Accessible, Actionable Information: Exploring Three Key Themes from the Barlow Business Banking Conference

Dragonfly’s Director of Product Management and Marketing, Greg Weddell, recently spoke at the Barlow Business Banking Conference in Las Vegas on the “Digital Business Banking Panel: The Next Evolution of Digital Channels.” The discussion focused on how banks can implement digital banking innovations that are helping customers.

The talk was split into three themes: third-party app connectivity, contextual insights and cash flow management. Greg and the other panelists discussed these themes at length. Here, we’ll recap some of the discussion.

Third party app connectivity is essential to meet customer demands.

Businesses nowadays – especially small businesses – want a one-stop-shop of solutions. Linking to third-party applications are beneficial to create this, to generate the best digital bank-centric experience, as Greg noted in the talk. Building an ecosystem of apps to address a number of niche services (as each business’s individual needs are unique) will seamlessly invite customers in, while increasing the span of services you can offer them, eliminating the need for customers to work with multiple providers. This places the bank at the center of the business digital user experience.

But, it's important to remember why small businesses work with banks. One of the most obvious reasons is that in general, businesses trust banks more than standalone FinTech providers. And banks are honoring this trust by providing a transparent, secure experience in connecting multiple apps – something that is essential when adding new API connections. Security is of utmost importance, given the new vulnerabilities that are constantly emerging. If banks falter in delivering on security as part of the user experience, customers might move onto independent FinTech providers.

Contextual insights should be actionable.

Contextual insights must deliver value to small businesses. Many small business owners don’t have the time (or motivation) to sort through spreadsheets and charts to find useful data, so it’s a bank’s and banking partner’s job to provide easy to digest, meaningful data that helps owners manage their small businesses effectively. After all, data overload is real! And, this must be done so in a way that customers aren’t feeling that the bank is inside their data. Privacy is paramount.

Greg mentioned during the talk that all bank systems should be learning systems, which brings us to the topic of artificial intelligence (AI). AI can deliver more tailored recommendations to business owners, and tracking contextual insights is one way AI can assist. Consumers are more comfortable with solutions that incorporate AI if it’s working and providing value. Additionally, as these insights should make actionable recommendations to small businesses, banks should then be getting feedback from them, so they know which recommendations customers have taken advantage of. This all circles back to the trust factor – customers want their banks to know them and provide them relevant information, and banks can keep track of that with the help of AI.

Cash flow management needs to be easily accessed.

What do customers really want from cash flow management? The answer is accurate, actionable, accessible information. Business owners are really only interested in the important bits of information that will be useful to them to push their business forward. Providing cash flow management data via a simple interface is needed, so they can make their own decisions on what to do next – after all, they know the ins and outs of their business best (I.e., busy seasons, one-time payments, etc.). Today, businesses have a willingness for more data sources and aggregation, but only if it’s actionable and easy to comprehend and access. As partners, we need to figure out how to make this process more approachable, targeted and informative for cash flow management. We cannot discount the user experience in this respect, or else the information we’re providing is useless.

Overall, the conference was a great place to meet with colleagues in the banking industry and discuss important topics. Are you looking to power innovative experiences for your customers? Get in touch with a Dragonfly representative today and see why over 1.4 million businesses and their banks trust Dragonfly to compete in today’s market.