Podcast: Boosting insight-driven digital engagement at FIs

Whitney McDonald 10:49:37
Hello and welcome to The Buzz a bank automation news podcast. My name is Wendy MacDonald, and I’m the editor of bank automation News. Today is August 12, 2024 joining me from FinTech prize out is co founder and chief product officer Matt Denham. He is here to discuss how fintechs work to fill the customer experience gaps that are common at most financial institutions, especially as FIS, invest in their digital platforms, and consumers demand digital and mobile experiences. Thanks for joining us, Matt,Matt Denham 10:50:04
great. Yeah. So it’s great to be with you, Whitney. So my name is Matt Denham. I’m co founder and chief product officer at prize out price out to FinTech partner to banks and credit unions that provide rewards and loyalty solutions to their customers and members. So our goal is to provide a whole ecosystem of ways to support members and support customers getting more value for their money, whether that’s through their everyday shopping or through their rewards programs with their chosen financial institution, yeah, and we deliver that through a product called Cash Back plus that we deliver to multiple financial institutions across the country. Well, we

Whitney McDonald 10:50:50
can get into the technology a little bit in a second, and I do want to hear a little bit more about cash back plus, but first, let’s kind of take it back a little bit and talk about just, kind of where we are today in the digital landscape. There’s changes in demand, what customers need, how to boost customer loyalty, a need for tech providers within the space, you’re seeing, of course, a huge uptick in the partnership environment between bank and fintechs. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about that partnership dynamic, what customers are looking for, and how a solution like prize out fits into the mix.

Matt Denham 10:51:26
Yeah, it’s really interesting, because I think historically, you’ve seen relationships be created in the branch when a customer member walks into the branch and starts to get to know the person that’s going to help them with their help them with their banking. And historically, you’ve seen a bank or a credit union be the place where you send money, you keep your money, you take out a loan, you pay for things. What we’re starting to see in this generation, it’ll certainly go forward from there, is those services don’t sort of meet the current needs of customers in today’s day and age where everything’s done by app. It’s more about how efficiently, how quickly, and how great is the customer service. When I do that, what we’re starting to see is that banks and traditional credit unions can’t necessarily deliver on that in a digital world. So it’s about, how do you create that relationship and that service in a digital world? And I think, much like any industry, even if we step outside financial technology, where tech providers come in, big or small, is when there’s a customer service or a customer product that needs to be delivered that’s not currently being there, finding a gap in the market and meeting customer expectations. Yes,

Whitney McDonald 10:52:43
as you, I’m sure, are paying close attention to, we’re in the midst of earnings right now. And one of the things that keeps keeps coming up over and over again at many of the institutions, if not all, is that investment in digital capabilities, mobile apps, digital usership and mobile usership is all just soaring. That’s what consumers want. So maybe we can talk a little bit about how technology really has changed the game for how consumers really use and look at their financial institutions. It’s really more of like a day to day tool. Maybe talk a little bit about how the how technology has allowed for that. Of course, we’re all on our phones all the time. You can easily access your accounts. You can look to it for different insights. Maybe walk us through some of the ways that the Tech has changed the landscape and the game.

Speaker 1 10:53:32
Yeah. I mean, I think the baseline technology of having a phone in your hands started all this, right? It started the ability for you to not have to use one company for your financial services, but you can use 10, right? And I think a beautiful example of this is the Buy Now pay later industry. Buy now pay later has been created from what used to be layaway, and I said, Hey, what does a customer actually want when they’re purchasing something they want the ability to pay for this over time, not necessarily on a credit card, but when they’re actually shopping. What technology has allowed us to do today is embed that into a checkout experience and actually allow you to pay with that brand within that flow, as opposed to needing to go and say, Hey, go to your bank and say, Can I have a personal loan on this? Can I take out money? What’s my credit score, etc. That’s one interesting example where, either through an app or through a shopping process, technology allowed us to embed financial instruments in there with that having to. Go to your like historic financial institutions. We’re sort of seeing that across the board, from payments to loans to transferring money to spending. It’s attacking, sort of all of those financial services that were historically done from banks.

Whitney McDonald 10:54:51
Sometimes it’s a little too easy to make some of those online payments. Right?

