Banking through a Video Branch

IndusInd Bank is said to be the first Indian bank which has introduced video branch for all its customers, allowing them to do banking from anywhere and anytime from mobile devices.

IndusInd Bank recently launched Video Branch which is a service offered to existing IndusInd bank customers. It enables face-to-face personal video conversation with branch manager, relationship manager or with centralized Video Branch executive. Easy and convenient to use, Video Branch service offers a wide range of information and transactions that cater to banking services currently offered through phone banking. In addition, bank customers can also conduct financial transactions like opening a Fixed Deposit or Recurring Deposit, transferring funds through NEFT/RTGS and many more. Video Branch is available for Android and Apple mobile devices and the application is available in the respective App Stores. It is also available via webpage and customers can access the same using their laptops/desktops.

“We launched the first IndusInd digital branch at the Gurgaon rapid metro station and plan to open more such digital branches. We plan to offer banking services in an engaging environment where customers interact with digital elements assisted by human presence,” reveals Anil Rao, Head Operations, IndusInd Bank

Digitization to Continue

The bank intends to upgrade and refresh the existing mobile banking solution which will be developed on a state-of-the-art mobile platform which would support most of the current and future needs of the bank and the address the needs of tech-savvy demanding customers. It says that the focus would be on ease of use, robustness in terms of security and performance, unique features and an architecture which supports quick time to market. Seamless omni-channel experience across all customer touch-points would also be a priority in next one year.

“We plan to adapt to cloud technology for faster project execution, lower infrastructure cost, dynamic scalability and sustained availability,” adds Rao.

On Social media, the bank intends to do customer acquisition, servicing and integration with all direct channels for better customer experience. From technology perspective, we’re working on providing low bandwidth solutions for remote branches.

Taking a Dig at Competition

Even though all banks have number of direct channels like internet banking, mobile banking, phone banking, etc, there are customers who still visit branches for a number of transactions. Through Video Branch, the bank wants to provide an assisted channel which would allow customers to reach the bank through a mobile app or a desktop and have a face-to-face conversation. According to the bank, it also allows the customers to have face-to-face video conversation with their branch managers and relationship managers as well. This is a service which is available 24*7.

Upgrading IT Infrastructure

Making the video branch a reality was an uphill task. It required a lot of changes in the existing IT set up within the bank. Several technical components were implemented to introduce video branch. “We had to set up the video backend servers which act as the backbone for all video calls. The call-routing software was developed for the video contact center. Mobile applications and the back-end engine were developed for iOS and Android platform. The bandwidth at contact center and datacenter had to be increased to cater to video call requirements,” further says Rao.

IndusInd wants to take this experience to a whole new level and wishes to further the experience by enhancing capacity. Although all customers can use the video branch service, it wants to invest in digital solutions and be technology-backed customer-centric bank.

Rao is very confident that the service is a differentiator and will help it to reach to more customers. The bank has also begun a TV commercial campaign to take this to more people. Rao claims that there has been a lot of appreciation for this offering and customers are finding it as a very convenient channel for transacting with the bank.