error, providing accuracy and security for customer data.

3. Improve Your Customer Experience

You can only build or improve company-client relations when customers are happy.

Getting your clients through the door may be a feat; keeping them happy is true success. One key to retaining clients is offering them a satisfying customer experience.

Satisfactory user experience involves the quality of customer service and ease of completing verification procedures.

Happy clients do not just remain loyal; they also spread the word to others. It is encouraging since 81% of people make financial decisions based on recommendations from family and friends.

4. Advanced CRM Staff Training

It’s one thing to have the technological advantage and another to know how to use it.

Companies commit a significant part of their budget to CRM. Thus, you want people who understand customer relationships and technology to manage this responsibility.

To enjoy customer connection, equip employees with advanced knowledge of CRM.  CRM training teaches employees to identify potential financial risks and the best ways to mitigate them. Involve experts with a stellar reputation in the industry. These experts will identify the learning needs of your staff and develop training materials according to their skills and experience.

These workshops help staff to cultivate a compliance and client-centric culture. These training sessions are not a one-off practice. Schedule them strategically to update staff knowledge with relevant and trending industry techniques.

5. Upgrade Data Collection Quality

KYC touches on two essential factors – customer identity and activities. Thus, companies collect information such as birth dates, government names, identification numbers, and permanent addresses. While these pieces of information are vital, you must go beyond the basics to know your clients more intimately.

You must constantly monitor recent global activities to detect the history of sanctions, imprisonment, or license revocation. Your system should also instantly authenticate documents such as passports, academic certificates, or professional accolades on verified databases.

While these findings enable a financial firm to avoid money laundering and illegal activities, they offer customer connection opportunities. These details can also help businesses establish trust between clients and foster transparency.

6. Update Your KYC Tactics

KYC must be an ongoing process. It is a cycle that restarts after achieving your onboarding goals. Update your KYC practices.

People evolve when their circumstances change. Thus, expect client information to change from time to time. For instance, customers change addresses due to job opportunities, while some change their names for marriage. When this happens, you want to have their current details.

Besides the necessary change of identity, customers form new habits. Knowing what these preferences are will enable you to serve them better. Updating your KYC procedure and client database makes your service relevant to the user.

Conclusion

KYC procedures enable institutions to vet prospective partners or clients to avoid encouraging illegal activities.

In addition to security and transparency, KYC presents an opportunity to foster an intimate bond with customers. Although tricky, using proven industry tactics can help you offer services that will incite customer loyalty.