Speaker 1 10:54:58
Absolutely, it’s, it’s kind of interesting when you when you’re in a checkout flow, and you click on a button and all of a sudden you have three steps down, you’re like, What? What am I doing here? It’s so interesting because brand plays such a big, like, such a big role in that whether you’re clicking Apple Pay or you’re clicking after pay, these are brands that have been created, which we haven’t really seen brands in the banking space before. Outside of your banking brands, your trusted brands, it allows them to leverage, like their brand recognition, to actually win your payments

Whitney McDonald 10:55:37
now, when it comes to really looking at financial institutions and even tech providers as a tool, something that you can use day to day for something different than just checking your account balance, how does prize out fit into that, that role, and What role is probably playing in that, that you can access different insights, or kind of be more in the day to day lives of its users.

Speaker 1 10:56:05
Yeah, we actually, we think about that in two ways. We think about that in the first ways, how do you encourage engagement with consumers through an app. I think we I spoke about earlier, that a lot of the engagement between a financial institution and their consumers was done in person, through branches and potentially on the phone. What we’re looking to deliver to our customers and members is a way for that engagement to happen digitally. That’s by providing insights to the end consumer to help them with their financial sort of, their financial welfare. So that’s the first thing we like to do is, how do we actually want? How do we allow a person who wants to be smart about their finances to come in and engage, as opposed to, I think what you see with a lot of products that probably don’t go the right way. They’re trying to force someone to come to them. Well, what we’re seeing in today’s day and age is, if you provide great content and if you provide great solutions to people, they will come. So that’s our first thing, is understanding, hey, there’s so much information that your financial institution has that can help you with your financial life, how do we best provide insights into that for the consumer, so they can make informed decisions and still make the decision that they would like based upon their sort of financial landscape, because it’s different for everyone, but just so surface that information, and then the second part of that is provide them ways once they’ve sort of decided what they wanted to do there to take advantage of it. So we have a product that allows them to take advantage of offers when they’re shopping, where they could potentially get better offers of cash back, or they could take advantage of earning cash back in different ways, by taking actions that suit their financial ecosystem based upon insights that we’ve sort of provided to them. So it’s all about an ecosystem that allows consumers to take advantage of their financial sort of person and set up the plan the way that they would like to set it up.

Whitney McDonald 10:58:04
Now maybe we could take that a step further and talk through the tech behind that. How do you connect with financial institutions to grab those insights and make sure that you are giving whether it’s helping make a decision, or you should really be tapping these rewards of these places. How do you how do you tap into those insights? Where do you pull the data from?

Speaker 1 10:58:27
Yeah, I think you can sort of think about it like technology connections with financial institutions in three ways. Sort of one is the front end integration, which is what you show to a user, so actually connecting to be able to provide them the great experience. But as we’re seeing with sort of the way technology is going today, it’s not only about delivering a front end experience. It’s about delivering something that’s personalized and based on data. So the second connection is connecting to the bank itself to understand consumers and provide them things that are tailored to them. And probably the third, and probably the more standard one, is connecting to spend based information, just like you expect a plaid would. Or you can get that directly from a credit card provider. You can get that directly from the financial intrusion themselves. But it’s about, how do you as a FinTech partner with a financial institution to take all that information and provide it to their customer in a way that they potentially couldn’t do on their own, to sort of help engagement and help the sort of consumers life so. Now

Whitney McDonald 10:59:36
to give us a little bit more insight, use the word insight there um, into how prize out really benefits a consumer. Maybe you could walk us through an example or use case of how prize out has kind of changed the user experience with financial institutions.

Speaker 1 10:59:53
Yeah. So one thing that prize out does is we partner with brands to provide great offers to customers when they’re shopping. So one of the easiest ways that we help, and sort of a core way that we help a consumer in their life, is understanding if they’re shopping a lot in a certain category or a certain brand, and providing them a great way to earn cash back on that sort of above and beyond what you would see on a credit card program or a debit card program. So actually taking someone shopping, helping them with a budgeting tool, and actually giving them ways to earn cash back on spending that they may already be doing or things they’re looking to do in the future, what we’ve seen a lot of is, especially now we’re in summer holiday period, is people taking advantage of great offers, right? The Carnival cruises matched with a with Delta, right? Or an Airbnb program with JetBlue and allowing people to say, Hey, I’m actually looking to do this. I know I want to do it in three months time. Not only, how do I prepare for that, but then, how do I make even my money go even further when I’m looking to take my kids on a vacation?

Whitney McDonald 11:00:57
Yeah, yeah, that’s, I think, especially the key is tapping into the spending that you’re already doing. Tapping into those insights, it really creates a personalized experience. And then, of course, right now, when when data is key, you’re collecting all of this data anyway, and being able to say, oh, so and so shops here all the time. There’s a cash back program for that, so you’re not necessarily having to change spending habits, but you are able to tap into rewards that you didn’t know you were leaving on the table.

