BOCHK revamps app to strengthen digital capabilities, caters to future mobile banking

Previously, Bank of China (Hong Kong) (BOCHK) has revamped its mobile banking app to enhance customer experience, particularly amid the pandemic. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE recently talked to Dick Ho (pictured below), deputy general manager, personal digital banking products department at BOCHK, over the redesigned app and the digital transformation in the banking industry.

 1. What are the key drivers for BOCHK to revamp the mobile banking app?

Our customers are always our priority, and we believe that a truly customer-centric mobile banking experience can help and inspire them to make the best wealth management decisions. For BOCHK’s mobile banking app revamp, we invited customers to participate in prototype testing for the first time as part of the five-step design thinking process, namely empathise, define, ideate, prototype and test, to create a solution that could help them tackle their pain points and match their needs.

2. The pandemic has spurred people to rely more on mobile banking. What are customers expecting now and how does BOCHK respond to their needs?

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated our digitalisation journey and we are seeing exponential growth in our digital transaction volume. To meet this growth, our new mobile banking app will provide our customers with as many as 100 banking services, on top of a more personalised and convenient wealth management experience.

Today, our customers are more eager for market information and insights that can offer them inspiration and guidance before making any investment decisions. We have also found that many of them now turn to video content for information. Live broadcasts, in particular, have become increasingly more popular, as they offer real-time information and interactions that facilitate investment-related decision-making.

Based on these findings, we have launched the industry-first BoC Live platform in our new mobile banking app to provide a variety of insightful live programmes to help our customers keep their fingers on the pulse of the market. This new channel enables us to share market news and expert market insights in a timely and efficient manner. In addition, it allows us to interact with our customers, providing us with an opportunity to listen to their thoughts.

This runs in parallel with our easy-to-use online chat service which has seen more than double growth in usage for January 2021 compared with the corresponding month in 2020, showing our customers’ growing confidence and trust in our digital services. Supported by virtual assistant Bonnie and our customer service representatives, this round-the-clock online chat service provides instant assistance without the hassle of having to visit our branches.

3. What are the upcoming trends of digital transformation in the banking industry in near future? And how does the transformation benefit customers, the bank, and even the industry?

In the past, most of the traditional mobile banking apps were defined as transaction-based tools, as they simply replaced some of the roles fulfilled by bank branches and enquiry hotlines. However, in this new era, the connection between banks and customers should no longer be limited to financial products. In fact, it should be integrated into our daily lives at all times.

Moreover, we now know that our customers are no longer making impulse decisions. They research, consider and then purchase. That is why we are offering inspiration and insights to ease decision-making through our mobile banking app. Our collaborations with different strategic partners like etnet, AAstocks and Ctrip in the application of Open API have also been designed to meet their needs in various financial and lifestyle scenarios.

4. What are BOCHK’s marketing strategies in Hong Kong in response to the upcoming trends and changing customer needs?

Banks often invite celebrities as their spokespersons to influence their customers. However, when it comes to financial products, consumers today no longer just want product information, but also insightful, professional and authentic content that can empower them to make the best decisions. Therefore, every piece of content we provide through BoC Live will be valuable and conveyed through story angles that really appeal and connect with them.

In addition, with the rapid rise of digital technology and the new normal in consumer behaviour caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, many millennials prefer self-service and online services as their first step. Before contacting our staff, they prefer tapping into knowledge bases to solve their problems.

This is where digital transformation will become a key enabler for customer centricity, as we harness technology to empower and inspire our customers on different digital channels. As more of them will only want to see the right message at the right time, we will be able to provide more personalised marketing messages according to their profiles and interests – even integrating our suggestions into their daily lives via machine learning and AI.

5. Looking forward, can you tell the strategies to strengthen BOCHK’s position in Hong Kong and the region?

As one of the major banks in Hong Kong, we are involved in many aspects of people’s lives, such as daily consumption, investing, home buying and retirement planning. That is why we want to build our mobile banking services as a solution for simplifying people’s everyday life. For instance, buying an apartment can be a complicated process, but our Home Expert app will guide our customers through every step of the way – from planning and property valuation to mortgage application. Through it all, their trust will be key in driving us to develop more applications that will empower them.

Banking-as-a-Platform is also a key strategy that we are focusing on, as our Application Programming Interface (API) opens up a new world of opportunity for partnerships. We hope to continue exploring seamless banking services not only via our apps but also for different living scenarios.