Data-Driven Personalization

Hey, welcome to, uh, Riff on a Lift, but very clearly we're not on a lift because of the bad weather. So we are in an Airstream. Uh, my name is Matt Smith. I'm representing Webster Bank, and I'm here with my new friend.

I'm Nathan Quezada. I am from Bank of America working in our retail bank strategy.

Very Cool. Awesome. So I think, uh, we're supposed to just talk a little bit about, you know, our experiences either from a digital banking perspective.

I know you and I were catching up a little bit earlier. What are your thoughts in terms of just overall, you know, where you see the market going? How are you approaching the consumer segment? You know, that kind of stuff.

Yeah, I think, uh, right now, um, a lot of focus is around financial wellness. We're coming out outta the pandemic, right? We're also dealing with, uh, folks that are having to repay student loans.

So I think right now there's a focus on making sure that those, you know, consumers feel comfortable with where they are with their finances, focus around financial wellness, um, also with personalized marketing. Um, I think folks are realizing that that's kind of a, you know, a hot buzz topic right now. Mm-hmm. But what does that really mean?

What does that look like and how do you make sure that you are still providing a level of customization for folks too, as well? So interested to, to kind of know what your thoughts are on personalized marketing.

And yeah. I think, you know, this is an interesting topic 'cause we, I get a lot of vendors that kind of reach out to me, and I'm sure you do too, right? And I think the, the issue with us, you know, from a Webster Bank perspective is like, we're very much a commercially focused bank, right? Which means a lot of the things we're doing on the consumer side are designed to help facilitate, uh, commercial loans, right? Mm-hmm.

And so that changes the equation a little bit, right? And so the investments that we have to make have to be very targeted to kind of help us facilitate a diverse deposit strategy.

So one of the things when I think about like this particular topic is how do I leverage technology in order to do the things that, like in the past you'd need, you know, X amount of data scientists and then you'd need, you know, multiple marketing automation tools to kind of, you know, go ahead and present these types of opportunities to clients.

So we've been really focused pretty much coming out of like a big core conversion that we just did is who can we partner with, how can we find ways to kind of streamline our marketing technology, you know, infuse sort of AI and, and predictive analytics to be able to identify things like attrition triggers or different triggers that would want us to prompt a communication to a client.

And then, you know, hopefully putting those things together in a very streamlined way for us to essentially do more and really lower our operating costs, but at the same time deliver, you know, that best in class experience that you kind of talked about.

Yeah. Yeah. So because you're kind of doing it from the commercial angle, what from the consumer side, we're kind of leveraging that same approach too as well, looking at the data, looking at at it for insights as to kind of what are some life changes that the, the client is going through?

How can we proactively reach out to the clients and show we know them and we're there to support them, um, through either our marketing or our communications, or in person too as well, leveraging, um, our representatives in our, in our branches and our locations too as well. Yeah,

I think the, the, the big thing that I've seen, you know, kind of move in the market is, you know, not just the, the whole concept of like, Hey, how do I connect better with my clients and like push them, you know, personal finance management tools and budgeting tools and things of that nature. But it's also this concept of like, how do I create almost like a super app, right? Where you've essentially got an opportunity to, you know, create an environment that's a one, one-stop shop for clients.

And what I think is really interesting, and I don't know, I wanna get your perspective on it, but one of the things I've been saying to people is like, in the past you'd have to kind of pick a lane, right? Mm-hmm. Because you'd say, okay, look, we can't be all things to all people.

I think now through the development of like APIs and the ability to kind of ingest, you know, third party applications or even products and services, you can essentially create your own version of a super app, right?

Is that a thing that you guys are, are kind of thinking about?

Yeah, and I think, uh, you have to be careful though, um, in terms of like a super app because I think what we've seen too, as well, when you put too many features in an app, it becomes overwhelming for, for consumers like get lost in the experience.

We have so many different features within, you know, our app, but we find that there are some features that don't even get leveraged because folks don't know that it's there. It's hard to find. And so I think to your point, making sure that we're focusing on what's important to the client, surfacing that for them, and then focusing on that.

Yeah. And I think like for us in the same way, again, trying to make sure we have a low delivery, you know, cost because it's a cost of funds for us, right? But, um, I think one of the things that's been interesting for me is the ability to kind of set up this infrastructure where, you know, we can essentially give access to products and services that maybe we don't necessarily organically like mm-hmm.

Because we're not necessarily a consumer focused bank with regards to the lending products, right? Mm-hmm. So like being able to work with third parties for different types of lending and, and extending that to like business banking as well, right.

I think has been a really big thing for us, right? Where we're like, Hey, what are these partnerships and how can we integrate these things to be able, again, to offer a really good experience where clients don't have to go to d a bunch of different places to get what they need? Yeah.

No, that's awesome.

That way they can just stay within your ecosystem too as well, so. Very cool.

Great.

Alright. Awesome.