Speaker 1 11:01:26
Absolutely, it’s how do you how do you make a customer’s experience great, and how do you give them more value for that? That’s sort of our our sort of motto. And maybe someone didn’t know if they wanted to go a Norwegian or carnival. Could Carnival cruises, and help them get through that decision. And then maybe a part of that decision is the price point. Maybe there’s brand loyalists that just want to go with carnival and therefore we help them get some more money back on that. Or maybe they’re not as brand loyal, and they’re just looking for the end outcome.

Whitney McDonald 11:01:53
Yeah, no, I think that’s great. Thanks so much for walking through that example now with what you do and what you what you focus on in the space, what are you really paying attention to, focusing right on right now, themes, trends. What’s interesting to you in the payments world right now?

Speaker 1 11:02:11
Yeah, there’s some. I mean, there’s, there’s so many interesting things happening right now. And it’s it’s so interesting to see where the tech companies, both fintechs and sort of established all the way up to faang companies, are sort of challenging, right? And I think one of the interesting ones is the point of sale. It’s all about the payment. What we’ve sort of seen over the last five to 10 years is that the way banks are really continuing to engage their members is through their rewards programs, right? That is sort of the place that someone’s really interested in. And I think in banking, there’s a saying that’s like, banking isn’t fun, banking isn’t exciting. So how do you take something that is exciting for a customer or member and provide that to them? And that’s what everyone sees, is their rewards programs or their credit card programs. And well, what we’re all starting to see now is how, how some of the bigger tech companies are starting to come in and try and win that payment. Don’t remember the last time you were buying something online, but there’s Apple Pay, there’s Amazon pay, there’s shop pay, there’s every Google Pay. They’re all trying to get to the front of the line to own that payment experience and then be able to expand from there. So that’s that’s something that we’re watching closely, and we’re playing a part of to help our financial institutions also be able to stay top of wallet there and not use lose that customer to a to an Apple Pay. I think, I think it’s been really interesting, over the last three or four years, the adoption of Apple Pay, and now people are saying they pay with Apple Pay. They’re not paying with their financial institution. So we’re paying a lot of we’re paying a lot of attention to that area, and to make sure that we can help our financial institutions stay top of wallet there.

Whitney McDonald 11:03:55
Now with that in mind, and I’m sure that that kind of sparks innovation too within prize out, maybe you could share a little bit about what you’re what you’re working on now, or maybe through the end of the year, any projects, or even recent projects that you’ve been working

Speaker 1 11:04:08
on. Yeah, absolutely. So I think one of the benefits we have as a as the company, is a lot of those relationships that we have with merchants already. So how do we actually integrate to be able to provide offers to our consumers when they’re actually shopping, and actually give them back, a little like the Norwegian example that I had those offers in line when they’re shopping and. And allow them and allow that to be the reason why they choose to to pay with our financial institution that we partner with is because of the great deal they’re getting and the great experience. I think, I think everyone knows that Apple pays created one of the best experiences in the market. You don’t need to put in your information. You can just one click pay. So it’s, how do you take that? How do you build a great experience, but how do you also build in the next lever, which gives the optionality to the customer of what they want to pay with that great experience? But how do they actually get more back, continuing to sort of own the top of wallet for our partners? I think, I think there’s a couple of other interesting pieces going on in the market right now. I think that there’s a lot of banks that are starting to work out what is their frontier with their customers. So if they are starting to lose payments to Apple Pay and the Colin is sort of taking over some of their like historic spend that they would get. Where do they continue to own that relationship? And we’ve seen some really interesting pieces there, sort of particularly in the travel space. So I think getting back to what I mentioned before, where banking isn’t necessarily engaging in a siding you’re seeing so many of the standard banks or credit card providers coming out and looking to engage and win the travel space, whether that’s Chase opening lounges, which historically only Amex had really had cap ones getting into that space, all of the providers almost are now trying to get you to book your travel through them, through incentives and as well as sort of the standard pieces that you’d expect around insurance and whatnot, they’re really looking to double down on that travel and experience place where now you can book through us, you can have your best experience, not just when you’re booking or when You’re paying, but actually throughout your travel, through going to go into the lounges, and also, if something goes wrong, there’s insurance, there’s there’s things that help you out. There’s been a large investment from the sort of, at least the big banks there, all the way to some of the other sort of challenge built has come out and made a big play in in travel. So that’s an interesting thing that we’re keeping an eye on, is that financial institutions are now looking to work out how they can augment the engagement with their customers from just like pure financial services to almost like adjacent industries.

Whitney McDonald 11:07:15
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai