“The future of relationship banking” with TD Bank

On Thursday, June 11, Bank Innovation’s Rick Morgan hosted a virtual meeting with Imran Khan, head of global digital experience at TD. Khan focused the discussion on TD’s digital experience strategies, especially during these troubling times. During the pandemic, TD has seen new customer experiences, new growth and adoption, and an accelerated digital path. All of these changes are within the capabilities of TD and they are continuing to work in more remote research and digital solutions. Additionally, Khan stressed the importance of driving engagement through a differentiated experience at TD.

• One of the ways TD does this is through their new chatbot called Clari. This AI feature is combined with TD customer data so it can answer specific customer questions and create a more natural experience. Clari has supported over 175,000 actions and similar chatbot technology is expanding to Canada and the United States.
• Another way TD does this is through their partnership with AI company Layer 6 to create the My TD Project. The project is working on a tool that uses customer data to make predictions in transactions within the mobile app. The technology was able to adapt to COVID-19 buying patterns and allows for more digital options, as well as accelerated relief. The project is targeted to launch this year.

Product development during COVID-19 has also been impacted, as TD is working faster while also looking out for the health and safety of their customers and employees. For example, TD has been focusing on making simple, convenient, digital relief application forms. Relief forms vary from government relief, credit card balance relief, mortgage relief, etc. They have processed over half a million of these forms online today. Khan explained that during these ultra-digital times, they need to take advantage of existing capabilities to speed up processes like these. The call ended with the eye-opening topic of how digital experiences are impacted by COVID-19 in the long run. Khan mentioned that wherever customers find value, they will continue to stay engaged, even after the pandemic. The biggest piece of importance is how customers are being serviced - if they find an easy way to digitally do things, they will continue to use digital experiences. As a result, there will be more competition and an increased sensitivity to experience. Once banks like TD continue to expand their digital experiences in faster and more productive ways, people become more accustomed. It is important now, more than ever, to continue to provide simple ways to get customers what they want, and when they want it. The projects TD has worked on takes their AI tools to the next level, thus improving customer satisfaction and retention along the way. Although things will never be the same in a post-pandemic world, things can still be done in simpler ways, thanks to growing technology. We found this discussion to be relevant to current times and will also continue to drive engagement through new experiences for our customers. Our surveys show that customers are still fearful to fully reenter the world, and are avoiding essential services (82%). With this ongoing fear of entering a branch and making in-person transactions, digital is the only prominent way to drive engagement. In fact, people are expecting digital experiences even after the pandemic. We found that 76% think digital will be a lasting banking trend and 79% want more all-digital processes. Furthermore, these engaging digital experiences also improve customer satisfaction. Satisfied customers mean a stronger business. So, as long as businesses continue to provide an enjoyable experience, customers will keep coming back. These results, along with the positive responses from TD’s new digital path, go to show that accelerated digital experiences and adoption are now the new norm, and we, along with TD, are excited to see what the future holds.