Buddy, everything about Unicredit’s digital R-evolution
What Unicredit's Buddy R-Evolution will be like
User at the centre, digitalisation and complementarity. These are the key concepts around which Buddy R-Evolution revolves, the evolution of Buddybank, the new "remote branch" for UniCredit users. Andrea Orcel , CEO of the group, Remo Taricani (Deputy Head of Italy), Annalisa Areni (Head of Client Strategies) and Barbara Tamburini (Head of Products Development and Marketing Communication who will be the new head of Buddy)
BUDDY'S REVOLUTION STARTS FROM 2024
The initiative will start in the first quarter of 2024 and will be complementary to the channels already existing in UniCredit: the physical branch, the call center, internet and mobile. Buddy R-Evolution was born from the experience of Buddybank, the online bank of the Unicredit group which has around 400 thousand customers . “The experience with Buddybank has taught us a lot – said Remo Taricani -, we know what our customers want and what we can do to create a better banking offer for each of them. We're thinking about the transition between physical and digital as we build and evolve our channels. This is because we want to guarantee total fluidity between the different platforms we have at our disposal." In fact, customers will be able to choose whether to interact via chat with an operator, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week or, as stated in the note released by the bank, " make an appointment with one of UniCredit's 750 financial agents for consultancy in presence and personalized, at home or in another place of your choice even beyond normal working hours". The idea is not to create a separate bank but "a model that we offer to customers who wish to access a platform that has a strong digital component, but also a personal component".
EXPAND BUDDY'S AUDIENCE
At the moment the customer base of Buddybank , which has grown at a rate of 80-90 thousand customers per year, is made up of many under 30s, students or young workers approaching their first financial experience. Unicredit's objective is to broaden the customer base to include families, professionals and even minors "because within Buddy we will then have a product explicitly dedicated to minors", added Taricani.
EXTENDED HOURS AND PERSONALIZED CONSULTANCY
The new Buddy will have, in the intentions of Unicredit management, a real branch, "a remote branch within which there are colleagues with a name and surname, it will have a concierge who responds to customers via chat 24 hours a day 7 days,” said Annalisa Areni , Head of Client Strategy. A feature of this branch is that it will have extended hours on Saturday mornings. In this way, the 750 consultants already at work will be able to provide advice on financing, protection, investments, also through appointments "at home, in the office, in any other place we have available", added Areni. The characteristic of Buddy, therefore, is that it allows Unicredit to cover the territory even where they are not physically present: an integrated model that allows you to communicate even with customers, or potential customers, who do not have a nearby branch.
BUDDY'S PROFESSIONAL ADVICE
It will also be possible to access professional consultancy in the real estate sector, via the UniCredit Subito Casa network. “There will be innovative services in collaboration with various startups. Real Estate is an example of this because we will provide, through the APP, real estate consultancy services but also restructuring consultancy – continued Areni -. Energy requalification , at this moment, represents a very strong need among our customers. So the key words are, customer at the centre, proximity, complementarity and customer choice: it is the customer who decides".
THE CONCIERGE SERVICE
A distinctive feature of the new Buddy will be the relational sphere. “Since 2018, Buddy's customers have been able to use the concierge – said Barbara Tamburini, the new manager of Buddy –. The concierge is a group made up of highly qualified Unicredit employees who respond to the customer's various questions and needs. Imagine entering a physical branch and finding a welcome point where the customer can ask simple or complex questions. So this is the concierge for our remote branch. The concierge solves problems, sets appointments with investment, financing and protection consultants and with financial agents who can reach the customer."
Artificial intelligence is integrated with human support . “Let's think – added Tamburini – of a customer who wants to activate the transferability of the current account. In fact, it is sufficient for one of our customers to enter the chat and ask to transfer their current account. Two chatbots are trained to accompany the customer throughout the process, from start to finish, with pre-set questions and answers. The customer can at any time ask to speak to an operator, interrupt this process, ask questions to the operator. The operator intervenes, answers the customer's questions and then passes the word back to the chatbot."
BUDDY R- EVOLUTION IS ONE OF THE CHAPTERS OF UNICREDIT'S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Buddy R-Evolution is just one of the chapters of UniCredit Unlocked's new digital transformation plan, which is based on important investments in cloud, data and AI technology and which also include a hiring plan for 2100 people. “We are not trying to have a target customer in one way or another, we are giving another access to Unicredit – underlined CEO Andrea Orcel -. As a bank we are committed to putting our customers at the center of everything we do. This means that we want to serve them in the best way. We listened to their requests: they wanted a combination of digital assistance and human engagement with our teams on the ground. They wanted choice and flexibility. They wanted a better way of banking . This is what inspired the creation of Buddy R-Evolution, which responds to customer requests, offering them a better way of banking and allowing them to better manage their daily finances. The Buddy R-Evolution journey has just begun, and we will continue to improve by listening to these requests.”
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/buddy-tutto-sulla-r-evoluzione-digitale-di-unicredit/ on Wed, 25 Oct 2023 12:10:18 +0000.